74″ of Love – part 2

Finally got the bottom end completed. Got that Andrews AB cam spaced out proper. Cone back on. Tappets and hydro lifters cleaned and neatly back in place. New rings on .060 over pistons. Cylinders torqued back down and I even took a minute to set the timing. For now Im shelving the motor and Ill come back to the top end when I have more free time. I’ve got a couple pairs of heads that I need to have blasted before I reassemble so I’ll just save up the extra scratch and service all of them at the same time. This thing is looking real good and should run even better. Much thanks to Gator and Bear on this one. They both really laid some knowledge on me during the entire rebuild. Learning shovels from the best in the biz is a humbling (and equally rad) experience. More from the chopper blog soon.

74″ of Love

So that Davenport shovelhead motor I picked up turned out to be a keeper after all. I was really looking to flip it for a while but now that I started the rebuild, I have to finish it. And if I’m gonna spend the time to build it, I’m gonna keep her around for a while. Crank properly trued to within .001. Took me all damn day to get it just so. Checked the pinion side for a plug fit with .0002 over bearings. Pressed new sprocket side together and slipped the pinion half back together. Buttoned it up and checked end play. All well within spec. I got a really really clean Andrews AB cam from Gator last week. Gonna get that thing spaced out today. Top end coming soon.

Ideally, this thing will be a sweet mantle piece until I decide what to throw it in.

Slow Week

Nothing too crazy going on this past week. Working on the Shovel motor. Making an 80″ out of a 74″. Rings showed up along with a sweet little FTWCO hat. My son claimed the hat in the first 5 minutes of opening the box. Moved one of my big presses out of the house and out to the garage to have delivered to the shop. Snapped the foot peg off my bike yesterday night so I spent some time today drilling out and re-taping everything for some big grade 8 shit. Had some stainless nuts on the shelf so I tossed em into the lathe this afternoon. Turned out some sweet rings. I have a couple left. No idea of the size, I just trimmed the fat till they fit my finger. Email me if you want one. Send $10 bucks and your address and I’ll ship it out. Tomorrow is the Scooter Trash Show. I really don’t know too much about it but I’ll be there. Come out and support.

Let the Work Begin!

Man, it’s not even winter and it looks like lots of folks are already attacking the motor work with the intensity of a thousand suns. I started my shovel rebuild a couple days ago. The jugs are .060 over making my 74″ motor roughly an 80″ motor when complete. Flywheel assembly turned out to be a pile of sh*t but that was all sorted out with Gators help. The bottom end should be done in about a week (The heads are another story.)

Spencer’s Triumph is already under way. Damn – I’m rooting for that guy. He’s got some serious heart. All said and done, he’ll be the triumph man by the time he comes out the other side.

Everyone get ready for that long, hard winter. Swap meets here I come.