59XLH Part XIII, Put A Fork In It Nbr 228

If you are only going to watch one video out of this playlist , this should be the one. It all comes together in the end. The hundreds of small details that make up an engine rebuild finally bake, a flurry of last minute difficulties are overcome and the 1959 XLH engine with all of its brass high lights is ready to be packed in its crate and shipped back to France. See some trick lathe work on pushrod tube spring cups, pushrod corks trimmed to size the easy way and a hand made brass timing plug fabricated. I’m sad to see it go. This was a fun project. On a video technical note, I’ve found a better way to process the audio and the sound should be more even and clear throughout the whole video. This project and the videos took a lot longer than I thought they would and I poured a lot of work into the engine and the video. I hope y’all enjoyed. Stay tuned in to the very end, a bonus slide show runs after credits…Thanks for watching.

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Men and I use the term loosely hey welcome back to the 59 xlh project uh got a little snafu going on uh yesterday uh I kind of test fit The Rocker boxes they’re sitting on the engine with just a couple of screws holding them on uh because I’m missing some material

I need to make the studs to accommodate the brass nuts that I plan on using uh anyway the parts I need to finish that of the uh that part of the rebuild should be here today uh these are of course the push rod tubes this is

A stock Spring Cup and this is an aftermarket one I bought from v twin and of course the clips if they’ll stay put go in up here to hold the inner tube extended and it might not be obvious in the video but this is obviously beefier than this the stock

One and on some engines I’ve even noticed uh when I’m putting the stock ones together and I compress the spring and push this down that the back of the stock Spring Cup hits the fins and you kind of got to Jimmy it around to get it

To work so I regard that as perfectly normal for the system however there there’s no way that this rather beefier uh Spring Cup is going to work and I know this because I’ve test fit a couple and I can’t get the bottom of the push

Rod tube cover and the top to line up with the tapa block and the counter Bo and The Rocker Box uh so there’s a problem so I’m going to need to do at Le least one or two things probably both is I’m going to turn these down to make these more similar to

This and this is going to be kind of a tricky operation because uh you can’t grab onto it I mean I could grab onto this end and turn down this side then turn it around grab this side and turn down the other side but unless I zero them out perfectly on the

Lathe the the you know they won’t line up the the lathe runs a little off center and it’ll be off center by probably 3,000 of an inch and of course I want it to be perfectly smooth but I have an idea for how to make an arbor to

Hold on to this thing so I could turn it all in one operation problem number one uh problem number two uh you know and I could Gaff off this whole thing as you know crappy v twin uh but I think I’m going to Gaff it off on vwin and

Made in India cylinders this fin right here in particular wants to hit the push rod tube cover uh even without the Spring Cup on it so I’m going to need to get in there I think and grind some of this fin off well of course it’s all

Installed it’s all painted it looks nice so I’m going to have to mass the hell out of this engine to keep the grit from getting in all the places it shouldn’t get into and then of course repaint it so there’s a little bit of an issue

There uh there’s a little bit of an issue here the gasket protrudes past the edge of the cylinder so I’m going to have to get in here with my uh grinder dral tool whatever I end up using and trim that down and I may end up grinding

A little bit in through here and as St that’s going to make a hell of a mess but uh anyway first things first uh I I think I’m going to go turn down those Spring Cups so that it’s even possible to make this work okay this is just a chunk out of my

Scrap pile and I’m going to turn the outside diameter of this down to match the inside diameter of one of the spring cups so I got about uh 40 thou well more like 50 thou to remove from uh this piece of scrap so I’m going to go ahead and do That well I’m right about there that was lucky ah perfect uh the other thing I’m going to do is I’m going to come in with The Parting tool and square this shoulder off Little bit of a bur on there let’s get rid of It perfect okay so the question is how to secure that we’re just going to bump the live Center up against it tighten the tail stock and put just a little bit of pressure on the Spring Cup and we should be good to go all right I’m going to turn the flats

Off of this and just make this piece round going to touch off on it and you saw it skip I guess I need to tighten up a little bit with the tail stock so let’s see what happens okay just barely touched it I’m going to remove uh 20 thou another 205 another 20

And another 20 I still got quite a bit to take off but it’s looking good yeah that’s good to go I got to break the corners okay one of the four uh push rods fits without further modification the other three are going to take some

Grinding uh I’m going to set them all in there one more time figure out where I got to grind and then start blocking things off so I don’t get grinding dust and everything you know and I want to add one more comment well I’m probably going to add several more comments but you

Know if you were building an engine and you wanted that specific look with the hex sided you know spring cups and you thought great here they are I’ll buy them out of this catalog I’ll take them get them home I’ll bolt them on everything be great think how pissed off

And disappointed you would be when you found out the didn’t fit and that without laay the mill and you know all kinds of other operations you wouldn’t be able to make them work Furious I would be I’m kind of furious right now but I mean I’ve got the tools

And equipment to overcome the obstacles you know for the average guy you buy this thing for your bike you want to bolt it on you think it’s going to look cool you get get a home and find out it’s all up yeah sure v twin will

Give you the money back but you know what kind of aggravation do you have to go through uh to deal with it you know it’s anyway I’m got to put the other tubes in here figure out what exactly I got to grind figure out so many a mark amount of black paint and

You know get everything masked off sealed up and that way I could grind what I got to grind and hopefully sprit some paint in there and make it all good again see you later all right for the uh front exhaust the area I got to grind is in

Through here so uh I got me got me a ball Stone and I think that’ll get in there every hole on the motor has got a plug in it a plastic cap plug got everything covered with bags hopefully uh you know there won’t be a lot of grinding residue and I could

Prevent it from hurting anything Going in I don’t like the cyclop flight wish me lock this thing unbelievable [Applause] Junk [Applause] okay here’s the grinding the rear intake uh took quite a bit front intake not so much front exhaust not so much uh whether this is all the fault of v twin and the way those bronze covers excuse me brass covers were designed uh or whether it was partially

The fault of the Indian cylinder maker and the shape of the cutouts over here I don’t know uh I do know that on stock M or some sometimes with the stock uh you know steel covers there is an issue with the cup hitting down in here okay after I turned these down uh

They’re only 15,000 of an inch thicker than this the stock one so I I really don’t think that this is the issue you would think there’s 15,000 clearing there uh but maybe not anyway uh they’re good to go test foit all the uh push rod covers and uh moving on to

The next step I got to put the rocker boxes on for Keeps okay uh this owner wanted a lot of brass so I have brass nuts for him uh minor problem with these These Are A 916 hex the hex on the bolt that was

Here was uh a half inch when you want to install one of these this is recessed just enough so you can’t get a wrench around there so I made some spacers to hold the nut up off of the surface enough to get a wrench on it

Uh Steel Rod this is a B7 grade so it’s kind of the medium medium strength uh that crap you buy at Ace is junk of the worst kind probably uh this is McMaster Car yes I know I said Loctite is bad but uh going to put a drop of Loctite I need

One of these to hold the nut to the piece of threaded rod I want it so that when you go to take this off the whole stud will come out of The Rocker Box man it was a long time time coming who yeah yeah I think that masking job should just about cover

It oh you can’t even tell all right I’m going to call that good okay want to see something else that toasts my testicles this is the uh upper push rock cover tube cork gasket it doesn’t fit inside the cup ah you could sort of make it go in

There but it really doesn’t want to go uh you know whose fault is this well these are James gaskets you know what the I’ll show you how you fix this in a minute we’ll go out to the dirty shop okay this is how I fix cork washers

That are too big uh squeeze them over an upper uh push rod cover tube just k piece of sandpaper beautiful you know and as always my why should a guy have to go through this you bought a gasket set why can’t it fit the first time don’t these people who make this

Ever measure any anything uh this project is rapidly uh drawing to a conclusion here you guys have seen me do push rods before so let’s just say the push rods got installed you guys have heard me enough about uh the crappy aftermarket uh rocker box feed lines uh I’ve taken to using 1/4

In compression fittings for the uh fittings of course for the actual line I’m going to be using Automotive nickel steel brake line that’s Co proper plated I don’t think I will ever buy another set of the typical aftermarket chromed oil lines the hex on these things

Uh the wrench that fits the hex best is 11 mm and of course the advantage of these is the threads are wider so they thread into the case and The Rocker Box tighter available at your Ace your local Ace uh I don’t know these things were

Kind of expensive five six bucks a piece probably but at the end of the day uh you’re going to get a more secure less likely to leak connection for the actual line I’m using the nickel copper automotive brake lines you know interestingly enough uh when you have a fitting that

Doesn’t bottom on the hex the fitting of course sticks out farther and in that eventuality the Chrome plated Steel lines might work just fine let’s get one and see yeah here’s a steel line you know and yeah as long as the fitting sticks out of The Rocker Box and the crank case

Farther uh there’s enough fitting sticking out to capture the tube uh so these Chrome ones would work with these fittings uh put this oner wanted uh brass so he’s getting brass and Copper all right uh the mermaid card uh filled up and it cut off last time I was blabbering somewhere in there I don’t know where exactly but anyway uh rocker boox oil line uh fee tubes are in uh this is done um I got a distributor I got to put

In and uh this is it uh it’s Chrome it’s ugly uh I don’t know what I’m going to do with this I might I I don’t know I’m thinking about powder coating it black I’m thinking about uh Scotch brightening it to uh uh you know

Scuff it and turn it into kind of sa satin finish so it’ll look like stainless steel I’m kind of half and half between uh Scotch bright and uh uh wrinkle black uh I don’t know got to think about it okay uh my original intention was

Just to go scuff up the Chrome a little bit and take the Shine off of it uh as it turns out the layer of chrome was you know two molecules thick and uh uh it came right off for the most part uh so I’m going to call this antiqu it’s been

Antiqu uh most of the Chrome is gone the copper plating that was under the Chrome is mostly exposed uh for this engine I think this looks great you know and I realize that for a lot of people this engine is not your cup of tea uh you

Know some people would really hate all this brass stuff but the owner wanted as much brass as possible I couldn’t give him brass but I gave him uh copper and scuffed up Chrome for this part here uh I think for this motor it looks good this motor’s got that whole steampunk

Kind of look going for it so uh I like it nuts said the king if I had one instead of none one nice brass one instead of this steel nasty one I’d be able to finish this project off in Style ah let’s go make One For okay in order to accommodate the camera I’m actually standing on the back side of the lathe the die is just setting on the nose of my drill truck so uh I don’t have a hex die holder that size so we’ll just use the uh use an adjustable wrench let’s put a little

Oil between the nose of the Chuck and down into the area being cut feels like it’s cutting pretty well going to back the tail stock out I don’t think I need the drill chuck following it in anymore all right that should do it all right here’s

The plan Stan I got a piece of bar stock that is 1.1 160 in in diameter I want to have a 3/4 inch hex on this thing when I’m done so you take 1.16 you subtract 3/4 of an inch 750 that means I’ve got 410,000 of an inch

Of material to remove 205,000 on each side so if I put this in a collet block touch off on the top side and then come down 0.205 that’ll give me one hex and I just rotate the coll block around and it should give me uh the hex I want I

Probably am not going to be able to do 205 in one pass probably have to do 30 30 or 40 th at a time uh anyway uh that’s the plan so we’ll give it a try see how it [Applause] works now looks like it work [Applause] [Applause]

All right you got the idea I got at least a couple more dozen passes to make I’ll bring it back when I’m getting close to the end you know interestingly enough um the calculated number uh was two 204204 and right now I’m at202 so I’m

Very close I’m just going to go to 203 very close to the calculated number uh for material removal on this [Applause] thing oh and now the wrench fits nicely perfect so the next thing I got to do is uh I I left this piece a little longer than it

Needed to be I got to get it back into the lathe and shape the head all right in order to hang on to this without damaging the threads uh I ran it into the Dy uh the Dy is big enough that it seems like it’s going to hold the square

In the Chuck jaws and we’ll take off this uh waste material and should be done pretty much and now put a little chamfer on those edges oh that looks good and uh I think we’ll run it over to the deburring wheel well maybe not run I don’t do much running let me tell

You so here is the final product a brass timing hole plug uh just what that side of the motor needs uh to give it a little a little bling and a little finish off I think uh a little longer than the stock one so that it’ll catch a

Few more more threads and be a little more strip resistant that’s done we’re getting close and you know what it’s time to stick a fork in this one it’s done well will be done nice nice nice nice and now I think uh the Finishing Touch so to

Speak yeah Ah that’s nice I think uh you know there’s some guys would say uh you know this really bastardized to 59 and you know there’s some truth in that I mean this was is a pretty good set of crank cases except for that one uh area of Cracks by the generator uh

Otherwise these cases were very nearly perfect ah Jesus but you know it doesn’t get much better than this uh you know I don’t know the brass is kind of nice on there I don’t know that I would do it on my own brass rocker shaft caps push rod tubes oil lines the uh

Antique uh distributor custom brass nuts uh the brass screws uh brass acorn nuts here brass acorn nuts on The Rocker boxes uh that’s pretty spiffy uh and I hate to say it but this motor is going to France the owner lives in France but I hate sending these things back

Overseas uh you know they they’re American they kind of belong in America uh but you know the owner is uh is from France so uh I guess I got to send it back to him as much as I hate to I’ll miss this one when it’s gone I’m going

To miss that 58 now that it’s gone too but I got a 74 sitting on a four over here I’m going to work on next so uh you know one goes another one comes I guess some final thoughts are appropriate for this one here uh this

Was a lot of fun this engine uh had a few little challenges along the way nothing that was uh insurmountable uh really a pretty decent set of crank cases except for that crack that ran down through here uh but I think that’s going to be just fine uh

This should be a very good engine for this owner uh flywheels treed up real nice bearings ended up fitting real nice uh he wanted all of this brass stuff on there uh I think that all came out very nice uh all in all I’m pretty happy with

This project uh you know help me out get yourself some stickers and get yourself a coffee cup you know where to find them links down down below and uh I guess with that uh you know this is moving Off the Bench and into the

Crate uh I guess with that I am out of here hey thanks for watching but most of all Please Subscribe uh not sure what’s coming down to pipe next I got a 74 sitting over there that uh crunched some rod bearings uh I don’t know if I’m going to video

Much of that or not but anyway uh y’all take it easy see you next time [Applause] Bye [Applause] W [Applause] I