Panhead repairs

All Panhead related discussions, questions etc.
nifty
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Re: Panhead repairs

#31

Post by nifty »

Excalibur wrote: Sat Oct 16, 2021 9:22 pm Could gear fit be solved with electroplating? Only needing a couple thou to make the difference. I've used copper plating on bronze guides and bushings some years ago. Also had various things hard-chromed over the years. Maybe nickel could be suitable plating material for this repair? Actually, a friend recently learned how to nickel plate from Youtube and proceeded to successfully plate guitar parts. The process sounded simple. In the example of a gear, the teeth could be masked with paint. Then once plating is complete, paint could be dissolved. Has anyone done such?
Seems a shame gears that don't fit are such commonplace, even I have a gear with the same fault!
For the generator gear the answer is yes, with caveats: Good luck with finding a commercial plater who will do a one-off small internal job, however in your part of the world you have some world class warbird aircraft restoration people, I would ask them, there is likely an old greybeard who reclaims press-fits.
If not, or if its un-affordable, using a home kit electroless nickel bath, I have successfully improved press-fit of bearing ID for a racing Aermacchi/H-D 250.
Electroless nickel goes on evenly regardless of shape, undercuts hollows. A lot of handgun guys use it to reclaim slides etc on semiautos. Its not something I would recommend anyone set up for and learn how to do for a single job, but for a gun guy who does it all the time its a simple task.
The gear teeth can be masked so no plating gets chewed off and metalflakes your oil and toasts engine.

I have also had DIY electroless failures, I had a set of 4 new tractor pistons with loose pin bores right out of box. Build up appeared successful, but during handling for rod bush fitting etc, one pin started to peel, not a good bond to pin, time constraints, I bailed, stripped all the nickel off made & fitted a second set of rod bushes and put it together with pistons looser than I liked... needs must when the Devil drives.
A commercial operation that does electroless may achieve a more reliable result.
Veteran & vintage Indian & H-D restorers do their cylinders with electroless because it "throws" between fins etc

re the cam bearing: Almost anything is possible, but successfully masking the rollers before plating OD, by any method, would be an act of dedication.

IMO its simply not worth the risk of ruining the engine, pull it apart, inspect the weld repair very carefully before fixing properly

Nifty
Andygears
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Re: Panhead repairs

#32

Post by Andygears »

Generator gear fit: I standby my earlier statement of a slip fit being correct. The original service manual states “Slip the oil deflector, gear, washer…etc.

Again, in my opinion, Cycle Electric is playing “Cover their ass” with their caution about aftermarket gears. I would imagine that original HD gears were splined internally and placed on a splined arbor to hob the gear teeth thereby insuring the spline and tooth form had concentricity. Splines rarely locate on diameters, the spline itself should be the locating feature. By specifying the diameters be a press fit, CE avoids a tighter tolerance on the shaft spline or a harder material for the armature, both of which would be a higher cost. Because the fit is specified so tight, and you’re left to find an original gear, why does CE not supply a quality made gear for an added cost that fits their requirements? Which would seem to be different from HD’s original parts.

If someone has both an original generator armature and a CE, perhaps compare the hardness and the finish on the spline area. I doubt they are equal. After all, if the diameters are a press fit, the splines can be loose as hell and the gear won’t “shuck” once the nut is tightened.

Andygears
MurrayS
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Re: Panhead repairs

#33

Post by MurrayS »

Thanks a lot everyone, Nifty and Andygears especially. The finer points of all this is a bit beyond me which is why it is important that dummies ask and the brains share.

For the generator gear, I'm inclined to go with the best gear fit I have (5 to choose from) and tighten it down well.

I have the cam inner bearing in place with loctite blue as backup. I'm revisiting that and am thinking I do need to pull the motor down and find someone to do the job properly.

Again, thanks a lot.

Murray
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