Enfield Tracker: War Pig Rennaissance

It is.

Pushrod adjusters sit directly atop the tappets behind the cover. There's no adjustment at the rocker end.
 
Morning spent discovering that my mysterious morass of most current issues are charging-related. Looks like my fancy, expensive (though obtained at a discount from Hitchcock's used pile) Boyer Powerbox has bitten the dust. I was apparently charging, but very very little. After a few recent rides home after dark, the battery was way behind. Swapped in a new, stock Enfield ("Swiss" brand) R/R via test leads and everything seemed fine, so I pulled the Powerbox and installed that. Lucky I had it sitting around.

It's possible I just cooked the Powerbox by placing it internal to the seat hump. Thought it'd get enough airflow, but to be on the safe side, the new R/R is under the entire seat assembly. It may get occasionally muddy but probably will cool much better regardless.

I'll find a $15 capacitor and wire that in separately. Not gonna blow cash on a new box.

Oh, and I need to investigate some traces of oil, apparently motor oil, I found in the (dry) primary case. There was enough to leave a few drips on the ground when I pulled the cover last night looking at the alternator when I was first investigating the electrical problems. Guessing it migrated up the crankshaft...wonder if that's indicative of anything serious, or just another fact of life with these. Wouldn't be apparent at all if you were running a wet primary.
 
If it's leaking oil, if just means it has oil. When it stops leaking is when you should worry.
 
Yeah, yeah, it's British (by design, compounded with Indian construction!) but in this case it was a question of possibly having a problem in a main bearing or the seal.

It is apparently common for the seal to leak if crankcase pressures get high. Happened after some high-revving fun around the neighborhood...I'm trying to give it good amounts of warm-up time leading into very short, big RPM rides to help break in the bore properly. We'll see if the oil just pushed past or if it did any permanent damage to the seal. In any case I'll live with it till I'm back in the States and tear the barrel off to remove a base gasket once better fuel is available. Not a bad time to take off the primary and replace the seal, especially since I'll probably be doing it with my buddy-who-built-the-engine's expert help.

And now there's something weird with the air intake. I think my gardener may be washing the bike when I'm not looking and soaking the filter. Couldn't get it started; seemed like there wasn't enough air, so I cracked open the top of that canister plenum chamber (another Ace engineering product, specifically designed for these engines) and suddenly it ran fine. I'd just replaced the paper filter with a K&N to help deal with the rainy season here. Guess I'll try giving it a cleaning and a re-oiling over the weekend and see if it works again.
 
So I want to mount a fender to this fork brace and have this strap aluminum.

Plan-shape strap in the center till the aluminum fits flush to the underside of the brace, drill and tap holes into the brace, then cut slots in the aluminum to make "wings" that can be bent to follow the curve of the fender. Rivet a section of fender to the aluminum both fore and aft of the brace. That probably makes no sense. Hope I can pull it off.


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Nope. Disaster, but luckily before I messed with anything other than that scrap aluminum.

Only way I will be able to do this semi-neatly is the obviously simple way of just bolting a fender under the brace. Will commence that when possible.

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Edit: in other news compression has risen to about 138 at only 240 miles showing on the odo (which could be off a few miles because I ran without initially...tried to make up for that with an electric drill turning the speedo cable, but that is just a guess.)

Small exhaust leak on the muffler/pipe junction that'll have to be fixed sometime later.

And I mocked up some side covers with cardboard. They'd really clean up the look. Too bad the toolboxes no longer fit in that space. (Well they fit, but then my feet can't use the pegs!) I may see about having them hacked down to a narrower profile...
 
AgentX said:
Plan-shape strap in the center till the aluminum fits flush to the underside of the brace, drill and tap holes into the brace, then cut slots in the aluminum to make "wings" that can be bent to follow the curve of the fender.

When you say "shape", do you mean to cut a profile, or to bend the aluminum?
 
I cut it down to fit using a dremel cutting wheel and some carbide bits.

Then I cut out some slots and tried to bend the fender-supporting portion of the bracket into a profile that roughly followed the contour of the fender. And I broke off one of the parts I was bending. Realizing that even this simple task was beyond my abilities (and/or stock of metal on hand, I stopped right there.

What I'll do instead is the cleaner idea of removing the existing fender stays (think I can cut the spot welds, or failing that just chop the stays off) and bolting or riveting it straight to the underside of the brace. It fits nicely that way, but with slightly less clearance than the first concept.
 
You can bend aluminum if you anneal it first. All it takes is a propane torch and a bar of soap. Not kidding. Google it.
 
Cool...I have simply been heating it for a long time with my electric heat gun before bending. Never knew about the soap!
 
Thanks, man. Been a long road, but the thing starts up first kick every morning and gets me back and forth to work with (little-to-)no trouble. It's a nice feeling to not be nervous about one or more things during every ride.

The engine is starting to come into its own. Once it's warm, I've been really giving it a workout every time it's on the road, and the ring seating is evident in the butt-dyno and compression tests. It's starting to really like revs.
 
Thanks; glad you think it's worth checking out!

Got some sheets of OD green Kydex on the way. Am going to mold a better cover for the intake, since it seems the little aluminum rain shield is choking off the bike at times. Runs fine without it...problem may be related to the dimensions of the K&N I put on there since the paper element wasn't doing too well in the rainy season. So I'll use the kydex to make something with good coverage that stands off from the folds of the filter enough to allow better airflow.

Also will cut out and mount some side covers, too. I still need to figure out a good way to carry some tools and basic spare parts...maybe just bungee a tool roll behind the cover or something. Then again, I opened up some under-seat room when I moved the r/r... Maybe I can use the Kydex to create a little holder in the hump.
 
So it's been running pretty damned well lately. Rattles and pings all sorted out. Got the kydex cover on the air filter, but it's not very neatly done; might try to dremel it some to make it less horrific-looking. I need a new speedometer, because this one is totally busted; must have happened when my guards knocked it over early on. Might go for a digital unit, might just grab another mini job off Dennis Kirk or something.

Wheels and tires are the major remaining issue; there's something out of balance/true, but it doesn't affect me under 60mph, and I rarely get over that in town. Sucks for longer pavement trips I've been trying tho. I also need better gas, but unless I'm truly being an asshole, it won't ping on me. Air screw or jetting may need changing due to cooler weather--won't start first-kick anymore, but I'll get that sorted.

Got a new camera so I took some vanity pics as the sun was setting. Didn't have time to run them through Lightroom or anything, but they seem pretty good out of the raw converter:

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Very smart....great build and amazing resourcefulness. Miss my 500 bullet reading all this!!!
 
Thanks! Still learning my way around this camera and its rather quirky operation. I am born of film so digital's not my forte regardless.

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I havent checked in on this in a while, your bike looks awesome! the aluminum rims are setting it off nicely. You can do a static balance with the wheels on the bike. remove the calipers and loosen the axles, you will have to disengage the chain and get it off the sprocket as well. Then just get the wheel off the ground and do a standard static balance. I don't know what kind of wheel weights you can get there but the stick on kind are easy and work great.
 
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