The Jatalian

[pietenpol2002]

C'mon Cheesy, you can do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuYj8pK ... JukinMedia

[cheesy]

Ha. What a way to ditch the cops.
I’m not sure the Jatalian will even get up the hill by my house yet.

[cheesy]

Since my last post, I managed to get the engine down from the bench to the floor, next to the frame. That's it. On the other hand, I've done 15 airplane rides for work, told my boss he could fire me if he didn't like my attitude, spent some time in Puerto Rico with a good customer, and dug out our pop up camper for the first time since June of 2017. The camper will need less work than I thought it would.

[cheesy]

So, it's been two months since my last post. Not a thing has happened with the Jatalian since then, either. I'm still being run hard and put away wet by my employer but there are only 79 days left until retirement. I had planned on working on the bike last week while on vacation but my Wrangler felt jealous and demanded garage time. And it's been too bloody hot to be in the garage.

But, last Tuesday, this fell into my lap.



It's a 1976 Honda CB750F powered by an 18hp Briggs & Stratton Twin II boxer. Shades of Solex, it's friction drive. It uses a Tower Lawnmower 5 speed transmission. Most of this thing will be easy to suss out but it has been sitting since '03 with fuel in the tank. I'm not sure it will even burn and the inside of the tank is pretty icky.

One major change that will be made is to change the 'clutch' from cable to hydraulic. The clutch cable moves the transmission away from the engine to shift gears. There are at least three heavy springs to pull against and no bushings at the pivots. Five times pulling that lever and my hand was dead.

[pietenpol2002]

Very cool! And kind of a Fred Flintstone BMW boxer?

[cheesy]

Very cool! And kind of a Fred Flintstone BMW boxer?

I thought so. Someone posted an ebay link on the VJMC FB page and I clicked. Opening bid was fifty bucks and it was located about 90 minutes away in Hebron, IN. I bid and I won.

Not the most common of Briggs engines. It looks kind of like a squished Onan and I'm wondering if my fabrication skills can adapt a second carb to it.

[cheesy]

Things are kind of on hold now until the end of June 2022. I was planning on retiring on Halloween but was offered a package from work with very stupid money. I mean a lot of money, if I stay to 30 June. As I've been working since 1971, I think can do this standing on my head.

[cheesy]

I did work on the Jatalian today. Trying to fit the engine in frame. Not as fun as it sounds.

Original plan was to fit the engine using 1" square tube. No go. Engine sits too high in the frame.


Using 1/8" plate was better but still no love. Fuel tank just touches the rocker cover.


Those are minor problems compared to this. Need to get the driven pulley on the other side of that frame tube.


Options for above are bin the backing plate and mount the driven pulley and shaft in pillow blocks. Take the CVT off, put the engine loosely in place and try to put the CVT back on in hopes of clearing the tube. Dimpling the down tubes to clear the starter will get me some room forward. Underslinging the engine will gain me almost an inch forward and lower the engine almost as much. Punt and go back to the drawing board.

[pietenpol2002]

Nothing that can't be remedied with judicious use of the blue-tipped chisel (isn't that the Brit's term for a cutting torch? Here in the colonies I believe we call it the fire ax). Keep us posted.

[cheesy]

True, though I've not heard it called by either of those names. Myself, I call it the blue hacksaw or liquid wrench. I need to do a Farm and Fleet run for some more gas for the torches but I do have a small plasma cutter.

It was nice to get back on this. I'd been so damn busy the past year with work. A total of 84 airplane rides and almost 200 nights away from home. Home projects got backed up and those took preference over the bike.

Let's see, new attic fan on the house, found out how steep my roof is on that job. My 16 year old Jeep needed a new oil pan, catalytic converters, rear main seals, front hubs, and front axle u-joints. Still could use a new timing chain and front pumpkin bearings. Apple trees went nuts this past year. Two of my six trees produced over 10 bushels. Rebuilt the heating system in the barn. Mowing an acre every Saturday. My other half said she'd mow once in awhile if I got a zero turn mower. Going on three years, still waiting for that to happen. Tires and exhaust on the Russian mini tractor. And She Who Must Be Obeyed always had something that 'needed' doing.

I got more rest at work.

[cheesy]

Nuts. Looks like I will be cutting out the tubes and trying to figure out a way to move them forward. Glad they are only tacked in place.

[cheesy]

New tubes bought and marked for cutting. I also bought a tube notcher for fitting the new tubes. That big Bosch starter fouled up a lot of plans. I managed to get the engine where it needs to be by drilling four new holes in the CVT backing plate to raise the back end of the plate up. Doing that also helped with the chain line.


I hacked a bit off the back of the plate to try and make things fit but that didn't help. Good thing I have a TIG welder. The notcher won't be here until Tuesday and I'm back on the road for two weeks starting on Monday. As I now know where the lump is going to live, I can knock out the main wiring harness this weekend.

[the grinch]

Thats it get the grinder out just keep going until you have it done.
Remember a little progress is better than no progress get this bit done and i think that will be the hardest part done.

Alex

[cheesy]

Both harnesses are complete. One's a two wire and the other is a six wire.

Yesterday I did the two wire using Weatherpak plugs, so that's a total of 8 crimped and soldered connections. At about connection #5, my Wen solder gun quit, the tip being split. I kind of did an "Aw, Crap. Now what?" I was more than a bit miffed because I don't think there were two hours on that gun. So, I ordered a couple replacement tips and resigned myself to not fully finishing the harnesses this weekend...until I looked up on a shelf over my workbench.

Last summer, I bought a complete, in the box, Weller 8100 Soldering Kit at an antique store for around $12. I had no idea if it worked and just bought it to display in my garage with my other old crap. I took it down and plugged it in. Damned if it didn't heat up right away. And it's a soldering SOB. Finished up the three final connections yesterday afternoon and knocked out the six wire harness and two plugs this morning.

As I'm putting the Weller away, I noticed a small piece of paper sticking out from under a cardboard flap. I pulled it out and it's a hand written receipt for the kit, dated September 9, 1956. The price of the kit was $7.95 and the extra tip, still in it's package, was $0.75. I think I paid $25 for the POS Wen. So it's as old as I am and probably more valuable.

[cheesy]

I gave up on using bent tubes. No way to get the engine far enough forward for proper rear pulley clearance. So I opted for angle cut and welded tubes without a bend radius. Big difference.
I bought a Vevor tube notcher from Amazon. I'll tell you right now, don't waste your money. It's a POS and I let Amazon know it. However, instead of returning it, I made it into something that was as advertised.

Arbor threading on the shaft was M12x1.5. Threading in hole-saws under 32mm is 1/2"-20tpi. There is not an adapter included for smaller hole-saws. The internal threads in the adapter for the larger hole-saws were so damaged to render it unusable. I took the shaft to my buddies' machine shop. Faced off the metric thread, then bored and tapped for 1/2"-20 and used a hardened set screw as an arbor. The bore in the block the arbor shaft runs through is advertised as having a bronze bushing. Bull. A plain steel bore that measured 19.3mm while the shaft measured 18.75mm. A bit sloppy. I bored the block for an oil lite bushing on each end and reamed those until the shaft slid through and rotated freely.

Put it all back together last night and tried a 5 degree cut on a frame tube, using my 36v Bosch 1/2" wrist breaker to spin it. Tube fits perfect. Wrapped up about six last night. I planned to go back out to the garage this morning to do some more cutting and welding but it's -20F outside. That's a nope.

[cheesy]

Making some headway with the new tube notcher.


One more square tube to notch then tack weld everything together to see where I screwed up this time.

[cheesy]

More progress. Engine is now where it will live. I might add two more cross members.


I will need to reposition the tank as it is now sitting on the engine rocker cover. After 6 weeks of minimal travel for work, SHTF tomorrow and it's back to multiple flights per week, so I'll only have weekends for the foreseeable future. Next weekend, hopefully, I will be pulling the engine, wheels, triple tree and taking the frame outside of the garage to finish the welding.

[cheesy]

Wow, almost two months since I posted anything. It's also been two months since I touched the Jatalian. The plan was to take everything off the frame and haul it outside to weld everything up on a weekend if the weather was nice. Hah! First off the weather was very Great Lakes winter, meaning that the weekend weather sucked. If there wasn't blowing snow, it was below zero Fahrenheit. If it wasn't either of those, it was sideways rain.

So, in the meantime, I rebuilt what I call 'The Fifty Cent Raleigh' that my oldest found at a thrift store in Maine for a half dollar. It's a 1970 Raleigh Super Course women's bicycle. Not a bad little bike for what it is. This would have been a mid range bike in it's day.


I want a nice day to wrap this one up too. It's a 1970/72 Gitane Mexico track bike. Just need to do the handle bars and I prefer to wrap those outside on a warm and sunny day.

I have a soft spot for fixed gear bikes. You end up 'one with the bike'. I enjoyed racing on the velodrome when I was in my early fifties. I got my ass handed to me every time by kids half my age but I had a blast doing it. Until I got hit by a car. That put an end to it.

[cheesy]

Well, hell. I finally got a good weekend to take the frame outside and melt some metal. I'm using a little Lincoln 100 MIG/Flux Core wire welder I got from my sister via our Dad. The first five beads I laid down looked like I knew what I was doing. It went downhill from there. The welds were inconsistent, I got hanging grapes, poked holes. I didn't change anything I was doing, nor change any settings on the welder.

I found some issues with the welder. Nothing serious, just a lack of maintenance and set up on my Dads' part. Worn out contact tip, bad wire routing, wrong wire size and cheap to boot, too. I could correct everything but the tip, I had to order those. I have a second wire welder, but I can't dial that one down low enough for thin wall tube.

I'd rather be TIG welding but I'm just about out of argon. It's a 1.5 hr ride each way for me to get some and the guys aren't open on Sunday. Looks like I won't get any argon until I go on vacation at the end of May. After I retire, I'm going to get the MIG kit for the Lincoln.

[the grinch]

Hi,

Cant you get a mig with gas? i have a small Cebora 130A (it was the same as snapon when i bought it)i have had it for over 20 years i use it for most jobs on the small bikes i run it with a beer gas regulator and straight CO2. I find gasless is ok for some things but i find it better to use a MIG with Gas Co2 or Argon/Co2 Mix. Sometimes the conection on the earth clamp corodes and that will make a real difference to the finished results.

Just keep plodding on you will get there in the end.

Alex

[cheesy]

The Lincoln can be converted to MIG, which will happen in the future. I do most of my welding outdoors where the shielding gas for MIG and TIG would be blown away, hence the flux core.

The consumables kit showed up yesterday. I’m in the middle of the country until Thursday night. I’ll do all the maintenance needed on the welder Friday and try again.

[cheesy]

So got everything fixed on the welder. Or so I thought. I was having one of the same problems I was having before, intermittent wire feed. I found a teeny tiny flat spot on the drive roller. I have another roller coming next week.

the grinch-I looked into the Lincoln MIG conversion and the cheap conversion. Lincoln-$380US. Cheap-under $100US. Though neither includes the initial $259 for the 80CF bottle of argon, I'm going cheap.

[cheesy]

The MIG conversion on the welder is complete. Not counting the gas and bottle, out of pocket was $15US for three brass fittings because I needed to see how things were going to fit before I bought the fittings.

I am a business road warrior. I travel for work. A lot. I'm top tier with IHG, Hilton, and American Airlines. That means I have a whack of hotel points and frequent flier miles. I recently learned that I could pair one, or both, of the hotel accounts to my Amazon account and use points for purchases. So, I got the gas regulator and solenoid for zero dollars.

I plan on picking up the bottle on Tuesday. Mrs. Cheesy was a bit put off about the cost of the bottle but I told her that I'd now be able to do the artsy fartsy projects for her that she goes on about. I have no intention of doing any artsy fartsy projects, but that's how I sold it.

[cheesy]

Wow, six months since I posted anything and still where I was at on the Jatalian when I did that.
In that time, though, I retired. For a couple of months, anyway. I was begged to come back as a part time 'Advisor', as needed. Just got from my fourth trip to southern Mexico, since April, last Saturday. Because I'm part time now, I'm hourly instead of salary. 68 hours last week, which includes travel time. It was a lucrative week. Previous week, I made beer and bowling money. it works out.

Some of the stuff that did get done was radiator, water pump, timing set, brakes, and sway bar links on the Jeep. My oldest grandson outgrew his E-ATV, so I fixed up a used 110cc gas job for him. Good running little turd.


Did a week long solo camping trip on the Ural.


Adopted Buster dog.


This project fell into my lap. A DeSoto tricycle. It's been more of a PITA than the Jatalian. It's almost wrapped up.

Shown with the original 20" wheels. It now has 26" wheels, fixed gear rear axle with a center drum brake, and a triple crank up front. Still working out the shifting on that. It didn't come with a rear basket, so I'm considering making it a recumbent trike and mounting a seat where the basket would have been.