Thursday, March 31, 2011

Rough day.....


If I believed in luck I'd get me one of these. Fortunately, God has my back!

Consume me.

Hebrews 12:28-29 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

WOW, great paint job!


British goodness





This bike nearly stopped my heart! Not because it's sooo cool, though it is, but rather because my camera bag caught the handlebar causing it to fall to the right toward a super sweet Indian!Fortunately the fall was circumvented by my cat like reflexes and lightening fast hand speed! No really, I caught it mid fall!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Quote of the day.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. -Leo Tolstoy

Spring Thaw 2011











Devil in disguise!


Brag on your mag all you want, I wouldn't stuff one in my arse if I had room for a whole saw mill!! Remember, they were banished from airplanes for a reason; people are heavier than air.

Spring Thaw 2011




Sunday, March 27, 2011

Weekend...


was a bit of a blurr! Spring Thaw, Calsonic Arena, Shelbyville TN. Pics to follow.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Is this legal,


Putting chopper stickers on a bagger?

Engine tools...




And tattoo artists, an unbeatable combination!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

I've been Shortbused!!

New choke/run-off switch/starter button bracket from Shortbus Customs. Check him out.
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Monday, March 21, 2011

The latest....

In a long line of exceptionally bad ideas! Courtesy of The Eviltwin!!!
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Sunday, March 20, 2011

Random



Word of the day.

Matt. 7:7-12

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

My workload


Seems to be getting bigger instead of smaller!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Argg, the daily grind!

This is what I spent the day making at work. The brass thing, not the green thing. The green thing is the clicker end of a BIC pen.
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Saturday, March 12, 2011

Get torqued!!

Ok, this will be a bit lengthy, but will be well worth your time. Especially if you have the scars on your knuckles to prove that you wrench on Shovel and Pan engines in the frame. I've figured out a few tricks over the years that simplify the task of getting proper torque on the hard to reach head bolts which will help you get more life out of your head gaskets (which is probably why your heads were off in the first place). First off, I always wire brush the head bolts and chase the threaded holes in the head with a tap before assembly. This insures that I get full torque on the bolt and that some of my final torque is not being taken up by interference between the bolt and the head due to dirt or corrosion or damaged threads ect. After I've cleaned up the threads, I install the heads and new gaskets and run the bolts into the heads finger tight. I then install the intake with two piece clamps (no o-rings) to acheive proper alignment of the heads to the intake. This will allow a good seal when doing final installation of your intake and carburator. If you are still using stock type band clamps, throw them in the trash (the only place they dont produce intake leaks) and get a set of brass two piece clamps.

Here comes the fun part! See that crazy looking apparatus on the lift? Thats my torque wrench and an "S" shaped torque extension. Torque extensions are pretty straight forward to use. There is a formula that looks something like this:
(ELxT)/(EL+TE)=AT  Now dont freak out, thats not as tough as it looks. If i can figure this out, anyone can. Basically you have to adjust the torque to compensate for the added length of the torque extension. That's where the formula comes in. It breaks down like so, EL is the effective length of the torque wrench measured from the center of the drive to the center of the handle with the wrench set to your desired finished torque before adjustment. I was lookin for 65 ft lbs of torqe, so that's where I set the wrench. A quick measurement tells me that my "effective length" = 17.5". "T" represents torque. This is the full torque you're looking for before adjusting for the extension. As I said before, mine was 65 ft lbs. So the first part of our equasion is 17.5 x 65 = 1137.5

Next we need to add TE to our established EL. TE simply stands for torque extension. My "S" wrench (snap on PN SBXM1415) is 6.625" from center to center. Adding that to the 17.5" EL gives us a length of 24.125" for our wrench and extension. Ok, remember that 1137.5 number we came up with earlier? Divide that by the 24.125" and we have our new torque wrench setting with extension or "adjusted torque"; 47.15 ft lbs.
(ELxT)/(EL+TE)=AT
(17.5x65)/(17.5+6.625)=AT
1137.5/24.125=47.15
I usually drop the .15 and torque my heads to an even 47 ft lbs.

That fancy "S" wrench I'm using as a torque extension is actually a 14-15mm combination boxed end wrench. The 15mm end will fit nicely on the 1/2" drive of the torque wrench while the 14mm will fit nicely on the 9/16" hex on the head bolts.The nifty "S" shape is what allows easy access to the hard to reach areas that MR's Harley and Davidson decided to stuff nearly unreachable head bolts into! Also, as you are torquing the bolts, be sure to keep in a straight line the handle, drive unit, and center of the 14mm wrench. As in don't rotate the wrench way off to one side or the other as this will not yeild acurate torque results.

The great thing about this formula is it works with all different lengths of wrenches and extensions. Just do the math according to what you have. And the last thing i would encourage, is to write all this down in the margins of your workshop manual as to not forget it. Afterall, you ride a shovelhead. Chances are you will need this information again.

Call it O.C.D....


or whatever you want, but i always wire brush my head bolts and chase the bolt holes before putting my heads on. Trust me, it'll make your life much easier.

Soon enough my son,



soon enough.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

If you like art....


You'll love this blog! Click the title for a link.

Red neck engineering!

This actually seemed like a good idea to someone!
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Monday, March 7, 2011

Split rockers, step 6

On to welding! Splitting the boxes exposes the internal oil passages that carried oil to the individual rocker arms. Of course these will need to be welded up. This is the point where I involve a professional, and leaving the 9th mount makes his job even harder. After welding and a little hand working the old oil passage is hardly noticeable.
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Sunday, March 6, 2011

Dave is gracious,

Dave is sweet, Dave is really hard to beat!
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Thread repair.

Everyone loves a shovel!
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