[Adrian II]

Hi,

well with absolutely no room in the garage for any more bikes EVER, er... guess what I bought today? Fairly local, some non-original Indian bits on there, but useable with some work...





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[AzCal Retred]

Is that a 21" hoop up front? 

[Adrian II]

Yes, 18" rear. Stock rim size would have been 17" for that year!

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[ddavidv]

I like the high pipe. Other than the tank logo it looks the business.

[Adrian II]

Looks good, but it's loose in the head! I have the same type of pipe on my AVL hybrid, but that has a flange welded on at the head end to suit the AVL cylinder head, and it stays put.

It's not safe to ride at the moment, the front brake is a hopeless lash-up with an Indian-made TLS Bullet front brake in a set of early Indian-made disk brake Bullet forks, the back brake IS original but feeble, so there's some work to do there, as well as fitting a low-level exhaust. There's a nice brown glow from the headlamp, too, which I'm hoping is just down to a near flat battery.

Can't ride it yet!

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[Adrian II]

OK, the first four weeks have thrown quite a few issues for a supposedly running bike. I'm overdue with the updates and will have to start getting you some more info posted. Might start after dinner.

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[Adrian II]

So what have I found? As the bike was bought as a runner, I was hoping to tidy it up and get it on the road fairly quickly.

Not so fast, Moriarty!

Mission Control, we have a problem. Or two...

For some reason one of the 4 previous owners decided that they wanted an early set of RE India disk brake forks with a Q/D front axle, while keeping the Redditch 7" SLS drum hub, but with an Indian Bullet 7"TLS front brake in there.

If you want to see how a drum front brake with a Q/D front axle is done properly, I would suggest looking at a 1968-70 BSA Victor Special. Instead I found THIS.



with a side order of THIS:



What the ....??

OK, disk brake forks, therefore no lug for the brake plate slate, therefore a torque arm is needed. Well he did fit one, but with the brake end OVER THE BRAKE CAM SPINDLE?  Now with some sort of floating fastening that might have worked, but it's just the threaded end of the spindle sitting in a hole. 

Now, you MIGHT ask, how is he holding both the brake arms on their spindles if there are no nuts. Yes, that horrible sinking feeing is correct. He has WELDED them on.



Both levers.  (Cries into beer at this point). They weren't even adjusted properly before being welded into position.



Right, this has to go. Can I still use the front wheel with the Akront alloy rim? more on that in a while. First off, raid the spares collection for a set of drum brake Indian Bullet forks, that I CAN do.

An inspection of the wheel shows that he has had the hub sleeved for 6203 metric bearings for the Q/D front axle. These are the same size and the later Indian font drum uses, so the answer might be a metric drum brake spindle, I have one of those.



BUT the way he has had it sleeved means that the right hand side 6203 bearing won't sit far enough inside the hub to sit on the axle properly - that wheel is now useless. 

fortunately Not A Fury's old front wheel is still available, so I could at least fit that in the drum brake forks, at least for wheeling around the garage. Stainless steel front and alloy rear rims don't match, though, So what else can I do? Do I have a spare TLS 7" Indian front brake hub? YES! A NOS one, to boot... Spoke holes in same relative position on both the Redditch and Indian hubs? YES!

So the old wheel and new hub have gone over to a local wheel builder to build the alloy rim onto the new hub, and I can use the unmolested brake from Not A Fury's low-mileage front wheel. The final choice of forks is not yet settled, I have various options. fortunately the situation with the rear wheel is better, I just need to remove the flaking black paint from the alloy hub.



If any one of our UK members wants an early Enfield India set of disk brake forks, I think they will clean up OK, let me know.



Tea break!

A.




 

[Adrian II]

NEXT! The exhaust. I normally like a Woodsman pipe, but not when it's rattling loose in the head. Out of my spares stash comes a late-ish 350 Indian Bullet low-level pipe with the proper front fixing bracket, and a mini-Goldie muffler. The trial fitting looks OK. Sorted.



Now that bulky-looking seat MIGHT be a re-worked original, but it's very bulky, and, more significantly, the plan is for my wife to ride this when it's sorted. Now she isn't the tallest of ladies, so shorter legs make that seat too tall. So a low, preferably solo seat is needed. Nothing period is available, is there anything from a more modern RE from India? Fortunately, yes. UCE Thunderbird!



That looks good, it's the right shape, my wife says it's comfortable. So far, so good, but how does it fit?

Actually, it doesn't!  Nothing lines up.



So the job here is to magic some mountings out of thin air. The front has two hooks which pivot about a bar SOMEWHERE on the Thunderbird frame. I have no picture so take a few measurements, and here's my first go at a front mounting;





and it's exactly right. I need some rubber buffers further back to support the seat with rider, and another fixing at the back, probably onto the rear fender, which will be reinforced at that point. More to follow on that.

ELECTRICS

Well, they're a LITTLE BIT better than the front brake. They're 12V, and the good point is that matey has fitted a new RM19 three-wire alternator fairly recently, though I need to check rotor to stator clearance by the look of it.



The reg/rectifier looks like it was for a three phase alternator, not a single phase. Does anybody here recognize this?





Never mind, that stator will be wired for full output through a single-phase reg/rectifier.

More to follow.

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[AzCal Retred]

I loved the front brake lash-up. Looks like the PO was either a) high, b) high up "Don't Care" mountain, or c) suicidal. Glad there was a nice RM19 in there at least. Thanks for the write up, it's instructive to follow along the "PO Trail" as you sort it. I hope there's not too much other madness hidden in there!- ACR -

[ddavidv]

The dreaded "PO". I wrote a whole book on mine thanks to the wanker who touched it previously. You are lucky to have a good spares stash.

[Adrian II]

You are lucky to have a good spares stash.

I have been building this up for a while here in Projectland.

MORE ELECTRICS

from what you have seen so far, there is none of the tool box/battery box/ air flter housing on this bike, no idea whether it rusted away or whether the dreaded PO sold it off when he converted it to an off-roader. Now all of this stuff is available in reproduction form, but have you seen H's prices for it?? Our Indian friends are finally reproducing these items too, they might tidy up OK, but even these are around £150.

Now the sort of style I'm after with this bike is an approximation of the (very rare) 350 Indian Westerner, with some Fury-style lighting, so the lack of tinware isn't too big of a hassle, IF I can do a neater job than the PO. If...

What came with the bike id the remains of a E/S Bullet's battery tray. This was fixed to the back of the gearbox with a piece of unpainted (and rusting) mild steel 18 gauge(?) plate with the coil mount on the other side. The battery was held, if that is the right word, with a couple of rubber rings cut from an old inner tube. All of that has gone the way of the front brake, you will be pleased to note. 

Going back to the project spares stash, there was a brand-new Indian K/S Bullet battery tray and chrome cover, as well as a new sealed battery for it it just needed another of those concoct a mounting out of thin air moments. Fortunately I know what's needed here, having gone this route with Not A Fury. Pass me that 1' length of 3" x 1" x ⅛" alumin(i)um angle. Needs a trim and some holes,



as well as a P-clip (two, in fact) to fix the top of the bracket to the main top tube of the frame.



Good, that gives somewhere to fix the battery tray now.



Cover on, that's much neater. Just needs somewhere to mount the coil, maybe under the seat?



Assuming I stick with coil ignition, that is. 

Since the original Fury had its rectifier mounted behind the battery, that's where the new reg/rectifier will go.



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[Adrian II]

I like the high pipe. Other than the tank logo it looks the business.

I might be able to do something about the tank, a genuine Super Meteor tank came up on ebay, original paint as far as I can tell, even older than me but in much better condition!  It belonged to an English guy who'd moved to Spain, and I got it for a good price too, at least until ebay added tax to the deal, shipping wasn't cheap, either. In a post-Brexit hassle it also got stuck in customs for over three weeks, despite paperwork to prove all import taxes had been paid. Not to worry, shall we see if it fits?





I guess it does!

WHAT NEXT?

My hopes for getting it on the road fairly quickly have been set back - it needs an engine strip. the alleged crankshaft oil seal behind the engine sprocket has failed, and with this being the Redditch and not an Indian Bullet, the engine has to be torn down to get at it. I think this is the opportunity for a complete bottom end overhaul, possibly with some upgrades?

Who ya gonna call?

That's right, I'm taking it over to Bullet Whisperer next week. Stay tuned.

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[AzCal Retred]

Time for a short-stroke crank & larger BSA piston? Extending the rev range adds flexibility to the powerband, makes up a bit for the 4-speeds wide gearbox ratios.

[Adrian II]

No. Let's not over-complicate this.

I have a 5 speed gearbox for this one, also by the time Bullet Whisperer has finished with it, the engine will be lively enough with the stock bore and stroke. If it needs more there will be a 500 engine for it.

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[Adrian II]

OK, MUCH later...

So the engine did indeed go over to Bullet Whisperer for its strip and rebuild, heck, while we're at it... Get him to fit some nice bits, and...

You can see where this is going, can't you? I'll post some more stuff about the engine work, let's just say it is no longer any old 350 Bullet, it's ASBO45. 

Come to think of it, there was a bit of a rethink with the whole bike which saw the frame and swinging arm blasted and powder coated, I decided to re-use the gas tank that came with it - resprayed - a set of brand-new forks, all the stuff I was determined not to have to do, never mind, eh? Turns out I couldn't use the original front hub, so the 21" alloy rim was salvaged and re-laced onto a NOS Indian Bullet 7" hub.

It's still not finished, but would you like a look at the work in progress?



Forget the chrome battery cover, black rules! You might notice the ignition upgrade...



What's with the red tank and Indian decals? Well, given that it already has 21" and 18" wheels instead of the 17" front and rear it would have had from the factory, some sort of off-road vibe was called for, so how about a tribute bike to the rare scrambler, the 350 Indian (badged) Westerner? Thus the bike's full name is ASBO45/Not A Westerner (as in ASBO14/Not A Fury). Still needs new guts for the primary transmission cases and the non-ignition electrics fitting among other jobs, but I would hope it can be on the road fairly soon (so I can get the Flat Tracker and A Proj Too Far finished, this one jumped the queue).

A.