Final Assembly

I have worked all winter with one goal in mind – to make the Gilmore Bike show on June 14. It has been difficult fitting the necessary time into a busy schedule as well as saving enough money to buy the remaining parts I need. Purchasing items for my 69 Interceptor & 64 Lightning Rocket, which are next on my restoration list, are part of the problem. A total lack of will power according to my wife and I agree.  The final assembly was completed after the wiring was finished. One problem set of parts was the herringbone oil hose which I had a hard time finding. Three different sizes were purchased from three different sources. Two of them were not exactly correct but will work alright. The original hoses were in pretty bad shape or I would have used them.

Overall things went about as expected. I had hunted down most of the parts I needed, such as; cables, a new exhaust pipe set, hardware, and I made spacers along with other missing bits. As usual things did not just go together exactly as planned. The clutch cable was too long by about 3/8 of an inch and the throttle cables were also a bit long. Spacers were made to take up the slack although I need to learn how to move cable ends for adjustment as this is a problem I have run into before.  

The rear brake return spring I received from a source on eBay turned out to be a kick start spring so the correct one was ordered. The bike did not have one when I tore it down as my original pictures revealed. The toggle pin for the brake rod was too short so I had to locate another. The foot peg rubbers were too long for folding pegs but I found the correct ones. The incorrect ones are a match for my Lightning Rocket and moved to its spares pile on the shelf.

The exhaust pipes looked good and fit close to the originals but mounting spacers had to be reduced, brackets re-bent, and the tie bar holes extended. The final fit looks good. 

I decided to build up fuel lines and purchased aluminum ferrules with a crimp tool. This system worked well and I am pleased with the final result. I also added a balance pipe between lines, although I didn't have much room. It all fit and will be a good feature to have, especially with such a small fuel tank.

After everything was assembled I cleaned off all of the finger prints, polished the aluminum, waxed painted parts and Armor All’d rubber & vinyl bits. Ready for the show. 

Electrical Pt II - Building the Harness

My training in electronics is limited to classes taken many years ago although I still know what the basic components do and how to construct a wiring diagram. I also have a friend at work who is a EE who gave me pointers on things I couldn't figure out. There are also many sources for diagrams on the internet which I drew on to figure out the details of my setup. Below is my diagram in its seventh or eighth revision. Disclaimer……this diagram has been connected and everything appears to work fine but the bike has not been run. USE at your own risk!!!!! A Follow up post will provide an overview of its function. 

Wires were all cut to length and taped into place to understand how pieces fit into the various sections of the harness. Once this was completed the harness sections were taped together for shrink wrapping. Bullets were soldered on and a final sheath, which replicates the stock BSA look, covered all exposed wiring. Large sections of the harness were made first with smaller sections fit after they were in place.

Fuse panel, Sparx unit and relays. 

A small Lithium Ion battery will also fit into the battery box.

The coil & horn assembly ready to mount. 

And mounted......

Wire tied and ready to go. 

After the lights, horn and ignition tested out alright everything was cleaned up and wire tied into place. The horn & kill switch relays fit under the seat and the fuse box, sparx unit and Lithium Ion battery, which I have yet to purchase, fit in the battery box. A toggle switch is fixed to the seat mount. When the switch goes on everything works. There is no shutoff for the lights only a dipper. Headlight and taillight are LED units used for brightness & low power draw. Although I have color coded the wiring with paint blotches I am planning to buy a small label maker to identify things better. The future owner will appreciate this attention to detail – if I can ever get myself to part with the bike…. 

Ever wonder what was in a Lucas brake light switch? 

I did't until mine wouldn't work. Now it does. 

Headlight mounted & wired with new LED's. 

Heavy plastic wrap to main harness is visible on the lower right. 

And the opposite end......next step final assembly. 

Selecting Electrical Components & Making Mounts

I decided to update all of the electrics on the Hornet as they were thoroughly trashed. A Trispark Ignition & dual lead coil, a Lucas alternator from a 1970 Thunderbolt, a toggle switch, horn, Sparx rectifier, fuse box and a lithium ion battery are the key components. I am also keeping the factory kill switch which will be wired into the coil ground with a relay. Automotive 16 gauge wire and Lucas bullet connectors tie everything together. Once the components were selected I had to figure out where to mount everything.

Original condition of the electrical system. 

I wanted to keep a stock look to the bike so I added a battery box to mount the Sparx rectifier, fuse box and battery into. The lithium ion battery is compact which provides room for the other components. An aluminum bracket was fabricated to mount the coil up and out of site between the air cleaners. It also provides a mount for the horn.

The fuse box bracket and rectifier heat sync will be mounted to the battery box. 

The dual lead coil mounted on its bracket.  

Milling the coil bracket in a Bridgeport. 

The coil mounted up and out of the way between the air cleaners. 

A stock Lucas kill switch mounted in a bracket fabricated from a tracing of an original. 

A toggle switch mounted under the seat to turn the power on and off.  Horn and kill switch relays can be seen above the oil tank. 

Aluminum Tank & Side Panels

The tank was an aluminum replacement from India purchased to be used with the US's ethonal laced gas which would not have been friendly to the original fiberglass tank. The glass tank also had dry rot issues which I did not think could be fixed well. Although overall the quality of the aluminum tank was pretty good, it had a few issues. The mounting hole was 3/8 of an inch further back than the OEM tank. I thought there was enough adjustment in the frame mount but this was not the case. I made a bracket that set the tank back about ½ inch which works well. The second issue was with the filler neck which was detailed in a previous post.  

Custom mount made to accomodate the aluminum tank.

The side panel mounting went well although a few of the brackets had to be bent to align everything properly. I applied foam tape to all of the contact points on the rear of the fiberglass panels. This should stop the movement that nicks these things up and distorts the holes. I also used my gasket cutter to fabricate clear duct tape washers that I stuck to the inside of the oddie studs. The panels should be protected from the inside of the fasteners which are prone to tearing up the paint around the holes.

Washer made from duct tape & using gasket cutters. 

Tank and panels fit...time to move on to the electrical system. 

Head & Tail light Brackets

The Hornet had no lights so I needed to make a set of mounting brackets for them. I am finishing them before I tackle the wiring system which will be detailed in another post. The tail light bracket is the easiest to draw so I decided to start with it. Both brackets will be made for quick removal so the Hornet can be shown in its stock configuration.

I started by downloading a free 2D CAD software called Q CAD. I spent eight years as a CAD designer and CNC machine programmer although I have not done this work for many years. I found it easy to pick it back up, at least for the simple work I am doing. The files were drawn to have laser cut. This is a process I am familiar with from my work and we have a good laser cutting source a few miles from my house. Once the design was sketched by hand I entered it into the CAD system. 

I printed off my initial CAD file and made a paper cutout which was held in location to see how well it would work. After several iterations I made a cardboard template and mounted my light & license plate to it. This confirmed my design but also called out one small adjustment that needed to be made.  I repeated the process to develop the headlight bracket

My paper prototypes and print outs. 

My "final" cardboard prototype. 

The headlight prototype with Bates headlight in place. 

After the cardboard prototypes were proven out .dxf files were taken to the laser shop and the parts were cut from mild steel. I used 14 gauge for the tail light bracket and 11 gauge for the headlight. 

Laser cut and ready to heat and bend. 

Head and tail light brackets ready to paint. I am finishing gloss black as I think the 

contrast will make the chrome stand out. 

Front End Rebuild

This really can’t be called a rebuild since I did not use any of the original parts for the forks. The original forks had been severely abused and were beyond repair. A set of fork lowers were purchased from a source found on Craig’s list while damper rods and seal holders were found on ebay. The bushings, seals, and tubes were purchased from a local dealer. 

Original condition & needing help. 

The "part set" ready to go. The hone with extender is on the right. 

The fork lowers I purchased were rusty and needed to be cleaned up. I sand blasted them and followed this up with a hone.  I made an extender for it to reach the bottom of the lower legs.  I had never assembled a set of forks without the drive holes for the seal holder removal tool. I used a plumber’s belt wrench to accomplish this task. The wrench slipped until I wrapped the seal holders with duct & double sided tape.

Mounting the seal holders. 

I have a slide hammer fork puller which I made many years ago. I am not too fond of this tool since it is hard on the threads. I purchased a puller set from “The Bonneville Shop” which worked very well.

Pulling the new forks into place. 

After the forks were installed I was able to finish assembly of the front end. The next step is to lower the Hornet off its hoist which it has been sitting happily upon since last summer. The forks will be cycled to align everything and then tightened down to spec.   

Here we are to date...time to learn how to install gaitor straps.

Polishing Aluminum

The side covers were in pretty rough shape. I filled a pit on the timing side case and replaced the primary cover. The replacement primary had a dent which was removed. This is detailed in an earlier post. I cleaned parts up with engine de-greaser and soda blasted them to get all of the gasket sealer off.

Parts were sanded with a rubber block and 120 grit paper to remove heavy scratches and gouges. After getting everything roughed out I went through a succession of increasingly finer papers. Grits used were; 220, 320, 400, 600, 1000 & 1200. Each grit was applied 90 degrees to the grit before it making sure all scratches from the previous grit were removed before progressing to the next step. Kerosene was used to keep the paper from loading. After the parts were sanded to 1200 grit I finished them with aluminum polishing abrasive on a pedestal mounted buffing wheel. The final gloss was obtained using Semichrome aluminum polish applied by a 3 inch right angle air tool and finally by hand. Mother's Billet also works well for the final gloss.

A tedious process....sanding cases. 

Polishing the timing side inner cover in a rubber jaw vice. 

Blocking to keep things flat. 

The final result.