My Indian is 600km away from where I live. It happens to reside with my dad which is usually great, except in times of global lockdown. It is still in pieces, which is not that great either.
But progress were made! Maybe it will be ready for my Birthday? What a gift it would be!
Lockdown!
After 3 weeks of quarantine, I was considering going to see my dad. Every 3 weeks is my usual frequency to go see him. It’s not just about the Indian renovation (obviously, but I’m saying it just in case it still isn’t clear!), it’s about cleaning the house, checking prescriptions, laundry, paperwork etc. and being with him, making sure he is alright, making sure he doesn’t despair. I go see him to cheer him up, to tell him about my latest misadventure or mischief, which I happen to have a lot of…
After 3 weeks, I started wondering when I might be able to go. I thought I would wait one more week and go. And then I checked the evolution of the virus spread and thought I should wait a bit longer. It went on like this for almost 2 months.
Travel restrictions were still in place, but after 2 months, I decided to be brave and hit the road, not knowing if I would ever reach my destination.
Before you get all upset with me, like if I was an infamous UK politician, do bear in mind that I had filled up all the appropriate paper work too. The French lockdown rules were pretty strict but included the possibility to travel under certain conditions, including to take care of a person in need. If my 85 years old father, who lives alone, is not considered as a person in need, I’m not quire sure to whom it applies. Of course, you can find people who are even more in need, but I seriously felt that I couldn’t leave him alone any longer. And I was right actually, and thankfully we spent 5 days together, at a respectable distance and had a great & safe time!
Silly renovation issues
There are big things to handle in a renovation project like this one and then there are a myriad of small things to handle. Small and sometimes tricky & difficult, sometimes simple but time consuming. And sometimes you think it’s going to be a small, simple & quick fix and it turns out to be a nightmare!
One of the very annoying thing lately has been finding the required bits and bobs. I mean, there are less and less pieces that are not on the bike and yet, it feels like it’s getting harder and harder to find them!
If I had dedicated a timer to record the time spent looking for bolts and nuts, I think the result would make me cry my heart out! And this is despite being very organized.
The Indian may have been in 1000 pieces but everything bolt, nuts & washer were packed and labeled by group. Before we start reassembling something, I get everything needed out. Clean what may have not been cleaned (enough 😉 ), test the fitting, as paint sometimes went in areas where it was not required, etc. etc.
Despite all these precautions, it seems that we have a little mouse living in the garage, who has decided to reorganize all the bolts, screws, nuts and washers! Silly little mouse!! It probably just want to help but isn’t really good at mechanic. No, no, I do not see any other logical explanation!!
Small renovation progress
Despite the little mouse, we did make some progress. On little things and on bigger things…
Carburetor
I’m sparing you a carburetor part 4! I already did a carburetor fix part 1, a part 2 and a part 3! I really love my carburetor! 😂
Instead I’ll just tell you about the little further improvements done:
The choke shaft stop of my linkers carburetor was a little worn out and the ball had disappeared. I got a new ball from my mechanic but forgot I had bought a new shaft stop. I found it when going through pieces, looking for something else and installed it right away.
Tip in case you need to do the same and have only one ball: work in a box because your ball will try to escape at all cost!
When at the workshop of my Indian pro, I realized 2 more things needed to be done on my carburetor: further cleaning of the venturi and further boring of the throttle shaft bushings, to get a super smooth mouvement.
This is now done and the carburetor is back in place!
I may still sand very lightly both of the needles’ tips!
Fork paint… again…
As mentioned previously when discussing the issue we faced with the fork being bended, I had to repaint it after it was straightened. It was quite a daunting task and my first attempt was a complete failure.
Was it because of the room temperature? Did I mess up my paint / hardener / thiner mix? Was it because of the set up I tried, with the fork hanging in the middle of a sort of double sided later, which turned out to be very impractical!? Obviously!
Maybe it was just because of my lack of talent and expertise?
Most likely it was all of the above.
Seriously, I’m still not sure what is the best process to paint parts, with such a shape. It’s a nightmare.
Anyway, I had to redo it once more! Although this time, after sanding the whole thing lightly, I did just one coat of paint and decided it will have to do, whatever the result was (or almost).
It’s not 100% perfect but it is much much better and the fork is back on the frame and hopefully we won’t have to remove it again for the next 10 years or so!! (well, I am considering getting the new shake bolts chromed because well, it would look better! Will see… not now)
And we will have to fiddle with it a bit because this time, I didn’t place the steering damper plates properly! For f$#@ck sake, I’ve done it well all the previous times and this time I f$#@cked up! Pardon my French!
No big deal, but annoying!
Generator
Mounting the generator is one of these things, I thought would be easy. It got so annoying, and the paint got damaged in the process which could have been avoided.
The generator is a surprisingly heavy piece of equipment, and that didn’t help when sliding it into the generator mount.
But really, to avoid the paint being scratched, all that was needed was a big screw driver, well positioned where the bracket stud goes, to open it a little bit more than it is. Just a little bit of extra space and the generator slides right in!
The generator drive
The generator drive was then installed and the only parts replaced were the little felt disks.
Now, I was annoyed (still am actually!) for 2 reasons. We handled this toward the end of the winter, at a time when my dad was not at his best. He kept being very negative, I mentioned this previously. He kept on saying things like “we lost this”, “this won’t fit”, “it doesn’t work, I knew it” etc. We had not lost anything, nothing was missing…
This is mostly what lead to the paint on the generator being scratched and this lead to the external tooth washer not being included, in the generator drive installation. (nb 13 on Jerry Greer’s diagram)
My dad keeps on wanting to add washers everywhere he seems fit. To align the wheel in the fork for example or to move the drive sprocket – that will be another story!
But when washers are required and part of the assembly, he isn’t all that concerned about removing them! The gearbox story and the thrust washers conundrum is the best example of this but now we also have the unresolved issue of the external tooth washer not being placed in the generator drive assemble. Well if my battery dies, or if something else goes wrong, I may know why!
To install the generator drive chain, my dad was absolutely convinced that we had to remove the inner primary cover. Indeed, it would have probably been easier to install the chain before the cover. I give you that.
But I did not want to redo that part if not absolutely necessary as I did not have anymore spare gaskets. And as he was so negative about everything, I knew he was finding problems where there was none.
And indeed, he found a way after I told him “I know you can because you’ve done it before”! I wasn’t 100% sure though!! 😉
But he did find a way! After removing the spark plugs, we put the bike in 1st gear and I turned the back wheel while he was inserting the chain in the space between the clutch covers toward the motor sprocket. The chain catched the teeth of the sprocket and came back out in perfect position! Won!! pffff!
Clutch
As mentioned in the fork story, I distracted my dad from the bushing massacre in progress, by asking him to replace the clutch disks.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to replace them, at first. Part of me wanted to drive the Indian with the old clutch disks, to see how it was. But after being told several times, that new disks would make the driving easier and the changing of gear far more comfortable (and reliable), I gave up and bought some new disks.
These are now installed and ready to go on new adventures!
Well, this wasn’t the end of the story at the time, of course!!
The back footboard shaft we have is a little bended and it makes it tricky to install. It’s really not a big deal if placed correctly while inserting the clutch cover. But things do not go well if the clutch cover is installed and the shaft isn’t properly in place.
You are guessing well if you think we had closed everything up and then realized we had to take the clutch cover apart AGAIN, just to put the shaft in its proper position!
And once more, I got very annoyed in the process! (you may start to think I have a very bad temper! I don’t, really!!) You see my dad didn’t think we needed to take the cover apart, just move it slightly… and he did while I wasn’t looking… but, dad, the gasket! we can just ignore it!… Ah ok, we’ll take it apart then! Yes we will.
So we did and…. I forgot to insert the spacer that goes on the shaft, between the engine mounts. Aaaaaahhhh! I tell you the week-end we did the generator and this, was not a great week end!
Well, I’m relaxed about it now because, we’ll probably have to remove some of the clutch springs anyway. I was told not to use the 12 I got, to make the clutch smoother. My dad wasn’t ready for that so we installed the 12 springs. We’ll have to try it like this and remove some later if necessary. And therefore remove the clutch cover… again!!
However I did manage to replace the chain link which the new one I bought! Houray! You should have seen the one my dad had installed to fully understand this little victory!
Ignition coil
The ignition coil is back in place. That should have been 100% easy. It wasn’t hard per say, but indeed finding the right screw took a bit of time… because of the mouse again!
I’m not quite sure how & where the ignition coil is normally mounted. In most case it seems to be attached to the rear mudguard. In our case, there is clearly a little bit of a home made addition, but I do like it so we redid the same.
As a matter of fact, there was a little piece of metal that my brother had sanded which looked like it didn’t belong to the bike. I thought he had made a mistake and never painted it.
When I tried to find all the pieces to install the ignition coil, the coin dropped and I realized that this piece of metal was the missing link! Painted it quickly and the next day we were ready to install!
We did find the missing screw! Oh well, that will just be funny to me!
Handle bar
There isn’t much to say here apart from admiring how shiny and chrome it is!
OK that’s not what I wanted to point out. Somehow I partially missed the installation of the handlebar control and later had the opportunity to see what goes on inside.
Seriously the mechanism is simple & genius at the same time!
Other things still in progress
There are a lot more things to be done, obviously! Including some issues to be sorted. We’ve started to work on those but for some, the solutions are still elusive.
kick starter
The kick starter was chromed and now the chromed is ruined! Oh well…
This is something I had mentioned early on, the exhaust was damaged by the kicking action and I had no idea how to solve this issue.
I ordered a new exhaust pipe and with it, the situation got even worst!
It isn’t the same shape, the muffler part is much bigger and it would get ruined by the kick in no time. This took a turn for the worst when my brother came and a heated discussion followed. His proposed solutions were ridiculous and I reverted back to my Indian pro for advise because, seriously… argh… I can’t even tell you.
Small progress were made by moving the kick starter crank stud slightly. Further progress were made later on but what remains of the issue will take bigger actions and I’m afraid and not ready to take the risk.
I might have to live with a scratched exhaust pipe. It is an option I am seriously considering at this point… Will see.
This kick starter / exhaust pipe story is to be continued…
Broken primary cover!
It took me ages to realize the primary cover is broken!
There is a little part sticking out of the generator chain cover but I didn’t really paid attention. I thought it might just be to be inserted somehow, somewhere!
When we installed the generator chain cover, I looked underneath to see where this bit was going and was like what???
It isn’t supposed to be opened like this? it makes no sense!?! Oh ok, it’s broken and has been ‘repaired’… poorly!
Darn!
Well, the generator chain is not bathing in oil apparently, just oil vapors so this hole isn’t going to be creating an oil bath wherever I go. Thankfully. Yet, we’ll have to do better than what has been done! At one point or another, like next winter maybe.
Paint work still in progress
There are way too many pieces on a bike! Seriously, parts needing to be painted kept appearing and I’ve been at it for so long.
The good news is that I’m almost there now. For real, this time. I will do a specific piece on the paint work. But for now I just want to mention what is left to do! It’s just a self-congratulatory list if you wish! A pep-talk to myself!
Tanks
This was the scariest part to paint and spoiler alert, every time I’m scared, I mess up!The tanks are the most important parts of the bike. The ones everyone looks at. The nose in the middle of the face.
So I kept delaying, I’ll admit. But I want to finish the renovation, so I had no choice but to start. Yet I wasn’t ready to remove the Indian heads so I started by cleaning and painting the inside as a training job!
Not much pressure here as no one but my dad and I will ever see the inside of the tanks, so it went well!
Oh, but the outside…. there is pressure there!!
It actually went fairly well! It’s not perfect but I’ve come to accept that there are expectations and then there is reality.
Again, I’ll show you more in a different article because this one is becoming way too long. I know, sorry.
I’m currently training at painting the Indian heads and there are still improvements to made on that front. Fingers crossed
Saddle
The very last piece I still have to pain is the saddle! I completely forgot about it, until recently. It’s not a piece of cake to clean actually and it’s big! (it is not an original Indian Scout 741 saddle)
It still feels really good that it is the last part.
Conclusion
It does feel that we are getting closer to almost finishing this renovation project. There have been a lot of backward steps, too many to my liking, but I do now cross my fingers that we’ll get there…
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