[capt.logs]

Had my piston fall apart on my 500 last year and upon inspection I had quite significant side to side play in the rod.  So I determined that a total teardown was going to be in order, so might as well do it right and geart the 612 kit.

Now I have rebuilt engines but have no experience with motorcycles.  Any advice for me going into this?  Any good articles, or manuals that I can get my hands on to help with this rebuild?  Tools that I must have?  I've consider leaving this job to a shop but there isn't any with experience with these older english bikes and they all charge an arm and a leg.

I will be making another thread to show the progress I make.  Hoping to rebuild this better than the indian mechanics did in the first place.

=Jason-

[ERC]

Get yourself a service manual. That will help you decide what tools you need. When you get the 612 kit follow the instructions given you with the kit for proper reassembly.  ERC

[Damon]

Definitely get a service manual or the Snidal Manual. I prefer the Snidal! I just rebuilt mine with the 612 kit myself! I'd never worked on a motorcycle before but had plenty of automotive repair experience.
 it is a straight forward installation kit with just about everything you will need. the hardest part for me was grinding in the timing side for clearance with the big Cams. Not sure what year your bike is but this is a really good time to go back to the original crankcase Breather system as described By Ace. Make sure you clean everything and then clean it again! Bag and tag all the small parts as you remove them and take pictures so you can refer to them upon reassembly to get it in the right places and order.
 You will need a torch or an Oven that you can heat up the cases to get the old main bearings out and the new ones in.
 I am not sure where you live and your altitude. I am in Seattle, WA and am at sea level. I used both spacers under the Barrel and the stock base gasket and it still wasn't enough to get the compression to an acceptable level. I had to make 2 more base gaskets and install them to get it to 92 octane gas levels. So be very careful and check that, you don't want to replace the piston again from detonation.
 Just take your time and it should be really easy to do. And I have to say I love the power increase, it just feels like a totally different bike.

Damon

[Kevin Mahoney]

When I approach a new (to me) engine or vehicle I purchase every different manual that is available. Each manual will have a bit of information that the other manuals will not. I find this approach invaluable.

I would agree with ERC about this totally. I would also make very liberal use of this forum. You will have to separate good advice from urban legends and wives tales but that is pretty easy and 90% of what you get is really good advice.

[capt.logs]

Any good links to download the service manual or decent place to buy it online?  Taking the engine off was pretty straight forward, about to start disassembling the engine.  My main concern will be getting the tolerances all dead on since I dont have much experience doing that.  Any good threads here of someone installing the 612 kit?

I drove this bike around India for 3 years and was amazed how gutless it was when I brought it to the states.  Im hoping the 612 kit will make the bike more useful here.

[Kevin Mahoney]

It will be faster, but please don't think you can make it something it's not. At the end of the day it is a 1930's engine. You will have great top of the line components in it, but it must still be treated like your favorite child, gently and lovingly.

[Blltrdr]

You will probably have to update your clutch pack or maybe even to a Newby primary/clutch because of the HP increase. If your bike has the 4 spd you might want to look into the close ratio gears and the right side shift conversion w/sealed bearings or try and find a 5 spd trans.

If you haven't ordered the 612 kit yet you might look at the Ace Fireball kit which IMO better than the 612 kit.

Either or an upgraded clutch will be necessary.

Good luck with your build.

[Damon]

I installed the set of heavy duty springs in my clutch along with a set of Barnett discs and the push rod with the needle bearings. Once I got it adjusted it has not shown any signs of slipping.
 I have the 5-speed in my bike, I also changed out the gear oil in mine for Lucas full synthetic and it is shifting so smoothly and without any false neutrals or slipping. It's been fabulous.

The clearances are very important when assembling the 612 or any motor for that matter. Just make sure you read all the papers that come with it and measure to those.
 Also make sure you have a compression gauge and check your compression after you get it running. It's the most important to keep it under 145 psi to prevent detonation. And it can take some adjusting to get it there.
 I used both the spacers in the kit which make 5mm and one base gasket and once I had it up and running and starting easily it read 175 psi. So I had to add another 1mm to the stack to try and get it down per Ace.cafes recommendation.

Damon

[capt.logs]

Definitely get a service manual or the Snidal Manual. I prefer the Snidal! I just rebuilt mine with the 612 kit myself! I'd never worked on a motorcycle before but had plenty of automotive repair experience.
 it is a straight forward installation kit with just about everything you will need. the hardest part for me was grinding in the timing side for clearance with the big Cams. Not sure what year your bike is but this is a really good time to go back to the original crankcase Breather system as described By Ace. Make sure you clean everything and then clean it again! Bag and tag all the small parts as you remove them and take pictures so you can refer to them upon reassembly to get it in the right places and order.
 You will need a torch or an Oven that you can heat up the cases to get the old main bearings out and the new ones in.
 I am not sure where you live and your altitude. I am in Seattle, WA and am at sea level. I used both spacers under the Barrel and the stock base gasket and it still wasn't enough to get the compression to an acceptable level. I had to make 2 more base gaskets and install them to get it to 92 octane gas levels. So be very careful and check that, you don't want to replace the piston again from detonation.
 Just take your time and it should be really easy to do. And I have to say I love the power increase, it just feels like a totally different bike.

Damon

Where did you get the spacers?  Im central coast cali.  Kinda disappointed in the lack of instructions from hitchcock.  I have the Sndial pdf but I personally don't think it's very detailed.  Why did you have problems with the cam clearance?  Seems like it will be pretty quick work with a dremel.  Did you have any problems with the carb tuning?  Thought it would have came with a guide at least.

=Jason-

[capt.logs]

You will probably have to update your clutch pack or maybe even to a Newby primary/clutch because of the HP increase. If your bike has the 4 spd you might want to look into the close ratio gears and the right side shift conversion w/sealed bearings or try and find a 5 spd trans.

If you haven't ordered the 612 kit yet you might look at the Ace Fireball kit which IMO better than the 612 kit.

Either or an upgraded clutch will be necessary.

Good luck with your build.

It's a Indian Bullet that I swapped in a 5 speed gearbox and converted to right hand shift.  But that means it still has the 4 speed clutch so I'll be upgrading the discs.  Never heard of Ace's kit, even now after a google search I really can't find any info on itl

[Blltrdr]

It's a Indian Bullet that I swapped in a 5 speed gearbox and converted to right hand shift.  But that means it still has the 4 speed clutch so I'll be upgrading the discs.  Never heard of Ace's kit, even now after a google search I really can't find any info on itl

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/AcePerformanceBullets/info

[ace.cafe]

If you want tech support and additional performance choices, let me know.
You can google the Ace Fireball or Ace Fireball 535 and see some videos of our bikes in action, and some articles.

 Bltrdr provided the link to our Yahoo group site.

I can answer any questions that you might have. We are in the US. We have over 40 builds on the road, and they are all still going, some with 50k miles. They all do The Ton, and can cruise highways at 75mph.

[Damon]

Where did you get the spacers?  Im central coast cali.  Kinda disappointed in the lack of instructions from hitchcock.  I have the Sndial pdf but I personally don't think it's very detailed.  Why did you have problems with the cam clearance?  Seems like it will be pretty quick work with a dremel.  Did you have any problems with the carb tuning?  Thought it would have came with a guide at least.

=Jason-

The spacers come in the kit. Just make sure you use them. As Ace said, you can use him as a resource. He is awesome and the most knowledgeable. He has answered all my questions and helped me to get mine dialed in even though it isn't his kit! He is a great guy!
 If you can afford it the Newby Belt drive clutch is the ultimate, But so far the Barnett clutch discs are working great for me. If you go with the Barnett discs only order 4, the Nfield gear site says that the 5-speed uses 5 but the Barnett discs are much thicker then the stock plates so I could only get 4 discs to fit in the basket with the steel plates.

Damon

[capt.logs]

If you want tech support and additional performance choices, let me know.
You can google the Ace Fireball or Ace Fireball 535 and see some videos of our bikes in action, and some articles.

 Bltrdr provided the link to our Yahoo group site.

I can answer any questions that you might have. We are in the US. We have over 40 builds on the road, and they are all still going, some with 50k miles. They all do The Ton, and can cruise highways at 75mph.

I honestly wish I knew about you before I ordered from hitchcock, I most likely would have gone with your kit instead.  Where in the states are you located?

[ace.cafe]

I honestly wish I knew about you before I ordered from hitchcock, I most likely would have gone with your kit instead.  Where in the states are you located?

I am in Tennessee, and the development and power work on the heads is done here. We have a shop in NJ were we do cranks and  bearing work, and some rebuilds.
Most of our builds are done by the owners, with our tech support.  None have failed.

Anyway, we know that we are not as high profile as Hitchcock, so we are not surprised that some people don't know about us. We often end up troubleshooting Hitchcock kits for inexperienced builders. They are basically a catalog house, and we are performance specialists. There is a difference.

The Hitchcock kit will work well enough if you build it right. It's just that there are some things that we have worked out that help the build to succeed that they don't seem to know about or understand. We have participated in several 612 successful projects, even though we prefer tbe 535 for our own Ace kits.
You won't find much that we don't know about Bullets, and we engineer all our stuff, and have created some new designs and methods for Bullet performance., such as high-lift roller rocker heads, new bearing designs, breather mods, air filters, etc.