A tale of two Chouts

The Ultimate Indian Motocycle Hybrid, the marriage of a vintage Scout frame with a Chief engine!


The Alchemist

The essence of motocycle, picture a rigid framed vintage roadracer, leaf sprung fork, single pan saddle, hand gearchange, foot clutch, left hand throttle and the biggest production Indian engine of the time shoehorned into the best handling Indian frame of All time! A true hotrod, the looks of a stripped down wall bike on steroids!


Thursday 23 December 2010

Valve spring study

After a trial fit of the Shunk cams, bonneville followers and the cylinders fitted with standard spec valves and springs it was noted that the springs were binding just before full lift. With the Chief std spring fitted I measured fitted length, with it removed and fitted in a vice I measured free length then fully compressed to coil bound.
Std Chief  - free length = 65.65mm
                 -fitted length = 45.10mm
                 - coil bound = 36.71mm

with the Shunk cam and bonne followers the lift is 10.91mm so its easy to see that there woulnt be sufficient free movement in the spring.



I pulled a set of used 741b springs from my spares pile and checked them out.

used 741b - free length = 59.58mm
                 - fitted length = 45.10mm
                 - coil bound = 31.05mm

a full 5.66mm of extra spring movement. referring to Jim Mosher's valve spring study the spring pressure of the shorter Scout spring is similar to the Chief one throughout the movement range, so it seems that 741b springs will be suitable to use on the Chief motor with the hi lift cams and bonne followers.







                 

Saturday 18 December 2010

Custom 101 tank

Collected from Parcelforce this morning and straight round to Richis workshop to try it in the 101 frame. Its a good fit, similar in profile to athe original 101 tank but abit more shark like! There is no provision for an oil tank in it so the plan is to half it and make two seperate tanks similar to the Junior Sout ones, oil on one side petrol on the other.



Wednesday 15 December 2010

Transmission parts arrived

I am planning to use a mixture of parts (if possible) from various years of Chief production. I have in hand a complete early, helical clutch transmission and a 1940's case fitted with new bearings. today I recieved a parcel from India with new mainshaft, high gear, slider gear and cluster. I plan to build the 40's box with a later chain type primary clutch basket that I also have.


The Indian made parts look to be of good quality, I will report my findings as I go!

Odd jobs 4

Tonight I set to work on the piston rings, checked and set all the ring gaps, and fitted the rings to the pistons. I started to fit the valves and springs to the cylinders but found that my compressor is a bit lacking in leverage, tomorrow I will bring in the heavy guns and use the hydraulic press wiyth the modified end off my small compressor!

Saturday 11 December 2010

Top yoke

Arrived from the States today, been modified to take risers and aftermarket bars at some stage 8-)

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Odd jobs 3

Keeping busy while I wait for parts, tonight I set to with the Dremel and started to do some work on the cylinder ports, there was quite a sharp lip where the bore for the valves meets the cast in port, I have roughed thes out this evening on bth cylinders, work ground (gettit? ;)) to a halt when I ran out of tools for my Dremel, a trip to the shop tomorrow and I can get the ports tidied up.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Cams and Lifters have arrived

Valves are on their way, so I should be able to get the cam chest and cylinders all buttoned up real soon.
Original set  of Shunk race cams fitted to gears and shafts, bonneville lifters and pushrods supplied by Jim Mosher of  Performance Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Tuesday 26 October 2010

Odd Jobs 2

Today I took the spacer and seal kit, supplied by Moen at IPE, in to John at Moray Firth Precision Engineering. I got John to turn up a spacer (or four) to suit the oil seal kit. While I was in Inverness I dropped the cylinders and pistons off with Autohead Recon to get the bores honed to suit the new pistons, They should be ready to collect tomorrow 8)


Saturday 16 October 2010

Odd jobs

Keeping busy waiting for parts  I have on order, I pulled the drive pulley from the 1940 motor and removed the two outer races and spacer, which will need either turned down to 0.25" thickness or replaced with a 0.25" one so I can fit the driveside oil seal conversion. That'll let me have a semi open belt primary without oil leaks from the crankcases.

Saturday 2 October 2010

The Forks

Not got these yet, still saving up!!!! reproduction Indian 101 fork from Hecker 101 via IPE

The Frame

The frame is from a 1929ish 101 Scout, bought from Conneticut in the USA via ebay. It has had a hard life, bent bottom rails like it has been dropped at some point or had something heavy stacked on top of it, there are also some old repairs which have not been carried out successfully, so this morning I took the frame in to Richi Foss ( Foss Fabrication and Welding) in Inverness to get the frame restored to good order ready for the alterations to be carried out to fit the Chief  powerplant into the cradle.




Thursday 30 September 2010

Junior Scout tanks pt 2

Tonight I bolted the motor cases and transmission together, put them into the frame with the 33 cylinders on and got the rear trnsmission lug into positon on the seatpost mount levelled the powerplant through with a wooden block.

 With the Junior tank fitted over the back bone of the frame there is plenty of clearance (once the crossbar is removed) with it below the backbone it will be a tight fit but will look more like a 101 should


Wednesday 29 September 2010

Junior Scout tanks

This morning, I temporarily nicked the LH Junior Scout tank off my Sport Scout. i had heard that the JS tanks profile was the same as a 101 Scout but split intp 2 half tanks so i thought I would check this out for myself!

The top profile is a pefect match to the backbone of the 101  frame, even the seat T bar front tabs line up with the slots in the tanks


The above picture shows how much room would be available if the crossbar was taken out and replaced with bracing between the tanks. Unfortunately I dont want to hide the backbone of the frame, I would prefer to have it exposed as on a 101 which again lessens the available height!


A gain of aproximately 1.25" is available if the tank is mounted below the backbone and the crossbar is raised

Tuesday 28 September 2010

first trial fit ......of many!


finally got a chance to trial fit the 1933 chief engine into the 1929 101 Scout frame, now to decide whether to cut slug and drop the lower frame rails or remove the crossbar and re brace the frame then use junior Scout tanks ???picture taken with my phone but it shows the issues raised in trying to fit a 1200cc Chief motor into a frame designed for a 600cc Scout motor

Monday 27 September 2010

The Inspiration

This trio of 101 racers owned by  Buck Rinker (Bucks Indian) really are the inspiration for my Chout build, My only want being more cubic inches!


The Gathering

The major components gathered so far

- 1929 Indian 101 Scout frame
- 1933 Indian Chief engine 74" in need of full rebuild
- 1940 Chief engine 74" bottom end rebuilt by Earl McGhee
- New Chief cylinders and pistons (made in India)
- 1940 cylinder heads repaired by Richi Foss
- 1932 Indian Chief transmission
- 1934 on primary (chain type)
- Edison Splitdorf RM2 Magneto, to suit the '33 motor
- Fairbanks Morse magneto, to suit the '40 motor
- Linkert M343 carburettor