OEM Sidecar Frame Loops - 48 wishbone?

[ncmc47]

Yes that's what I would do!

[oneuptom]

Edit: not sure why this isn't showing upright, but this is the 48 front piece I want to mate with to the 81 frame

[flatman]

I am an idiot I thought you were trying to put that 81 neck (which you said was cut just below the neck forging) on a pan sidecarloop lower.

[Tattooo]

I am an idiot I thought you were trying to put that 81 neck (which you said was cut just below the neck forging) on a pan sidecarloop lower.

Yes I guess I'm also an idiot as I thought that's what he was doing also............

[Tattooo]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]105835[/ATTACH]

Damn that's a real nice piece................

[ncmc47]

Are you sure that's a 48 frame? Looks more like what Palmer shows a 49, machining of the ride control stud. I'm relying on memory. I don't have it open in front of me. Not that it makes any difference with what your doing. I have often thought people putting hard tails on later frame were only going half way, they should have the sidecars loops as well. So was thinking on how that could be accomplished.

[oneuptom]

Are you sure that's a 48 frame? Looks more like what Palmer shows a 49, machining of the ride control stud. I'm relying on memory. I don't have it open in front of me. Not that it makes any difference with what your doing. I have often thought people putting hard tails on later frame were only going half way, they should have the sidecars loops as well. So was thinking on how that could be accomplished.

I'm not 100% sure of much anymore, haha. According to Palmer it was only a very few late 48s with the pin installed and none with horn pads if I'm reading it correctly. This piece has the rounded horn pads like the 51-53. And according to Palmer the early 49s had the square corner pads on un-flatened frames. later 49 frames with same square pads but on flattened tubes.

The old guy I got if from showed me pics of it (48s with springers) and said him and his brother each bought one new, him this El and his brother an FL. I got everything from the EL. What happened was they lived far off a main road and eventually bashed the bottom out of the FL. They didn't have a lot of tools so they cut the EL in half to get the engine out and never got either back together. He couldn't find the rear half of the frame so I never got it. He didn't know what happened to the FL as I recall now either. That's all I know

[oneuptom]

Palmer says the die numbers for 48 are on the steering head, 14, 16 or 17... It's 17 on this piece so I'm gonna call it a late 48

[flatman]

I would be thinking about maybe a vtwin hardtail repop unless its gotta have a swing arm or you just wanna use what ya got. The swingarms should have the rear motor mount, seatpost, and tranny mount?

[oneuptom]

That could be cool but I'm thinking more of a blend of old and new, a restomod type thing using all Harley parts. Something very reliable and different. Maybe an injected 48 Pan motor with a Timken converted botton end for power. Anything you can imagine is possible these days

[Tattooo]

Anything you can imagine is possible these days

You got that right...... Not like it was 45 years ago for sure..............And that's a good thing.............

[flatman]

the timkin mod sure would be interesting, also maybe mechanical hilborn?

[oneuptom]

Standalone MicroSquirt ECU with switchable maps. The second mostly a cooling map. You need to have complete independent control over both cylinders for fuel & timing. These old girls need a lot of help staying cool if you're going to flog them, have them last. They need help everywhere actually. And wouldn't it be cool you didn't need to send the fuel down that tortuous path. Squirt it directly at the valve instead

[oneuptom]

I probed those sidecar loops for measurements and had a good look. Unbelievably clean in there, not a spec of rust, just soot from welding all those years ago, wow!.. They are bored about 1 5/8" deep but only to the I.D. of the tube. I guess a structural measure to help prevent stress failure? Tubes are butt welded to the ends of them. Very nice complete penetration

Edit: I need to take that back!!! I was feeling the weld penetration and not the end of the tube. So, the tubes slip into the loops about 1 5/8"

[JBinNC]

After seeing your pic, I think you would be better off keeping the motor mount and grafting the later frame aft of that. Not least because the shape of the frame tubing is very different for the loop frame, compared to the later frames.

Jim