Topic: Drag Bike / The Big 4 Express.

[Don R]

 I wish, it's just an ARD magneto. Actually a belt drive powering a Fairbanks Morse mag like you might find on a Lincoln Pipeliner welder. 

[Don R]

 I test fitted the Webers before removing the engine. It's plain to see this bike had weber carbs with the same mounts when it was raced. The bend marks are in the air box tabs. The air filters have gotten switched, I can see the rub marks from the frame tubes of the bike they were mounted on. The frame stubs are the beginning of a tube repair that may turn into a tube removal kit like my K0.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ftcJ9VVwG8MG4wqx7

[Don R]

 There's a local bike show I want to ride to ( 1 mi.) in late Aug. We'll see if it uses this motor or the stock one out of my K7.

[Don R]

 Today I checked the numbers. It appears the drag bike had an F1 case under the k2 top end. I tore down a low mile k6 engine to use and got it clean after sitting for 40 years. The pistons are rusted solid in the bores because the po left the carbs off in a barn. I don't want them anyway. I might have to melt them out, one is laughing at my home made press. 
 Tomorrow I'm going to test fit a backcut F2 trans in the k6 case and begin to fill it with whatever I have that will run using as many of the low mile parts as possible.. I'm considering abandoning the 1123 rotating assy for a lightened stock crank and whatever size pistons fill the big bore sleeves. 1000cc plus I think.
  It'll need case boring for the sleeves if I do the k2 top end of course.

[Don R]

 Well, none of that sh1t above happened. Other things got in the way and it's still up on a shelf. The engine is on a stand with wheels. More parts have been collected though.
   More bikes came along, were rebuilt and sold to pay for car racing. The CFE cylinder heads defect finally showed in an ugly way and the driver had a baby so we parked the dragster for now.
   I bought a set of ceriani headlight ears tonight for it that got me thinking.  A guy did come down the driveway and gave me the black header that was on the dragbike back when it was raced last. He said his kid thought I was mad because I didn't get it at the sale. Not true, I was saving my money for a sandcast which sold later.  That was a nice thing to do.

[Shtonecb500]

I have a 550 sitting in my garage that has been getting ignored, I've finished 3 other bikes while passing by that one. Part of me is pissed off I chopped the subframe and started on that route, the other part of me wanted to make it something special since I chopped it. Every single time I see pictures of how I bough it I wish it was sitting the exact same way in the corner.

I had a set of those fork ears on my watchlist on eBay. You must have grabbed them.

[Don R]

 Oddly,  those fork ears were purchased here. I saw the ad, waited a few days and couldn't stand it any longer. I was surprised they were still there. 
 I have a 750 K0 serial number with a 71 title, frame that I chopped when I was younger and more ignorant about these bikes. I stumbled onto a similar year frame that someone removed the engine by cutting it in half. It's now going to be K0 parts. I also still have the proper engine case too so I plan to offer it up to someone as a project when I know it's right. (I have a pro race car chassis builder that owes a favor)

[Don R]

 Pretty close to the shop logo this bike raced out of. I miss having the corel app. The shirt was red with white letters. I think it was copied from the Phase 4 logo. I wore that shirt until it fell apart.


https://photos.app.goo.gl/r8NCDT5bJhF4ce1GA

[Don R]

 Bump for Terry.

[Terry in Australia]

Bump for Terry.

Thanks Don, I'm looking forwards to building the 970 engine. I think I have pretty much all I need now, although some bigger carbs are something I'll probably need, but in the back of my mind I keep thinking that the original KZ1000's only had 26mm carbs and ran fine, so  the 28mm F2 pumper carbs I'll probably use until I can find something better should do the job, while keeping it looking stock for when I get whatever bike I install it in registered.

I'm not going for all out power as it's a street bike, so I'm more interested in a big torquey engine with reliability more important that dyno cards. We'll see how it goes.  

[Don R]

 I was pleased with the torque of my 836. I liked the F2 cam as well as the Kenny Harmon F cam, both have a good seat of the pants pull. I really need to ride that bike more, my plan today is shuffle the hoard to get the runners out from behind the "just back from storage" bikes. There's a kz in there that's going to need to start soon before the carbs get yucky. 

[Don R]

Showing off my newfound pic posting skills

[Don R]

 I'm using a cut up junk frame to make an engine cradle that will bolt to my engine stand. The design is still ongoing but it's bolted up with a K5 case sitting in it. This one will allow the top to come off, I really want something that will make the bottom accessable.  I think I can make it adjust for angle up or down fairly easy since it pivots on the swingarm holes.
  The idea is to take the 1124 back apart until I determine what's causing the tight spot, then deal with it. 
  Depending what I find, I'm seriously considering a new rotating assy based on a 10,000 mile bottom end from a wreck with my F2 freshly backcut (years ago) trans.   

[Don R]

 Big 4 took my threat seriously and decided to turn over once I removed the offending Suzuki starter. I'm going to use a stock starter with 24 volts for now.

[Don R]

  With the busa starter is off, a stock one is on with 24 volts it spins great. The ARD is making spark and the oil pump picked up prime after I pre lubed it. 
  It spins over like I don't know what but the timing is wrong, I knocked the teeth off of two starter gears when it kicked back. This project is no longer sleeping. It's dangerously close to running. I need to go back to the ard thread and/or find the factory instructions. I marked the flywheel for TDC too.  I considered putting a window in the dyno cover like a gl1000 has and make a timing tape for the flywheel.
  It's been 8 years since I drug it home and probably 15 before that since it ran.

[RAFster122s]

Congrats Don on the success. That's no fun on the starter damage. Can you change out the gear or is that starter now toast?

[Don R]

 I realized I transposed the direction of rotation when I walked around the engine stand.  I am also using #1 on the mag cap as remembered which is a mistake. It's easier to remove the mag than the carbs so I'll re-mark the gear to coincide with the rotor pointing at my choice of #1.   
 I'm on the third starter gear now, two in the junk. I just got too excited about it running and didn't think clearly.

[RAFster122s]

Oh,starter gear in motor..ouch

[Don R]

 Luckily the intermediate gear is cast iron and the broken teeth came out with the gear. It didn't do the starter any good but oh well. I've been reading everything I can find but most timing instructions are for the late model mag with the timing retard. The good thing about the early ones is there were millions of the fairbanks morse mags put on tractors and generator welders.

[RAFster122s]

Too bad Frank is gone...asI recall he had experience with ARDs

[Don R]

 Yup, I'm sure missing Frank and his input, that will go on for quite some time. He was interested in a deal I am working on buying some parts.
  It was suggested using a meter on the ground lug to note the points operation like Honda points setting. If you've ever turned a mag by hand with a finger near that lug, you won't do it twice. My supposition is that voltage won't do my ohm meter any good. I do have an engine spark meter that might safely register the spark location.

[Don R]

 I have an old welded up dyno cover that would have been awesome on a rat bike but I gutted it, drilled a timing window in the top of it, got my mag rotor rotation marked correctly, got #1 located on the mag and the flywheel, wired it right, the mag agreed with my previous yellow timing marks. I guesstimated the advance, I already marked the flywheel with #1 and TDC. The inductive pickup timing light doesn't light on the mag so all of that work was for nothing.  Solid core wires and no resistor plugs. I'll decrease the gap to .025 or so, I had forgotten about that. 
  The carbs that sat dry are a mess, two flooded, one right and one dry. I may as well put the webers on it too. It is cranking on 12 volts now, not nearly as fast as 24 V but easier on the 4th starter gear L0L! 

[Don R]

 Gas everywhere. I cleaned the carbs, adjusted the floats, tested, replaced the 1/4" fuel line, tested, re-cleaned the seats and fuel lines, fought the carb rubbers, heated them, installed the carbs again, and now the fuel tee is cracked. Probably most of the problem all along.
 If this thing makes noise today the V&H header is going on it and the frame is coming down off the shelf.
 The carb rack had an incorrect float needle in it and is obviously not the rack I had gone through earlier.  That one may be on my brothers bike.
  I'm ready to buy a roll of proper fuel line. I keep buying it and using it up. 5 feet doesn't go far with a double petcock.

[Don R]

  I got the mag timed right and have the flywheel marked and a window cut into a dyno cover to time if off of.  It still didn't want to run so I began a compression test, the tight turning issue it had before got the best of my confidence and I imagined bent valves etc. It blew 175 on 4 and 150 on three but took a lot of turns to get there.
 
      I decided to leak test it, it was leaking a lot and air was blowing out of the cylinder block between #3 and #4   The air chuck was on #3 and the piston was at TDC, both rockers were loose. I had the dyno cover off so no way did it pressurize the crankcase. It blew soap bubbles between the fins. When I got it there were o rings partially stuffed between the cylinders and block.
 The valves aren't bent, the cylinder walls look nice, piston tops show no shiny marks, I can only imagine the freshly annealed copper head gasket leaking at the liner. 
  With my primitive tools the bore appears 72mm and the stroke looks to be 70mm. I had previously measured 69mm stroke so that makes it 1140cc rather than a measley 1124. 

  This may be a clue why the motor was thrown back together by the PO, he had tried o rings in the cylinder bottoms but they had come back out and were eaten by the rotating assembly.
 

[Don R]

 The cylinder