71 OIF Build

**skankr1** · 02-27-2017, 7:44 AM

**skankr1** · 02-27-2017, 7:45 AM

**skankr1** · 02-27-2017, 7:47 AM

**skankr1** · 02-27-2017, 7:54 AM

So I have a question for a sanity check. Right now the hardtail is just tacked in. The front hoop is centered, neck is leveled vertically, the lower tubes are leveled horizontally front to back and side to side. We measured and squared from the center of the neck to the front of the axle plate slots. Does anyone disagree with this method? Is there a better way to square it up?

**Dougtheinternetannoyance123** · 02-27-2017, 2:55 PM

Sounds reasonable to me. Just for grins, run a plumb bob on the neck and then run a string as far as you can and then measure at the ends to see if truly square as the building and construction mantra is the same. A 1/16th off here is 12 inches at the end of a wall. But all in all looks good. Last thing to check is did you verify your ride height? Witha 16 or 18 in the back is the frame gonna sit level? (While it might seem like it little difference between a 16 and 18.) Is the height where you want it? Once the axles height is fixed not much you can do. Low is cool but too low is not fun at all unless you never go into parking lots, speed bumps, Gopher or mole mounds....

**skankr1** · 03-07-2017, 10:12 PM

So the frame is square. Neck to axle plates, lower motor mounts crossed to axle plates, basically any points you choose to measure off of are square. The rear wheel and original spacer have the rear wheel perfectly aligned with the front wheel and backbone. It appears that the rear sprocket will end up about 1/4" to the right from the trans sprocket. Has anyone ran into this, and does anyone see an issue with correcting by spacing the engine further to the right? I'm not worried about foot peg clearance issues since I haven't fabbed the new rear plates yet.

**farmall** · 03-08-2017, 10:39 AM

A quarter inch offset right won't hurt handling so if ya want to offset the engine as the easiest way, go for it. That's the beauty of chopping!

Easy way to check alignment is with a laser level. My professional machinist bros use Craftsmen levels for setup and they are surprisingly close to their expensive Starrett machinist levels they use to level machine tools.

**Dougtheinternetannoyance123** · 03-08-2017, 11:04 PM

Something does not sound right to be that far off. While not unheard of to offset a motor you should NOT have to in this case. Typically when hard tailing a stock frame like you did, You ID where you want the rear wheel to end up relative to the motor and frame. So, you set the jig up like you did. Then set a fixture up on the back end so your rear wheel ends up in the correct location. Then you build the hardtail to line up with everything. While everything is locked down IN the fixture everything stays put.
Does that make sense?
SOME people will hard tail a stock frame by leaving the swing arm in place and locking it in to the fixture on the back end, and cut away the frame rails, then tack in parts of the hard tail so you end up wth your axle plates in the EXACT same spot as the swing arm.
Clearly if doing a stretch or drop that needs to be adjusted accordingly.

Some stock British frames,, you can take 10 of them and line them up and each will vary by a little or sometimes a lot. But you can see how their jigs worked as certain key components all are in the same spot. Featherbed frame Nortons are a prime example. This is the same in many types of fab. In aerospace we welded in tooling points so certain things might be out, But we had consistent references where it counted.

If you like Ill post pix tomorrow of mine. I started mocking up a OIF Bobber for a local guy but appears he changed directions and building something else.I am going to finish the mock up and put it up for sale...

**skankr1** · 03-22-2017, 2:44 PM

Here's an update. Chain alignment turned out to be a non issue. I used the smaller engine mount spacers on the left side. I'm not sure if this was how it was mounted from the factory, but it works in this build. I will verify crank, tranny and rear axle alignment later. Next task is to finish rear engine mounts/peg mounts and chain tensioner. They are just kinda mocked up in the pics. I still need to fab the seat mount, fender mounts, battery box, plate bracket and exhaust. I'm probably going to fab some bars also. I'm thinking narrow Pangea Zephyr-ish? If anyone has something along these lines that they want to let go of on the cheap, let me know. They need to mount to a sporty triple tree. Anyway here's some pics...