Saturday, July 4, 2015

1947 Knucklehead Maintenance - Intake leakage and Carb bolt fix

Was feeling like I had an intake leak on the 47 FL

So I dropped the carb...

Found that, although the nuts were tight, the intake was loose...it moved freely when the carb support bracket was removed indicating that the brass bushings were not tightening up and sealing around the manifold

I popped off the manifold...you can also see in this picture an old intake nipple replacement fix using allen head set screws...hey it works...

The bushings slid on and off with ease. I tried other bushings and had the same issue with this manifold...pretty obvious as to where it was leaking...

The only other manifold I had that was the proper length was a chrome one. I have found that a quick trip to the glass bead cabinet textures chrome pretty well and gives it a cad type finish...

Looks OK to me...yeah I know I shoulda sent away for the new improved bushing/Peek seals or had my manifold reworked by the pros or whatever such stuff restorers do these days...but I didn't. I found two bushings that slid on tight and looked OK and used them...

Everything was going just fine until I began tightening the screw/bolts that hold the carb to the manifold...the last one (lower right) gave me that sickening feeling of stripage just I was carefully tightening it up...FUCK!

I went to the "well" and found three different size carb mounting screw/bolts

I took the longest one and ran some more threads down it so that it would screw through what was left of the carb threads and poke out the other side long enough to put a lock washer and nut on it 

I love house wire! I used my patented wire wrap technique to sneak the nut into the tight spot and get it started...worked like a charm!

I really hated to do this but I did not have a choice if I wanted to ride yesterday...maybe I'll fix it right when I pull the carb off in another 20 years...maybe not...It's tucked away down there...

...and from the other side looks perfect!

Oh yeah... she's running great now with no leakage...was out all day "test driving"...the only thing leaking is me from all the Lager intake...

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