Am I correct in thinking that the US Army actually had less than 100 Indian
741's, all the rest going to other allied forces, especially Canada and
Britain? In which case the early examples would have been delivered in earth
brown paint. Is it an urban legen that Indian's demise was failing to see
the potential end of war production and produced vast amounts of spare parts
which were never ordered by the War Dept or the allies? Interested to hear
your comments folks. Regards, NIGE
----- Original Message -----
From: "John K. Seidts" <john@astory.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2001 6:48 PM
Subject: [MV] Indian M/C restoration
> Some had asked, and I thought I'd post some of the recent work finished on
> my 1942 Indian 741 Motorcycle Restoration.
>
> I had the whole frame and sheet metal package (less gas and oil tanks)
> sandblasted, painted in DP rusty red primer, and then painted I painted it
> with Aervoe 34087 OD. To me, the Aervoe looks too light for the original
> paint items I have had, but it is the only stuff out there, so I used it.
>
> The front fork is braced with forgings on top and bottom, which are
> connected to it by four forged stretchers or links. The two forgings are
> lined with bronze sleeves and connected to the stretchers by long fork
> bolts. The bronze was egg shaped, worn very thin, and the bolt was chewed
> up as to be unuseable. So I had two new lower fork bolts made, gouged out
> the bronze with thin chisels, reamed the inside, and fit in four new
> bushings. This made the front end ready for assembly to the frame center
> section.
>
> The last thing to get attached to the fork during assembly is the handle
> bars with controls. There are five separate controls on the handle bars-
> front brake, spark advance, throttle, horn button, and dimmer switch. I
> purchased a used dimmer switch on ebay (for half what an original goes
for),
> but still haven't gotten the horn button. I have all the rest, so I got
> ready to repair the bends on the end of the bars. Boy was this fun. The
> ends of the bars are slotted for the cable barrel to slide through,
looking
> very much like a split rivet, and are susceptible to being mangled on a
> bike, stepped on, or abused when you kick over your piece of &h(^***
project
> (long before I got it). Mine looked like someone had taken out all of
their
> woes on it. It took almost three hours of gentle hammering, bending, and
> twisting to get the one side straight. It is absolutely necessary to get
> the throttle side straight, or you might find yourself in a bike-inspired
> default acceleration. So I got that done.
> Further in on the bars, there is a mild steel fitting which you
> attach the control spirals to. When I put on my spiral grip, it didn't
seat
> far enough. So tomorrow, I am un-sweating the fitting and re-brazing it
to
> the proper place.
> Now for the gas tanks. Indians are a bit easier than Harley's to
> restore from the standpoint that Indian manufactured their tanks by
forming
> 20 gauge plated steel and then soldering them together. Harley's are
> stamped and crimped together. So the Indian's can be de-soldered and put
> back together. I do lots of welding, but wanted a real tin-smith to do
the
> tanks, plus plug the pin-holes on the sides. So this got done about the
> time I was ready to go looking inside the engine.
> I have the original serial numbered engine from my bike, in
pieces,
> needing re-build. Since this is not a skill I am ready to do due to lack
of
> equipment, I purchased an NOS 741 power plant from a guy in Cleveland.
Bob
> Brown of Michigan delivered it to me. Indian made thousands of these as
> spares in WWII, and after the war, sold them surplus. Mine did not come
in
> the crate, but still had the shipping mounts on it, so I knew it was NOS.
> There are many still around. Mine had sat in the basement of a Cleveland
> Firefighter for almost 30 years, with the spark plugs out. So I decided
to
> pull the heads to check for screws or junk, and re-seal the cork float on
> the carb.
> The inside was beautiful. The engine had been run a bit at some
> point, but the thin film of carbon came off with the gentle brush of a
> finger to reveal beautiful NOS piston and cylinder underneath. I even was
> able to use the original gasket to reseal the heads. 50 lbs of torque at
> the bolts, and it went back together easily.
> The carb is mounted with three slotted head screws to the simple
> manifold, and came off easily. I was following the manual instructions
(TM
> 10- 1485, dtd 1943), and having trouble getting the ring-shaped float out.
> The manual says to remove the ring before removing the float needle seat.
I
> tried for almost an hour to jiggle the float loose in a special manner,
when
> I began to suspect that the manual was wrong and the needle seat had to
come
> out first. I knew Indian did publish a machine-fatal error in the manual
> for the 841 shaft drive bike, but this manual had gone through three
> printings before this final edition I had, so I was really wondering that
I
> was doing something wrong. I called my friend's father, who has been
> working on them since 1948, and he asked me why I hadn't taken out the
float
> needle seat first....
> DUHH! Shoulda followed my instincts to that one....
> I get through all this, and as I am triumphantly removing the
float
> from the bowl, I realize that my can of model airplane dope, which is used
> to seal the float, is still sitting on the shelf of the hobby store, which
I
> forgot to go to the day before....
> But anyhow, the bike is ready to start being assembled. I will be
> working on the auction, but hope to sneak a few days in getting the frame
> attached to the motor, then building from that point. It has to happen in
> that sequence, due to the weight of the assembled chassis, and how it
mounts
> to the frame. So my goal of having it driving around at the Mid Atlantic
> Air Museum's WWII weekend is looking better.
> Comments are welcomed, financial support encouraged, and temporary
> insanity is not entirely out of the question for the defense...
>
> My actual collection includes, but is not limited by my imagination to,
the
> following:
>
> 1942 BT13A
> 1942 Indian 741 (in restoration)
> 1942 Indian 841
> 1942 WC-53
> 1942 WC-53 (in restoration)
> 1942 WC-54
> 1942 GPW
> 1942 GTBS
> 1943 GPW
> 1944 MB (in restoration)
> 1944 Merritt & O'Keefe E3 generator
> 1967 M151A1 (for sale)
>
>
> Time will not dim their deeds....
>
>
> john@astory.com
> http://www.astory.com
>
>
>
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Apr 04 2001 - 08:10:48 PDT