There was a major setback in my Indian Scout renovation project. It’s almost all sorted now, but this was a big issue to handle.
When we reinstalled the engine on the frame, put the forks and tires on the bike and admired the bike, we were at first just contempt with the work! It was glorious to finally see it like this. It’s really felt like it was coming back to life. The day I was going to ride it felt so much closer and anticipation was growing.
But then, something felt weird. The front wheel wasn’t straight and no matter how I was moving the handle bar, it looked weird and it seems there was something wrong.
The wheel wasn’t centered in the middle of the fork and decisively wanted to turn left, even with the handle bar wanting to go straight! As you can see above!
At first, we fiddled with the wheel axle. We reinstalled the roller bearings. We pushed and pushed on the fork shackles, looking for ways to make the damn thing come straight.
Nothing worked.
I went back to the thousand of pictures I took of the bike, and on a few of them, the wheel seemed to be showing the same problem. However, on most pictures, the wheel looked straight and well positioned. It was puzzling and I was refusing to accept the obvious: the fork was bended. Not badly bended, but enough to create a major problem.
We removed the wheel for further tests, put a long metal rod in place of the wheel axle and put it on the floor. It was becoming clear that the ends of the fork were not aligned. But how could this be? And how did we not notice before?
Well in fact, I had noticed the fork wasn’t lying flat when I painted it. But it meant nothing to me, at the time. How could I have considered it to be a problem when I rod the bike a few months before without any issues?
But there we were. We had to accept that the fork was bended and we had to do something about it.
What happened to it will remain a mystery though! It wasn’t bended like this during the renovation process. I seriously doubt it was bended before my dad purchased the bike in 1954. The only valid explanation is that my dad had an accident with it, when he was young. Now, conveniently, he doesn’t remember!!
But my dad doesn’t know that one of his friend spilled the beans about the numerous times he did crazy things with the bike. I told you before how they use to be 5 of them on it! But his friend also told me how my drunk dad ended up in a ditch, while trying to get home from a party!
It could be the ditch incident that resulted in such a situation. But it could also be just any other drunk driving incident! 😉 It was the 50’s, so the laws about drinking and driving were probably very different then today.
In any case, here we were, with no clue how it truly happened, a bended fork and now finally the acceptation that we had to do something about it.
Straightening the fork: the first try & complete failure
We had to try ourselves to straighten the fork first. And so we did.
With the fork on the bike, which didn’t work. Even when holding it as firmly as possible, the whole bike was moving.
With the fork tighten to a vise, which didn’t work. The fork was stupidly hanging and there was no position that we could find that could possibly make a difference.
With the fork on the floor with me holding it with my legs while pulling on the rod inserted in place of the axle… which obviously didn’t work either!
Etc, etc…
We gave up as it was clear that we weren’t equipped to handle the job.
Straightening the fork: the second try & the impressive one!
So we went back to the garage of the professional mechanic who had worked on the engine.
There, he secured the fork on a special table and use a super long rod to flex the fork. It was mind blowing! The fork was bending like gum and looked like it was made of rubber, not steel.
Slowly but surely it came back to its original position and I was so happy!
It was so impressive to see it that 1- I regret not filming the process and 2- I realized we would have never bended it enough at home, to get the result. It was quite frankly a little scary to see the fork twisting like this.
Next time, yes, I know I’ll be able to do it. This time, I’m really glad someone else did it!!
Axles and bushing replacement
So we took this opportunity to replace the fork axles and bushings as it appeared that some were pretty worn out. This isn’t something I had noticed. I had not even realized that there were bushings hiding in those places!
But it had to be done.
Removing the old bushings
Goodness what a tedious job it is to remove old bushings! We had done so previously, on smaller ones, when we worked on the carburetor but the ones on the fork weren’t as easy to remove.
I used my trusted Dremel, equipped with little milling cutter to cut them in one area. Then I detached the top part of the bushings from the fork with a small screwdriver. when a significant part of the bushing was detached, I used one of the old axles to push it in and most of the times, the whole bushing came out.
This was pretty much the method that had been recommended to me. I was specifically told not to bore the bushings, as the risk of damaging the fork holes was too great.
What do you thing my father did? He decided to bore the bushings. I was very worried inside, but he fairly easily remove one, after having bored it slightly, so I thought it might work.
But…things got ugly….
My dad inserted a metal rod which was supposed to be the same diameter than the holes in the fork and pushed it in, to remove the second bushing.
I stupidly agreed to let him continue… and the rod got badly stuck inside the fork. He inserted a second rod, on the opposite side, to remove the first one and it got stuck as well.
So there we were, with a bushing somewhere in the middle stuck between 2 metal rods which had no intention to come out.
By that time, I was fuming. I left and I let him deal with his mess. It took him 5 hours to remove the rods. I am not kidding here!
Unsurprisingly, the next day, he was ready to do it all over again!
I yelled at him & I’m not proud.
I tried to stay calm but this was too much for me. Again I’m not proud of it. In fact, I felt like sh*t for doing so.
I recompose myself after a while and I asked him to replace the clutch disk (updated link with picture) while I was dealing with the last bushings. This was to divide and conquer! And that worked swell!
The last bushings were removed and the clutch disks were replaced in no time.
Installing the new bushings
With the right tools, that was super easy. We did so at the garage with a press and the bushing just slided right in. I did, before, bored the side of the holes on the fork and the other parts, just a little tiny bit, to make sure they would go straight in.
Boring the bushings
Once the 8 bushings were installed, the new axles couldn’t be inserted which is completely normal. So all the bushings were meticulously bored to fit each axle like a glove.
It was time consuming and painful for our mechanic who had an injured elbow, but the work was done to perfection!
And that’s that!
Testing the fork and wheel alignment
We came back home and the next morning, reassembled the fork to the bike and reinstalled the wheel.
We did have to bore the shackles a bit as the new axles weren’t fitting properly but other than that, it all went well.
It was so pleasing (again!) to see the bike back on its 2 wheels, even if temporary!
I was being cautiously optimistic this time and looking at it from every possible angles to check the alignment and how straight the front wheel was. And finally I relaxed… it was pretty straight!! 99.99% straight! 😉
At the moment it isn’t perfectly aligned with the frame and I’m enquiring if it needs to be the case. The Indian manuel insist on the alignment of the 2 wheels (obviously) but doesn’t say a word of the position of the wheels to the frame.
We had checked the position of the wheel rim to its hub as described in the manual and that was fine but we still might need to play with the lacing. Will see.
First we have to take it back apart so I can repaint the fork! (update: it’s done!)
Personal thoughts!
It was hard to admit that the fork might be bended and harder to admit that despite having noticed ‘something’ while painting it, I had not realized what it meant.
It was also hard to realize that I had not noticed how worn out the fork axles were (technical word is shackle bolt). I know I started this project with 0 of the required knowledge but by now, I thought I had gain a bit more expertise. I have, surely I have, but not enough apparently.
This issue with the fork which now seems to me, like an old tale, has been really hard for me because of the above and most importantly because of the gap it created between my dad and I.
Winter has been hard for him. Like every winters but this one seems to feel to him like the last one. He seems to think that he has one foot in the grave, despite being in an enviable shape!
His spirit isn’t as high as it used to be, his enthusiasm for life and for the renovation is fading, his mood is darken.
I’ve come to realize that my new “bossy attitude” isn’t helping the slightest bit. Quite the opposite. I can’t help myself. I can’t let him mess up things, and the difference now is that I tend to know, when he does, or is about to & won’t let him.
But by doing so, I’m forgetting the goal of the renovation wasn’t primarily about the bike. It was about him, about making things that make him happy, about sharing precious moments with him.
Now I see the bike and the possibilities and I want this bike, that is already mine anyway. I want it to be in the best possible shape. It’s a real conundrum for me.
I thing I adopted the right strategy by distracting him with the clutch, while I was handling the bushings. That was positive, he was happy. Will I always find something like this in the future? I hope so!
Another thing I came to realize is that we all have things to prove, no matter how old we are.
My dad rebuilt the Indian all by himself 20 years ago or so. Without the manuel, without any help. I didn’t think he had anything else to prove on the subject! I was wrong. (I know, I know, I repeat myself a lot!)
Everything I say is by default wrong, until he tries his way, and realizes that I was possibly right. He still tries several times, just in case.
I wrote before how annoying this was. How belittled I felt, considering especially all the time I spent studying.
Now I’ve come to wonder if his attitude isn’t about proving himself to me. Proving he still knows best, proving he can still do better.
I’m not sure I’m yet at a stage where I can express this well, but I think I have my finger on the tip of the iceberg here.
Not sure what to do with such iceberg!
*****
OK, let’s go and repaint this fork! And next I have to clean (again!) the carburetor (I will not bore you with a carburetor part 4!) and most importantly handle the newest identified issue with the kick!
PIN this for later!
