59 FL 93ci Build 1

Fitting the S&S 3-5/8" cylinders on....

They require longer studs with an 1-1/4" above the case for the cylinder base. The studs are so close to the cylinders that special nuts are required, and all four nuts have to be started with the cylinders barely started down over the studs, and screw the nuts down as the cylinders slide down into place, otherwise the nuts will not go on....

At this point just test fitting the jugs and heads to see if there are any problems, didn't find any so far....

Now it's startin' to look like a motor....

You can see the nut hitting the bottom fin, even though the nut is partially screwed onto the stud, but the cylinder is not all the way down yet. All four have to be evenly screwed on as the cylinder goes down.

Next step is to test fit the pistons on the rods and in the jugs without the rings, check the clearances, then file fit the rings, I like to go for about 0.015" end gap in the rings, then assemble the pistons and rings and bolt down the jugs....

UPDATE #1 this page:
Got back in the shop and checked the piston fit in the cylinders, about one thou, and the ring end gap, they were all running between 0.015" and 0.019", so I used 'em as is....

There were no instructions with these rings, one pair were squared off outside and inside, with no marks, so I don't think it matters which side up, and I decided to use it as the top ring.

The other pair had a beveled inside and two dots, which I used as the top side, and installed them as the second ring.

Fitted the rings on the rear piston, fitted it into the bottom of the cylinder, put a spiral lock in one side, started the pin into the piston, put it on the rod, put the other spiral lock in, pushed it up into the cylinder, and bolted down the cylinder with locktite stud lock.

UPDATE #3 this page:

Some more parts showed up for this motor, the new valve rockers, and the new valve covers (dishpans) and D rings....

Nope, if the other 15 studs and nuts look like this one, they are lower than the rocker mount itself, so no problem there....

OK, the Cometic dishpan gaskets I have are 0.045", tried one, then tried two (0.090"), the covers still hit the rocker brackets...

Then I put one of the old pans on one of the new STD heads....

It hits, so the problem is with the new heads/rockers somewhere, not with the dishpans....

I'm thinking of taking a little material off the top of the rocker boxes, looking closely at them, it looks like it would not be a structural problem if I carefully did that !

THE FRAME AND TRANNY:
In the meantime, as I have recently picked up a RevTek early 4 sp e-start shovelhead tranny with a kicker, and a set of '65 shovelhead inner and outer primaries, and a tranny mount plate, decided to see how they fit in the frame...

This frame is an early Paughco shovel style 4 sp swing arm frame.

I wanted plenty of room for the e-start tranny, and did not know which style of e-start tranny I would be going with, so I set up a jig and cut loose the swing arm pivots, and welded them back in on the back side of the frame tubes....

The only down side to this mod is that with the swing arm pivots now 3" further to the rear, there will be just a little more slack in the chain as the swing arm moves up and down.

The ebay tranny plate and tranny fit nicely in there....

Motor Update #4:

Got the valve springs and other small parts to set up the heads. and found a pair of the old style flat D-rings for the dishpans, that I will put under the pans as spacers to clear the rocker arms.

Also picked up a tool to check the valve travel and any conflicts between the valves and the pistons, and between the valves themselves. Having trouble getting the tool to set up properly though, the dial indicators that came with the tool do not properly index on top of the valve spring collars, so I am doing something wrong here, or this is not the correct setup for this motor....

I could grind a relief in the tool to allow the dial indicators to angle over further so the plunger can touch the valve spring collar. That degree of angularity would make the readings very inaccurate though. These dial indicators really need to be mounted so that they parallel the valve movement in order to get an accurate measurement....

Finally figured out how to attach these little copper pieces to the tips of the dial indicator plungers, to get the readings I want on valve travel and overlap....

The TDC valve lifts are 0.198" intake, and 0.186" exhaust. Set up the gages and dialed in the .186 exhaust, and the intake valve hit it at 0.155". Got some work to do here....

Just for grins, backed off both valve adjustors until the dial indicators read 0.150", and "snuck up" on it a little at a time, until the valves were touching at 0.160"

The goal here is to get a minimum of 40 thou between the valves when the intake is at 0.198" and the exhaust is at 0.186", and I'd be happier with 50 thou. I've got some options here, like taking a small amount off the outer edge of each valve, and cutting the valve seats a small amount to "sink" the valves slightly into the heads, in effect moving them further apart from each other. Am looking at the numbers and deciding how I want to do it....

In the meantime, I drew up this graph below. I do a lot better with visual stuff, and like to draw my cam specs in this way to better "see" just what the cam is doing. Sometimes if I have the cam profile specs I'll draw up that graph also....

Way back at least 30 years ago, I wanted to build a blown Harley drag bike, and after acquiring an S&S 93" "Sidewinder" big bore, stroker setup for my basket case '59, and a Jerry Magnuson 80 inch roots style blower, my racing buddies convinced me I was going to blow those cherry '59 FL cases apart, so the blower project got shelved!

Finally getting started on my '59 FL after way too many years, but it's going together now as a cruiser, and without the blower.....

Cases machined for the new parts, and assembled with new timing gears, a new Andrews B grind cam, the S&S 4-1/2" flywheels, new bearings, it's starting to come together....