Saturday, September 12, 2015

1947 Knuckle Intake Leak Nightime Road Repair


It was a great night for a ride last night...I'm tooling along a dark country road on my White 47 Knuckle when outta nowhere it starts running shitty. I hear this weird popping like when it pops through the Carb BUT it's coming from the left side of the motor and I can feel the hot air hitting my leg???? I think Fuck maybe a head gasket...I put my hand down there and realize it's coming from where the Intake Nipple Rivet should be in the front head...I pull into a dimly lit closed old motel parking lot for further inspection... look's like they have a bulb out...creepy...OK back to the story.

Back in 1983 or so the intake nipples on this motor had been installed using Allen set screws. I never paid it any mind and they worked...above is what it should look like (rear head)...

Here is what I found...Fucked...the set screw had backed out and went Bye Bye...So I'm thinking, Can I plug that up with something? I couldn't get a real feel for the size but hell, where there are threads, something threaded can go...I have no tools except my Leatherman and no spare parts. 

Hhhmmm maybe a primary cover screw will work...I unscrew it and stick in the hole...Nope too small...Now let's see what else can I remove with my Leatherman that might fit...

I walk around the bike a few times searching for a threaded part to cannibalize...Hey, I can try the 1/4 screw from my floor board extension...Nope still too small...so my trial and error tells me I need a 5/16x24 thread...I know my shifter rod end pivot bolt is that thread. Let me give that a try...

With my trusty Leatherman I remove the 7752 nut from the shifter rod end to see if my deduction on thread size was correct...

The fucker threaded right in...Nice! It worked like it was made for it! The shoulder stopped it from going in too far and provided a nice seal around the hole...But now what? I searched through my pockets and guess what I always have hanging on my key ring???

A spare master link of course! Worked like a fuckin' charm (shifting was a little sloppy) but I was back on the road and finished out the night! I might just replace the shifter bolt on the linkage and say fuck it...

1 comment:

  1. You never fail to amaze me, always prepared and such ingenuity!


    Now, can I have $10?

    ReplyDelete