Don't you need to block the oil passage hole on the later style lifter blocks or do I have that wrong?

 

I wondered about that and one set I have are blocked off but Im thinking that hole will just be unused as there's no provisions in the block.

The oil drains are holes rather than a slot which I need to look at and feel good about it and make sure the cork tube gaskets wont interfere or any other unforeseen thing becomes an issue.

 

Could you just use a gasket that is made for the aluminum blocks? They don't have a hole for the passage.

 

Wont matter either way because there's no pressure there with no oil supply present. I wish I felt good about using the aluminum blocks but I figure they switched away from them for a reason and seeing the crack in one of mine gave me a scare.

 

One down one to go.

 

I bought this bike semi-assembled, it was being restored by them to sell eventually but I decided to take a few steps backwards and go through it from the beginning, even the engine which was apparently ready for the cylinders and heads.

Here are some of the poor decisions I ran across that the PO felt were fine.

The hubs look great, refinished and ready for bearings except the races are trashed. One of the small races has as a step in it because it must've been used for a while with damaged rollers. How did they plan to overcome this?





That shiny ring is where the step back to std size is. As you move outwards from that area its hogged out like the rollers were flat and sliding on the race.




Pinion gear had been bead blasted and in the bag with the rest of the oil drive stuff and other small parts. I set cam and breather endplay then went to install the rest of the gears then I saw the condition of the teeth. I had another gear I robbed from the 46 to keep moving forward. They would've used that gear no question in my mind.



Another thing which I dealt with much earlier was the crank end play. It was too large and Im glad they screwed that up. I took the cases apart and discovered not only was the end play wrong but they weren't using the thrust faces in the cases to control that end play. There are ground thrust washers that sit on the crank and ride against the thrust flanges in the case. You center the crank and establish what washers get used to give you end play while keeping it centered. What they had done on the right side was used a small ground washer that sits on the end of the rollers but it sat proud of the thrust flange on the right case. This would put all the side load on the end of the rollers not the thrust face. On the outside of those right side rollers is a snap ring in a shallow groove in the cam case where all those gears are spinning. It wouldn't take long to pop that clip out and towards the cam gears and cause some sort of disaster that would require complete disassembly to correct. There is a shielded collar beside that race but still a big problem Im glad I avoided.

 

I had a spare set of hubs which are being used and I'll see if I can salvage the other bad hubs.


I've run into a small challenge I may not be able to do anything about. The first gear to the right of the pinion gear slides on the shaft no problem, bushings are all new and right on but once the gear contacts the pinion gear the effort to slide it on goes up and no backlash. I tried the bad pinion gear, same result. There is backlash between that gear and the far right gear that drives the generator but none between it and the crank pinion gear. That concerns me and I have two thoughts on this. One is once the cover is on the two shafts the gears ride on reposition themselves hopefully away from the pinion gear and Im happy. I'll check through the lifter block holes to see if thats the case. The other is it gets run that way without grief hoping the tractor engine is forgiving. I dont like option two but I dont see too many options here unless HD offers an undersize gear.

 

Things changed a bit with the cover on. I can reach the timer drive gear and it slides back and forth on the shaft now with no effort. That tells me because its the middle gear that its not binding on either outside gear. I cant really access the generator drive gear very well even through the generator hole.

 

Oil filter was an option in 48 and it screwed directly onto the tank fitting, not sure if it was 49 or 50 when they went to the housing with a mount bracket that had a short oil line between the tank and housing.




Oil pressure switch is repop. I'll see if I can find an original if possible but for now I'll run that one.


Lifter block are blasted and painted to look aluminum. I'll do the exhaust and lifters tomorrow.

 

Palmer says 48-49 used this filter setup. I can't find one picture on-line or in palmers book showing a filter mounted to the tank. I know its how they were but finding a picture is proving to be difficult. If Panz has one on his 49 I would love to see it.