New Member, First Pan (Hope Choppers are OK...)

[awander]

Also, note that if you take the gear ratios from Andygears' post above, they are NOT exactly 2x each other.

"48-61 speedo drive=7t, driven = 11t 2000 rev/mile" 11 / 7 = 1.571...

"62-65 speedo drive=4t, driven = 13t 1000 rev/mile" 13 / 4 = 3.25

And comparing those ratios, 3.25 / 1.571 = 2.07...

I bring this up to point out that the speedometer is pretty much an approximation on these bikes, and will also be affected by your tire size, tire wear, tire pressure, etc.

I ran stock gearing for years, except for a 25 tooth transmission rear chain sprocket, and the speedo was not really that far off. By the numbers it should have read about 12% low, but I never really noticed it.

(EDITED for spelling)

[JLeather]

Got in a little shop time in between all the Christmas activities. I want to try running that old Triumph front drum brake. The brake surface of the hub was pretty scored and grooved. I didn't want to have to re-lace this wheel, but I also don't want to ever take it this far apart again so I figured I'd better take the time to clean it up now. I unlaced the wheel (saving all the spokes to hopefully reuse) and chucked it up in the lathe. Took .020" off the diameter to clean it up and another .010" finish pass to make it nice and smooth. That's all I got done, took a while to indicate it in and get it all set up. Next time bearings and re-lacing.

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[socalrider]

Nice machine work! Will you be able to source shoes that will work with the new bigger diameter?

[JLeather]

Front wheel plan didn't work out. The hub cracked while I was pressing in the new bearings. I'm working on a very small caliper mount instead to run the FX front wheel that was already on the bike. In the mean time I pulled off the rear wheel to check it out and it's a good thing I did. The rear drum bolts were loose and the brake rod clevis had a cotter pin that wasn't bent after install. Anyway, a couple questions about the rear wheel/brake. I'm not well versed on panhead parts but I'm 99% sure this is an aftermarket rear wheel (and drum?). What should I check while it's off the bike? The bearing seems fine, no notchiness or excessive play. Do I need to pull it apart to check anything, or just re-grease and reinstall? Let's assume based on what I've found so far that the PO was not entirely thorough with his maintenance... I assume the drum bolts should have loctite?

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[RUBONE]

Looks like the wrong sprocket on that drum, possibly one for a juice drum. The ID of the sprocket looks bigger than the drum and it is riveted on the wrong side of the flange.

[59Panman]

I use locktite on my drum lugs. Mine loosen up if I don't.

[JLeather]

Looks like the wrong sprocket on that drum, possibly one for a juice drum. The ID of the sprocket looks bigger than the drum and it is riveted on the wrong side of the flange.

I think it's just a badly made/toleranced aftermarket setup. It's on the same side of the flange as the other wheel I have that I think is original (see pics below). There's a radius on the inside of the flange and the sprocket ID was left large to clear that instead of chamfering the inside lip. I can swap to the OG drum, but I don't know why the guy swapped the wheels out. I assume there must have been an issue with the original. Is the only way to check out the bearing to pull it apart and start measuring?

Other Wheel:

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[JLeather]

Couple steps forward, couple steps back. Plan B for the frontend is to run the FX front wheel that's already on the bike with a thin rotor and the smallest caliper I can find. Turns out EBC has stopped making the "narrow" sweep rotors for the '84-'99 hubs so I had to pick up one with a 2 1/4" center bore and an adapter ring. Since the EBC rotors aren't counterbored for adapter rings I had to break out the faceplate on the lathe:

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I also pulled the girder completely apart for a rebuild. It was pretty wore out (as they all are at this point). New bushings, shafts, axle, and stem plus all new hardware are coming up.

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I picked up a used (and abused) Paughco springer brake with a PM 125x2 caliper. When I got it mocked up I found that the frontend was too skinny for the bracket to be used, so I machined the caliper body to sink the bracket flush to the top surface. Gained me 1/4" of clearance. I'm going to cut up the Paughco bracket and bolt it fixed to the girder leg. Need to make a new intermediate plate for the caliper itself to serve as the other half of the mount.

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[awander]

You're gettin' there...!

[Panacea]

I know what yer" goin thru!

[JLeather]

Made some good progress, but recently hit a wall. Been rebuilding the girder. Made new shafts and a new stem, sourced new bushings, added an internal fork stop, etc.

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Went to press the cups in and have a problem. Putting it together the upper cup is not square to the stem. Stem, cups, and bearings are all brand new. If I seat the upper cup fully it's crooked to the stem and the bearing binds, seems to be off a couple degrees and is high in the front edge. Lower cup seems fine, the bearing seats fully and the stem runs right up the middle of the neck. I can see the machining marks top and bottom of the neck, which should be square to the bore right? Seems to me there are two obvious options. Either don't fully seat the upper cup, just press it in until it contacts the front edge of the neck so it stays square, or grind some material off the top surface to try and square it up to the bore? I suspect from the marks on the old upper cup that it may have not been fully seated but I can't say for sure. I did try both the new and old upper cup and they have the same issue. I did not try the old lower cup because I cut it up to make a jig to bore for the pin in the new lower cup, but since it's fully seated I don't see how it could be any different either? Kinda stumped on how this could be? My guess is it happened when the neck was raked?

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[neilw]

Welcome to the forum. What I have always relied on is the Harley service manual, and equally as important is a parts catalog .Harley part number 99456-84B,from 1941-1984, no doubt no longer sold by Harley , but there's lots of reproductions out there ,including free ones you can download off the internet . I find it a pain to have to go to the internet ,rather than have the books right beside me .
The nice thing about the parts book is every part is shown as an exploded view ,and you can see which washer goes on which side of what ,etc. . So many little things , like your head bearings , the book tells what years fit . My first Harley was a 1956 I brought home on a city bus in a lot of trips , except for the engine ,a friend drove me that time. I had the old motorcycle magazines all over the place to look at to see what went where .Old timers on here will remember Nicholson's Motorcycle repair books, I had volume 6. That was in 1970 . I built several choppers since, and always had the book beside me.
You will find tons of info on this forum, Happy wrenching .
Neil

[Andygears]

I believe you are correct the neck got messed up when raked. Consider that currently the two frame bores for the cups are not in line anymore and although the top and bottom may be parallel, because the top bore is angled the cup won’t seat against the shoulder. This would be a problem in service because the top bearing won’t engage the race squarely and would bear all on one side.

I can imagine how this happened: In order to keep the cup bores in line while backyard raking, you would need a tight fitting bar that engages both top & bottom bores while heating & bending. If the bar did not fit tight, it would bear on the front of the bottom and the rear of the top.

The fix? I think one way would be to mount a tight bar on a milling machine table, perpendicular to the table and concentric to the spindle. Then put the bottom cup bore on the bar and bore the top bore oversize to clean, then sleeve the top cup before pressing it in. That would be a PITA ‘cause the frame weight would try to knock the bar out of line or out of square.

Another might be to line ream or bore both frame bores based on where they are now and hope the result would be straight to the frame. Then sleeve both cups.

Maybe somebody else has an idea to make it right or ignore it?.

Andygears

[JLeather]

Andy, after more thought I suspect this happened when the neck was plated after the rake. Usually the actual rake requires little force as the neck is cut almost (or sometimes even entirely) through at the time. This one after the rake was plated on the sides with some thick steel for strength. I suspect that heavy welding pulled when it cooled and tweaked the top and bottom of the neck out of relation with one another. Both individual cups are still square to their press-fit bore, but they are no longer square to one another. Since the weight of the bike rests on the lower cup I intend to leave that one alone. The "best" way to fix the top would be to line bore it relative to the lower cup but that might be overkill for this application. I could just carefully file the top surface of the neck until it is square to the neck stem and then turn the cup a few thou under. It would no longer be a press fit but there are excellent loctite products for bearing/race installations (620 for instance) that fill misalignment. Option #2 is to make a tapered washer to go under the top cup. I'm going to experiment with that one first as it is not permanent. I have an old surface grinder I bought years ago and never fixed up (has wiring and lube problems) that may finally get a chance to shine.

[59Panman]

Could you just machine the cup itself to match the neck?