There was still much that I wanted to do, but I finally had a running, riding motorcycle that I had resurrected with my own hands. The only part of this project I've paid someone to do/not done myself, was mounting the rear tire. It sounds and runs spectacularly, it stops well, and I am in love with her. The apes and forward controls make slow turning and maneuvering a bit more daunting, but still manageable and fun once I got the hang of it. I even got an antique motorcycle license plate because the bike is 35 years old! It's pretty awesome to have a motorcycle that is older than me.
I had been taking her for short rides around the neighborhood totaling about 30miles, but hadn't gotten to ride in traffic, or on any main roads or highways yet. Finally on February 22 of this year, She was good to go, and my friend had set aside the day to go riding with me.
The maiden voyage
I slapped the license plate on, and rode 12 miles across town to my friend's house. He took me through some beautiful scenic roads in the marshes on the edge of town that I didn't even know were there. We hit a little bit of highway, a lot of twisties, and took the bridge onto the island where we stopped for lunch.
This is the only pic of my bike out in the wild
After lunch, the bike started right up as usual, then died. I switched to reserve, and she had a little trouble, but started. I rode to a gas station a mile up the road and filled up. While sitting on the idleing bike waiting for my buddy to fill up, it died unceremoniously and would NOT crank back up no matter what I tried. 2 hours later, I had killed the battery trying to get it started so I gave up and had my wife bring the truck, loaded up the bike and took it home. I had made it approximately 70 miles in one glorious morning, and had lunch at the beach - all in all, not a bad day.
Once back in my driveway, the bike started right up like nothing was wrong. I pulled the points cover and discovered a loose wire. Oh well, at least I knew what was wrong now. It idled fine, but the timing seemed off, like the advance was stuck. I was riding around my street, then puling back in the driveway and making adjustments, then test riding again...
and that's when disaster struck
The timing seemed ok, and the bike was sitting in my driveway ideling, when all of a sudden, it sounded like someone dropped a handful of marbles into the engine. There was extremely loud, extremely expensive sounding noises coming from the engine. The bike lurched forward, and cut off. I stood there horrified for a good minute before I had the nerve to touch it. I turned the ignition off and turned the engine over with a few bumps - it wasn't seized, and nothing sounded broken, it turned over normally. I turned the spark back on and fired it back up. It sat there ideling happily for about 20-30 seconds. I even revved the throttle a few times, and it sounded great. Then the same loud noise was heard and I quickly shut the engine down.
I realize that starting the engine back up was not a smart thing to do. I really can't say why I did it, I know I should have at least drained the oil to check for shavings/nuggets.
I drained the primary oil - no shavings
I removed the primary cover and discovered the tensioner spring had a shattered corner, and I found some shrapnel from it in the bottom of the case.
I also saw grind marks on the top corners of the case and cover where the primary chain had jumped up and slapped them due to improper tension. There were 3 different chain tensioners in the ironheads, After reading many horror stories about the same version I had exploding and wreaking havoc on motors, I determined that it was at fault.
Satisfied that this was my issue, I noted that the clutch was nearly new and in exceptional condition, replaced the chain tensioner, gasket, and oil. I also took the opportunity to replace the clutch cable while the primary cover was off, and learned the procedure for adjusting the clutch. My clutch throw is now buttery smooth and much shorter engagement than it used to be.
When I fired the bike back up for the first time after the repair, it ran great... until I put it in gear. The noise was back, and the whole bike bucked and jerked as I tried to move it the 10 feet from my shed to the patio slab. I shut the bike down, and drained the primary oil. This time I was not so lucky.
there was a good bit of metal shavings in the case this time as well, but nothing appeared to be damaged upon initial inspection. I removed the clutch and eventually pulled the transmission.
This is what I found
I sheared 6 teeth off of 4 gears
With that amount of stress, It's almost guaranteed that the rest of the gears and both shafts are weakened, and have micro cracking. I could pay for magnafluxing, but no need to confirm what I already know. I could replace it with a used transmission for around $4-500, or buy a factory replacement or Andrews built unit for $1000-1200+ but I think what I'm going to do is purchase the Andrews close ratio gear set with wide ration 1st gear, and Andrews main and counter shafts, and reassemble with new thrust washers on my trapdoor and shift forks.