THE FINAL BUILD

Well, this is going to be a doddle. Now, let’s see….what’s left to do? Not too much. The only wiring I’d finished was for the LED system, so that left the ignition and lights. Not too much work involved there. Then there was the engine to get running. No problems there either, as it was running beautifully before I started this project. Back brake to bleed. A bit tricky on my own, but not that bad. And all the cables to remake and fit. Maybe a little time-consuming, but pretty straightforward! All the parts were in my shed, I had four days to do it all, so, at last, I could take it easy. How bloody wrong could I be? If it could go wrong, it would….and did!

WIRING…..
Well, I’m not too bad at wiring, and it was all straight forward. A lot to do, and my good mate Moen from the Virtual Indian website had kindly sent me over a new set of points and a rotor, free of charge, all the way from Denmark. This bike has probably had the same set of points in it since it left the factory in Springfield in 1941…..65 years ago. They weren’t that bad either, but the rotor had spent the last 15 years with pieces of matchstick holding it on the shaft, it was that worn. The new one was a lovely tight fit.
The only tricky bit was the speedo light wire. In a fit of cleverness, I decided to run it down the inside of the rear forkleg, as I hate seeing wires cable-tied. I’d drilled an 1/8” hole in the top, and a ¼” hole in the bottom, both discreetly out of sight. I decided to insert a length of mig wire, to which I’d solder the light wire and pull it through. Wasn’t looking forward to it, as getting it to exit the bottom hole would be a bastard. To my amazement, it came through first go. Hidden below the speedo is yet another high-powered LED, which lights up the front wheel. The wiring was done, and everything worked. And the lights in the tank were sequencing away happily. Looking good.

ENGINE STARTING…..
With petrol in the tank, and oil in the front downtube/oil tank (put too much in and it overflowed everywhere) it was time to kick it over. Bugger….the kickstart was fouling the exhaust, and I had spent ages at the dry-build stage making sure it didn’t. Not a simple job to rectify, as the forward control plates have to come off to get at it. God knows why it was fouling, but I had to make a new middle mount and slot the back mount to move it across. A lot of time wasted, but sorted nicely.
Try again. Big kick. The lever didn’t move. It was completely solid. Engaged clutch, and it worked. CHRIST….IT’S THE MOTOR! Huge panic time….the engine was seized solid! I tried to convince myself it wasn’t, but it bloodywell was. Time for a late, and I mean LATE night. The first thing that sprung to mind was that somehow one of the links on the triplex primary chain had “doubled over” and become wedged in the small gap around the front sprocket. SHIT! Meant I had to take the freshly painted primary chaincase off! And to get at that, all the clutchlever mounting plate had to come off. It was tight, as it runs real close to the electrics box, but it came off with zero paint damage. Everything was fine! Took the chain off (no easy task) and put a socket on the crank. Solid. Bugger. Decided to check the only other part I could have got jammed, the alternator chain. Major stripdown now. Clutch off and inner primary off to get at it. It too was fine.

By now I’m pulling my hair out. Nothing had been done that could possibly cause it to lock up. I was grasping at straws. I loosened all the engine plates and crankcase bolts, and loosened the barrels. Dunno why, it just seemed a good idea. I couldn’t think of anything else to do. With a socket on the crank, and a 2ft tommy bar, I tried to turn it again. It turned but was stiff as hell, and made a horrible screeching sound. OK…in for a penny…..off with the heads. Being a sidevalve, this is a mere 10 minute job, and more by luck than design, I could get at every bolt. Heads off….not a thing amiss. What the hell can I try next? It’s Wednesday night, and it has to be at Newark on Friday afternoon. The engine and gearbox are virtually in pieces (although still in the frame) and it’s nearly midnight. Last resort before I give up.

Squirty oilcan in oil feed pipe, force oil in. Oil down bores and valveguides. Kick over. It barely moved, but I was managing to get it to turn over completely, but it was still making horrible squeaking noises. Force more oil down pipe, still quite stiff and squeaky. The bores were so perfect, I could still see the honing marks from last year’s rebuild. Then, with no warning, it freed off. The noises stopped, and it would spin over by hand. The bloody thing had “Dry-Seized” through standing. I’d stripped the whole thing for nothing. It was 2am. With a great feeling of relief, I poured myself a large whisky and went to bed.

4.30AM THURSDAY JUNE 8th.
Two and a half hours sleep, and back in the workshop putting the engine back together. Good job I fitted copper head gaskets, you can use them again. By dinner time it was time to try again. She fired up third kick. I was ecstatic. There was no way I was taking it to the Pro-Bike Show and pushing it in! Put it in gear, and everything was working. The first ride was 6ft down the workshop. There were still loads of little jobs to do, like taking the whole rear wheel out and stripping the rear hub so I could fit the rebuilt rear caliper, so I pottered on into the small hours, leaving one job for the morning….fitting the front brake cable.

FRIDAY JUNE 9th.
Show day. Just the front brake cable to feed down the left hand forkleg (same as the wiring on the other side). Load up and go….or not!
The cable went in about 3” and stopped. There was an obstruction inside. I hadn’t checked it, just presumed it was a hollow tube. Looking at how the forks were extended, I thought I’d get away with using a long drill and drilling through an internal piece of metal. A bit of a pain because the handlebars and top yoke had to come off. I started drilling. An hour later, I was still drilling, but had come to the end of the drill. More panic. I’d drilled in about 2”. Needed a longer drill, so welded some studding to it. Another hour later I was still drilling, praying the weld would hold. I’d started making more drills, reducing the size progressively to clear the welds as each one reached its limit. Four and a half hours later, I felt the latest drill bite. My blood ran cold. If the weld was going to snap, it would do it now! By carefully reversing and forwarding with no pressure on the bit, and gallons of oil, it finally broke through. I’d just drilled through 8” of solid steel with a pistol drill and home-made bits. This side had been internally slugged. Why had the wire on the other side gone straight down? I was baffled.
The cable went through first time. The build was complete, and I was off to Newark!

FOOTNOTE
I got to the show. Never won anything, but who cares. At least I rode it in….and rode it out. I haven’t done anything with it yet, I decided it was time to catch up with all the little jobs I’d ignored over the last few months, and take it easy for a bit. So, this is the end. I’ll get a few short riding video’s posted, and there will be one last page after this, completely full of detail shots. Oh…and I’ll see if Yoda can produce some wallpaper for you to download.

A LITTLE ABOUT THE ENGINE
The engine isn’t standard. It’s race-tuned. The other year it had an extensive rebuild. All the machining was done by England’s top Indian tuner, Robin Oakley, down in Kent. Assembly was done by myself. It’s been bored out about ¼” (that’s a hell of a lot, and had to be done in two stages to allow for stress distortion). The pistons are new-old-stock, from a 1950’s Royal Enfield, and had to be extensively machined to fit. It has huge stainless valves out of a Peugeot car, also extensively machined, and can run on unleaded. The huge increase in the bore also increased the compression ratio, the heads have been planed and machined to clear the valves, and the inlet/exhaust ports gas-flowed.
 Whilst the heads were off during panic-mode, I laid the original piston and inlet valve on top of the new ones. You should be able to spot the difference. This baby really flies!

AND FINALLY
Thanks for reading this. Hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to put any comments on my forum. Now……what can I build next? (visit Forum Here)