Motor mounted
Yesterday I took on my least favorite part of the build, mounting the motor! I always have problems with this and do not look forward to it. It seems like every time I've done it I end up forgetting something and having to take it back off! But first I had to put the head back on.
For some reason I decided to paint the head with a high temperature clear engine enamel. Same brand I painted the jug with, but for some reason it yellowed badly almost to a burnt orange color. So I took it off and sand blasted it again. I PM'd Quenton for the torque specs and went to Harbor Freight Tools to purchase a torque wrench.
I buy all my tools there as the prices are very reasonable, but the quality can be hit or miss. Same wrench at Sears is almost double, however they both have one thing in common, there both made in China now days! Most auto parts places probably have this as a loaner tool if you don't want to buy one.
I know usually when you put something like this on you want to use a crossing pattern of sorts (for example like a car wheel) to get a nice even seal. First the 2 center bolts, one to the left, than the one across, than one to the right, than one across. Than the 2 on the end and the one across. Don't know if that's correct or not so check with someone who knows.
I'm not going to explain the whole process of mounting the motor but I do have a few tips on how I did it. An H-motor on a Straight bar frame is a very tight fit. I was worried about the carb scraping the lower bar, but realized it offset enough not to be a problem. I also wanted to have the Chain guard fit properly, which is very difficult to do. If you look at pics of Whizzer's with a feathered chain guard like this you will almost always see a large crooked gap there! The exception to this is on pg 4 of this thread where Quenton put a pic of his Hornet. Notice the perfect placement of the chain guard? Great job Quenton! Some people may be thinking,(what the hell is he talking about?) others know exactly what I'm talking about. When your spending 1000's of dollars on a bike like that, details matter!
At one point I thought I had it perfect only to find out after I tightened everything down, that I was off a little. This bothers me, but for now it will have to do. I will try to re-address this later.
First thing I did was to remove the carb. This is just 1 more thing to cause scratches. 2 I wrapped the frame with rubber inner tube and masking tape to protect it. And 3 i coated the rubber sleeves for the clamps with Dawn dish soap to make them very easy to slide and adjust. Anyone who has every mounted one of these motors knows what a pain in the rear they are. And with the clamps in place with the slightest pressure are virtually impossible to move!
Dawn dish soap? Yes, it will allow you to easily slide those sleeve exactly to wear you want them as they will surely move on you when tightening. The soap is super slippery and will dry in a short period of time. It will also not harm your paint. You could use something else I suppose, but grease wouldn't dry and WD-40 will dry but who knows what it could do to paint?
Dish soap is a old printers trick. They would coat there hand with it and let it dry. When you wash your hands the ink comes off better. I think some mechanics use it too. It's also useful when applying decals. A few drops in the water you soak your decals in will allow you to be able to slide a decal around easier without tearing it. More latter