This 1940 Flathead UL motor used to belong to a good friend of ours, Robert Dail. He purchased it in 1970. We originally re-built the engine in 1971. It changed hands a few times and we were able to buy it back and are now rebuilding it again 40+ years later. Here are some photos of the finished motor and a video of the initial start-up on our run-stand.
We are continuing to work on Ron’s 1936 VLH and we now have the engine completed. The pictures and video below are from the first new engine start-up on our engine stand.
The carburetor has been nickel-plated and reassembled as per original.
You can see the first part of Ron’s story here.
Ron bought this 1936 VLH at the Steve McQueen auction in Las Vegas and has been trying to put it together. He brought it to us to finish a few things, and we found some problems with the motor. So, we pulled the engine out and found that it needed to be rebuilt completely. These are some of the process pictures up to this point. It is currently on the bench for final assembly.
This bike was brought to us as a Pan/Shovel. The customer wanted to convert it back to a Panhead engine. We pulled the engine and completely balanced and blueprinted it with a Panhead topend instead of a Shovelhead. After running it on the run-stand and making sure everything was in working order, we installed it back into the chassie.
This is a 1953 PanShovel (Panhead lower end with a Shovelhead top end). It came to us from Pennsylvania needing to be rebuilt. It is a 74″ engine. You might notice that we had to fabricate custom top end oil lines because of the unique nature of a PanShovel engine. Part of the final rebuild process includes balancing and blueprinting the engine. Our customer wanted to take it back with him after his stay in Arizona for the winter. We were able to complete this project in about a month and a half.
These are pictures that we took in our shop of an Indian engine that we are rebuilding for a customer. The pictures show a valve job being done on our guide and seat machine. Also shown are flywheels that are being rebuilt and balanced. Note the red paint on the flywheels, as per factory. The flywheels were balanced on a dynamic engine balancer which means you have to true the them twice. Once without the rods on the crankpin, and then once after you assemble the rods on the flywheel.
