[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

Spokes came in for the hack wheel, today...

But I didn't have a lot of enthusiasm for bike work, until pretty late in the day.

Went out to the near perfect temperature shop, and decided that the goal for the evening was to get the front wheel bearings swapped out and the front wheel back on.

Nothing like having a hundred foot roll of 1/2" irrigatation line underfoot; front discs fit perfectly in it, so it got to be the work stand. Was too lazy to unload a milk crate.

Love my seal puller... one of the first tools I bought as a 19 year old kid working in an MC shop. Knocked the bearings out with a piece of 1/2" shaft. Right side bearing was a little gritty, as I suspected from the slop. New set is from "All Balls Racing" so should add several mph to the rig top speed, at least!

Bearings were in freezer, and I applied a little heat to the hub...

30mm deep impact socket was just the right OD to gently tap the bearings home.

I don't know when Uncle Sochirio started putting foam rings around the inner spacer to help center it, but I thought it was a nice touch.

Dust seals pressed in by hand with the same socket; they were also living in the freezer.

Wheel reinstalled with zero drama (thanks @54vintage!)

Figured it was a good time to take a look at front brake pads... yeah, it was time. These were original OEM, with about 34,000 miles on them. Fortunately, I had a new set on the bench, waiting for this occasion.

Slapped new pads in, cleaned up calipers and bolts, and bolted calipers down tight. Hit a few bolts with paint marks for quick future inspections. No detectable slop in the front axel set, now, so will call it a win.

Maybe tomorrow the back end goes back together and perhaps I will be in a "wheel truing" frame of mind. Gotta work up to that, mentally!

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

It was just about perfect temps in the shop, this evening, so talked myself into at least putting the back end back together on Black Betty (that sweet girl.)

Had already stripped the two calipers off of the used ebay acquired cast aluminum caliper bracket, so proceeded to bolt up the calipers and abs sensor to the non-scored bracket.

Pads were still reasonably fresh on the rear brake and not so bad on the parking brake.

Remounted the rear wheel with hardly any bad language required...

Bolted up the new countershaft sprocket using Honda extra fancy, ok expensive, assembly paste on the splines. (stayed with 16 tooth, JT Sprocket),

Blue loctited the bolt and torqued it, then paint marked. Decided that an observation port was needed in the countershaft sprocket cover to be able to glance at the condition of the teeth and the clocking of the paint mark on the bolt. Paranoid? Well, maybe.

I think I spent more time with a toothbrush and degreaser getting the chain oiler muck out from around the CS than I did assembling it. Decided to turn the chain oiler off for the rest of this chain's life and see how it goes.

It is supposedly a little better chain than OEM, and has the fancy gold plating, so should not rust up without the usual coating of 90 wt from the oiler. If it goes another 6000 miles, it will have passed the OEM chain up. So not exactly scientific, but if the chain oiler is not dramatically extending chain and sprocket life in the dirt, then I think I will be happy to have less mess and run it dry.

Happily back on two out of three wheels. Contemplated stopping for the evening, but was in the right frame of mind for wheel truing, so set the wheel up on the truing stand.

The hack wheel is a BMW 5 bolt pattern hub with a 62mm center hole. I lucked out in that I had bought an adapter for the Rabaconda tire changer for BMW wheels that took it down to 20mm so I could get it to mount in the cones. The adapter had more slop in it than I would like, but it was good enough to get an idea of where to start tweaking.

My old friends, a pair of vise grips, to hold the broken spokes to unthread from the nipple.

I had delusions of being able to spin the broken spokes out and new spokes in without turning the nipples, much, since the rim is sealed with an Outex kit to make the wheels tubeless. That was not a happening thing. Ended up having to turn the nipples, since ther was too much side load on the spokes and a slight bend where they go into the hub.

Apparently, the rumors are true. You can get away with turning spoke nipples on Outex sealed rims. I had the tire on at 30 psi all the while fiddling with replacing spokes and truing the wheel. No pressure was lost.

Used a diamond wheel to tailor a 6.8mm spoke wrench to fit perfectly.

Chris, at Woody's Wheel Works, included a few extra nipples and this bottle of black gooey stuff with the new spokes. It seemed like there was something like that on the old spoke threads, so I put plenty on the new ones. I think it is some sort of combination sealant and thread lube.

Dicked around with tightening spokes to pull the bow in from mostly around where the three broken spokes were. Started with about 3mm of axial runnout; friends were commenting on it, that road behind me.

I replaced a 4th spoke that was adjacent to the patch of broken ones. It wasn't broken, but it was whispering bad things to me while I tensioned the others.

Got it to less than a MM of axial run out, no detectable radial runout, and decided that the slop in the adapter was causing more trouble than it was solving.

c't'd next post

 

[Beowulf]

c't'd

Remounted the wheel to the hack axel, set the stand next to it, to use the pointer, and continued to screw with spoke tension.

Got it to less than 0.5mm of axial runout and no detectable radial runout, so called it good enough.

Now that BBTSG was once again a rolling hack rig, I decided to cure one more annoyance.

Since I have owned the rig, I have not been able to run at "free way speeds" with the tonneau cover off and no passenger. If I attempt this, the turbulence pops the back of the seat off and flips it forward with a high probability of it jettisoning into traffic.

I had adjusted the post that snaps into the holder for maximum tension, but it still did it a couple of months ago when I was so bold as to try running down the freeway with the tonneau cover off.

So, the blue strap is a tiedown, the spring loaded type with the friction jaws that grip the webbing and hold it from slipping, unless released. I positioned it so the jaws are out of sight, but accessible, off to the left, then ran a few screws through the webbing into the wood panel, behind the seat.

Maybe not super visually appealing, but the seat back ain't leaving the car without permission, from now on.

By this time, I was out of the mood to do anymore work, so the tail-light bracket (last item on recent list) is going to wait until tomorrow.

It was only 1.30 am when I finished and a balmy 48 F (9 C), so I decided to go for a rip around Skunk Hollow to see how things had progressed.

Headed south and ended up in a Casino parking lot, where there was plenty of room to do brake tests and ever tighter clockwise circles to practice flying the chair.

No weird noises, slop in steering or suspension. And of course, the new front tire eliminated the headshake that I had gradually gotten used to, from the old big block tire wearing down. I like the big block tire on gravel; it grips better in gravel switchbacks than the standard tread E07, but I don't think I will put another one on the front. The headshake was much worse with this one, as it wore down, than it was with the smaller block pattern E07, not plus, that also had a center ridge.

So all in all, the rig is back on the road and ready for adventure. Well, after I fix the broken taillight bracket on the hack fender, tomorrow, anyway!

Cheers!

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

It was a pleasant enough afternoon, so decided to conclude my round of maintenance on BBTSG by repairing my "temporary" tail/brake light bracket that cracked along a bend line that I likely bent too sharply, while cold, for it to conform to the hack fender:

It is made out of relatively thin sheet metal, maybe 16 guage or so. Thought about just gas welding it, but Lord knows I need the practice TIG welding, so that was the decision.

Had a piece of 1/8" (3mm) flat stock lying about, so cut a brace for the "inside" side of the bracket.

Tacked the bracket back together, ground out the area around the brace so I would not need to cut the wires on the taillight connector plug to fish it through the bracket and ground the bracket to fit the angle needed for the tail light to be mostly vertical when attached to the hack fender.

Clamped it in position and welded it up.

Finished the weld on the other side:

Rattle can of Krylon and called it good:

Three bolts and a connector, and it will go on in the morning after the paint dries. List accomplished.

Then, back to riding!

 

[Sled]

Nice work!
Love the control you can have with a TIG

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

The past week or so has been filled with a variety of pleasant and interesting rides, ending with a little drama on the AZ BDR section east of Young AZ.

The Canadian Snowbirds (Frostbacks?) have returned for the bulk of the winter, with one of them unfortunately banned from riding by a doctor for the season. We hope Chuck makes a complete recovery and is back on two wheels for next winter.

We did a couple of nice rides on the familiar roads out and around Florence, Oracle, Dudleyville, Kearny, Agua Caliente, Arlington, and Gila Bend.

Roads were in nice condition with relatively recent grading. It has not rained here in a couple of month, so there was no shortage of dust available.

First ride was a BMW GS, a very clean Africa Twin solo, and of course, Black Betty (that sweet girl.) Weather was near perfect with fine companions.

A mix of the first group and a couple more friends got out around Agua Caliente for a nice rip around the desert. Bikes added included another GSA, and a very pretty new Aprilia Toureg 660. Africa Twin friend did not join this romp.

Ooohhh, new bike!

There wasn't anything particularly remarkable about these rides, other than the shear joy of being out on bikes in really nice weather and good scenery... I think Greg's expression captures the adventures quite well:

C't'd next post

 

[Beowulf]

c't'd from above

Now, yesterday's ride was of a slightly different nature...

Both Greg and Claude were able to get a day off and were willing to push the limits a little bit on terrain complexity, so they allowed me to instigate a ride up the AZ Backroad Discovery Route (BDR), south to north on the east side of Young.

I had done most of this ride a while back, but from the north, and in the dark, so I thought it might be fun to see the spectacular scenery and test our abilities a little.

The weather started out a little chilly, and then sort of stayed that way as we climbed up to about 6000 ft (~2000M) elevation. Temps were mostly 40's to 50's F during the day.

Claude selected his R1200 GSA and Greg picked his KTM790 as their weapons of choice. Black Betty (that bad bitch) followed the lads rather meekly, as we climbed up past Globe, the 188 to the 288, and then grabbed Cherry Creek Rd. to catch the BDR route: We were on the mostly orange line.

I loaded in 10 pins on the route into Google Maps, downloaded the offline map of the area, and put it in the nav. Greg, smart guy that he is, brought a paper version of the BDR map, just in case. We used both heavily, at a few intersections, with interesting results. I think we managed to find the "expert level" sections, without fail, or trying.

As we gained altitude, the sky became crystal clear and the road started to become a little more interesting with a few embedded rocks and a couple of water crossings:

Cherry Creek was flowing a little...

As we continued to gain elevation and work around rocks, breaks became a little more frequent!

The GSA became a little sleepy on the way up a fairly long and steep rock garden; Claude is meditating before performing the waking ritual. This was the only ooopssiee of the day; I really don't know how he piloted that enormous bike through some of the crazy stuff we encountered there and farther down the road. Mad skills and no fear!

C't'd...

 

[Beowulf]

c't'd from above

Shade aplenty to stop and hydrate...

Road kept getting more interesting, narrower and soon, shadier as we climbed from the oaks into the pines.

Claude kindly doing gate duty as we crossed into ranches... wonder where all that dust on my lens came from!

Yeah, there is a road there, somewhere...

For some reason or another, I never seem to stop and capture the really entertaining rocks and such...

We made it through all of the challenging stuff, rocks, ledges, ruts, etc. It was not as tough as the infamous Crown King adventure with @Prmurat, a few weeks ago, but I think the cumulative beatings finally caught up to Black Betty (that bad bitch.)

We all three blew by a caravan of Jeeps that were making some portion of the trek, as it started to widen out into more of what one might call a dirt road. After stirring up sufficient dust, we stopped to compare thoughts on the previous 30 miles or so that had occupied the better part of several hours.

We all noticed that BBTBB was leaning in considerably... upon further inspection, it became obvious that the rear A arm had let go, once again.

I limped it a little ways down the now relatively easy road, but the load shift took out the bolts that hold the upper rear mount to the seat rail and then the front A arm let go as well.

We decided that there was no trail repair going to happen for this situation, so discussed options.

The best thing we could come up with was parking her off road in a "camping" mode, and me riding bitch on the luggage plate of Claude's GSA, back to civilization, then returning with Claude's truck and trailer in the morning for an off-road recovery. Did I mention btw, that Claude is a saint?

It had cooled off to 44F (7 C) by the time we made up our minds on how to proceed. It was time to put a few layers back on after the prior workout:

Well, she was still there in the morning, unmolested.

C't'd

 

[Beowulf]

c't'd

Started right up and rode her onto the trailer.

Jacked her up in the center, shoved some 4x4 chunks under the A arms to take some load off the remaining top mount, then applied something less than a million rachet straps to all corners, in hopes that she would sit still for 18 miles or so of heavy duty washboards.

There were quite a few stops to check straps on the washboards, with a few adjustments and additions, but all in all, she rode the trailer of shame with aplomb.

Where bolts used to hold the top rear mount to the seat rail... I have a hunch extraction of the remaing pieces will be interesting, no doubt.

Home again, home again...

Wasn't quite in the mood to start cleaning and disassembly, yet, but at least secure and back home.

So I'm sure there are several that will say I never learn, but let's review what I may have learned or confirmed...

1. I have some really great riding buddies that I hang out with. Not only did Claude go above and beyond, but Greg offered as well, and even another rider who wasn't on the ride offered trailer services and help (thanks @Prmurat !!!) I am a very fortunate person.

2. Jon @SIDECARUSA is a stand up dude. I sent him a few pictures of what happened, at about 10 pm on a Saturday night, and he is shipping out some newly redesigned A arms on Monday. I think our friends at TSC are really trying to do things right.

3. Regardless of the unfortunate opportunity to rebuild BBTBB stronger, better, and faster, I had an outstandingly good time. I ordered this rig to do exactly this sort of ride. It has failed a few times under what I am starting to understand is more harsh use than most people imagine an adventure sidecar rig to withstand. With each iteration on repair, redisign, bracing, gussetting, it fails less and goes on more interesting adventures.

4. I am seeing some limits on a "heavy" rig that probably isn't as strong as I wish it was. It is giving me more ideas of what the "next" rig might look like, with a lighter, stronger frame, subframe and swingarm. I am pretty sure that I am entering rare territory, from a marketing perspective, but there are lessons to be learned from the people that have built rigs that survive; i.e. our Australian friends, Baja Racers, and assorted people here that know materials science, welding, fabrication, etc. I'm not ready to start a new build, but I am accumulating ideas!

What a wild weekend! Stay tuned for the rebirth of Black Betty (that sweet girl.)

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

Spent the afternoon cleaning, disassembling and inspecting...

She got a bath, to at least knock enough dirt off to see what was going on:

Got the bike leaned back to vertical to start out the process...

Ran tilt to min, max, then marked and placed it at middle of range of adjustment. Will use that as the starting point for re-attaching the car to the bike.

Got the hack frame sitting on 4x4's, relatively level, and started busting clamps loose.:

Front A arm: looks like the cracks had been there a while, and propagated to the breaking point suddenly.

Similar story on the rear A arm:

The attach points for both top mounts to the hack frame had also wallowed a bit, and were a little loose.

c't'd

 

[Beowulf]

c't'd

Will need to face the tube surface that the bolt goes through to create a flat surface to crank it together and mate with:

Bolts through hack top frame rail could stand to to be a little longer; only engages 5 to 6 threads.

Not sure a split lock washer is the best solution, here.

L shaped bracket (angle iron) is the top mount that I have always known needed to be better. The two M8 bolts that thread into the aluminum seat rail frame extension, into blind holes, both snapped off, one below flush, and allowed the top rear mount to float free.

I think the top rear mount single shear angle iron L bracket needs to turn into a C shape double shear mount that wraps around the seat rail, with bolts passing through instead of blind. I would also like to lengthen it to have it catch the M12 bolt that secures the aluminum seat rail to the steel frame. Add a strap/clamp from it to the steel rod that has a tab bolted under the back side of the M12, and it might be strong enough. (ok at least a hell of a lot stronger.)

Longer shot of the rear, top strut mount, before strut removal:

L bracket held in position...

View from above, L bracket held to seat rail:

Where I decided to stop for the evening:

 

[Sled]

Wow Bummer of a way to arrive home, without Black Betty, (sweet girl that). Glad no-one fondled her! Nothin kinky and stuff!
Nice repair and man you go threw some tires!
How much does the Hack weigh?

 

[Beowulf]

Wow Bummer of a way to arrive home, without Black Betty, (sweet girl that). Glad no-one fondled her! Nothin kinky and stuff!
Nice repair and man you go threw some tires!
How much does the Hack weigh?

Thanks, yeah, it was a bummer. Will get built back stronger, though! Stay tuned for triangulation.

She currently tips the scales just under 1,100 lbs with fluids and all the junk I carry. I continue to look for ways to lighten her, but short of a major redesign or jettisoning the winch, she is a pretty heavy rig.

Next one might be a chromoly frame with an aluminum tub, but not ready to commit to that build, yet!

That poor back tire has only 3,100 miles on it... 😁 but power slides around corners are just too much fun! 🤣

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

Today's foolishness started out with a trip to the welding supply joint for a fresh tank of Argon gas for the TIG. They close at 4 pm, and I had ideas of working late this evening on fabbing up some sort of improvement in the way the top rear strut attaches to the bike side.

I probably devoted more brain power than I actually have to thinking about complex clamps that I could make, in lieu of extracting the two broken M8 bolts out of the aluminum cast seat tail frame rail. As I headed out, I stopped in the shop and decided to see if I could get them out, one more time.

The rail is injection molded aluminum, with a couple of bosses for the bolts to go thread into the aluminum casting. During last weekend's mishaps, both bolts snapped, after the lower A arms failed at the clamps where they join the lower sidecar frame tube.

The bolts held a piece of angle iron from the bottom, to the rail, with quite a cantilever arm from the strut mount to act on them. I have had this work loose a couple of times, so these bolts were both harder, longer, and loctited in.

I had thought, hey, at least one of them should be easy, just clamp a pair of vise-grips on the bolt stub and spin it on out. Ha Ha Ha! That was fun, except it wasn't.

The vise-grips got good purchase on the stub, but still couldn't hold enough torque to get it to move. It was in solid. I applied plenty of heat, but still no love.

Ok, so let's drill the ******* and use an easy out.

Nope... Got the easy out extractor in with a good grip, drilled maybe a 6mm hole so it could engage deep. Put a wrench on it and gently applied torque, up until I could feel the easy out hitting that point just before they snap off and leave an even bigger mess. I had also applied quite a bit of penetrating oil, incase the "stuckness" has something to do with dissimilar metals, corrosion, etc. No love.

Finally, (and you know I am stubborn) I screwed an 8mm nut onto the remnants of the bolt, and hit the center with the TIG welder to fuse the nut to the broken bolt.

Let it cool a little, but not too much, and put a wrench on it.

Finally, feeling a little love from it, as it broke loose and could be backed out:

So on to the 2nd bolt that had snapped off below flush with the boss.

Drilled, heated, put the extractor in, and no love. It definitely wanted to break the extractor, not remove the bolt.

At about that point, Claude called to chat about what his friends were thinking regarding lower A arm mounts that I am pondering. Of course I whined profusely about my thread extraction woes, and Claude made a great suggestion.

Why not drill it out just big enough to put a heli-coil in? This was especially cool, since I happened to have a kit of M8 x1.25 heli-coils, along with the right drill, left over from past adventures with rear brake rotor bolts in the Haan hub.

So, fortunately, I had a 90 degree drill that would clear the header pipes, without their removal. What could be more fun than laying on your back drilling overhead with hot chips raining down?

Drilled the bolt remanent out, mostly straight, and decided that since the hole went almost all the way through the boss, why not put it the rest of the way through, so I could run a bolt through, weld some tabs on the angle iron bracket, and have it clamp in double shear to the aluminum seat rail.

So that is what I did.

Pretty new threads. Not really necessary with the through hole, but add a layer of bolt security, if I run a bolt up from the bottom and then put a nut on the other side.

Took a break, ran out to the welding shop for the Argon, and came back to fiddle with the bracket mods:

Top strut mount mostly as it came from the old DMC in WA. You can see how downward force on the strut mount would put a lot of leverage against those poor little M8 bolt heads. I had slotted the holes enough to allow sliding the bracket tight against the vertical face of the rail, at least. It originally had about a 1/4" gap that increased the leverage on the bolts and allowed it to flex on inward forces.

Made and welded a couple of tabs onto the angle iron bracket to make it wrap around three sides of the aluminum frame rail.

We won't be looking too closely at the welding, today. It appears that in changing out the gas tank, I bumped the flow control valve downward significantly for the shield gas. I discovered this as I was welding, and things were a little ugly. Don't worry, they are stuck "real gud!"

Drilled the through hole from the bottom to run a long bolt all the way through the now U shaped mount and clamp it in double shear. Also drilled a couple of holes in the tabs and angle iron to be able to run bolts through, just behind the aluminum rail, and clamp the tabs down in double shear to the aluminum frame rail.

Left lower rear mounting hole alone, since I could run a bolt into the aluminum threads for some positioning/minor clamping force. Didn't run the rear hole all the way through the aluminum because it had a frame member at an angle, on top of the boss.

Bolted everything up for a test fit, prior to painting. Yeah, there was a little Dremel work on the holes to get the bolts to just fit snuggly behind the aluminum rail. Real custom stuff, that.

View from underside. Two bolts towards the sidecar are the original locations. The two bolts offset to the bike side go through the steel and clamp it against the frame rail. Overall, felt very solid, no flex when levered on with a big wrench.

Custom Krylon and it is ready for mounting in the morning.

I believe this arrangement is "a lot stronger" than it was. The notch in the parts I added is clearance for the strut that goes across the bike, connecting to the rail on the other side (factory Honda, not my addition.)

I do not believe that the aluminum seat rail is "good enough" though, for the rear top strut alone, as a total solution.

I have studied the frame diagrams, and meditated on the frame itself a little, and have come to the conclusion that a "Middle Top Strut" that goes from the position on the sidecar top frame rail to the the heaviest part of the bike's steel main frame, above and in front of the rider right foot peg, just underneath the gas tank, is probably a permanent solution.

A middle top strut will carry some of the load that the top rear strut currently takes by itself, especially on hits to the hack wheel when it goes over rocks and ruts.

Not saying it will never break, but I think it will move the needle to the right, considerably, as far as rigidity and strength go.

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new A arms that Jonny shipped Monday. Should arrive Saturday afternoon. Stay tuned.

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

This post is kind of "bolt nerd" heavy, so be forewarned before diving in.

This afternoon, I decided to do a little more work in preparation for my spiffy new A arms arriving tomorrow evening, according to UPS tracking at least.

I bolted on the painted and enhanced Top Rear strut mount; blue loctite in the threaded aluminum hole, no loctite on heli-coil hole, and orange loctite on the flange nuts on the bolt ends.

Also sorted through the hell bucket and found bolts and hardware to eliminate zip ties from the Ohlins rear shock preload adjuster and the Wilco hack brake proportioning valve installations. Now bolted in tight.

Also figured out wire routing and a location for the tilt adjust switch that is still somewhat temporary until I take the tank off next time and wire up the nice switch that @Prmurat gave me a long time ago.

The main problem I wanted to attack today was the mounting points for the upper struts to the sidecar frame. I mentioned a while back that they had wallowed a little in the holes (through tubes) that support them in the top frame rail. The bolts were plenty tight, yet, but the ends of the tube had deformed from the narrow bearing surface of the mounting point contacting soft steel pluming tubing used in the initial fabrication.

The width of the bearing surface is about 3 mm, so side load, from acceleration/deceleration rolls the end of the tubing over and creates slop. When the struts were disconnected, I could deflect them about 15 degrees in any direction, without first loosening the "tight" bolts that were loctited in to the mounting point threads.

Pic shows bearing surface on mounting point and kinda messy tube it butts against when the 3/4" fine thread bolt is torqued down.

I was also not liking how the old DMC WA had selected grade 5 bolts that only came through the frame tube far enough to engage 6 threads max into the two mounting points.

I faced off the tube ends with an angle grinder and finished with a file to get a smooth mating surface on both ends, for the bolt, washers and mounting point to ride on. Figured starting with it flat might help.

Then hopped on my little sissy bike for a pleasant run to the hardware store for some bolts and washers:

Found some longer grade 8 bolts (on left) vs. the grade 5 bolts from the wankers in WA that were too short. Sheesh, almost $10 each!

The original install had a split lock washer under the bolt head and nothing between the mounting point and frame through-tube. I applaud the thinking of using a lock washer, but I think in this application, the flex in a split washer lets the bolt rock back and forth, and deform the already kind of soft steel that the through-tube is made of.

Pic: Bottom bolt is original, with split lockwasher. Top is new bolt with grade 8 hardened flat washers. Will use orange loctite and plenty of torque for the locking fuction.

Now you are probably noticing, you bolt nerds, that the flat washers fit surprisingly tight on the bolt shaft, when compared to typical 3/4" flat washers you would pick out of the bin at the hardware store.

Here is where it gets a little obsessive:

I did not like the slop in the the 3/4" washers, there was probably 3 to 4 mm of looseness due to the center hole being oversized to fit loosely.

However, the 5/8" hardened, thick washers, just almost fit, when I tried them in the bin. There were no 11/16" hardened, thick washers available, so what is a bolt nerd to do?

Well, since it was only 4 washers required, get the dremel out with a carbide bit and enlarge the holes in the 5/8" washers to just fit snug on the 3/4" bolt shaft. It went pretty quick doing them two at a time. Fit real nice!

Cleaned up the face and the threads on the mounting point (wire wheel in Dremel for threads.) Before pic, didn't shoot the after.

Then did a test fit on bolt length, with the two washers. Ended up shortening the new bolts by about 6mm to be able to tighten them fully with out bottoming out in the mounting point.

I will now be starting out with rock solid mounting points on the top strut mounts, for reassembly. Note the thread engagement into the strut leaves a little to be desired as well. May make a longer strut, or shorten the front A arm by 13mm or so, depending on how long the threaded portion is that the Heim joint goes into. Would like to pick up another 3 threads of engagement on the top strut than it currently has.

C't'd

 

[Beowulf]

c't'd

View from under the sidecar, bolt, grade 8 thick washer, frame through tube, grade 8 thick washer, mounting point stack. The thick washers are a little larger diameter than the face of the through-tubes, so provide as wide an area as possible to spread the clamping load on to. Might prevent the deformation and loosening of the mounting points...

I did not crank the mounting points down tight, since I would like to be able to rotate them as I fool with top strut attachment, once the A arms come in. I think more rigidity was achieved, though.

Foot note: Anyone with an old DMC hack might want to think about taking a look at the area where the mounting points for the top struts join the frame tubes. Probably ok, but definitively a source of play.

I probably had enough fun for the day with this little trip down a rabbit hole, but did study the potential position for a 3rd top strut mounting point for the bike side.

I sat on the bike and checked out where my calf/ankle would be in a few different positions on the right footpeg. (sittting, standing, leaning forward, etc.)

I decided the way to do it is to form a flat steel bracket that the top will bolt under a longer version of this M10 bolt that holds the top mount for the aluminum seat rail to the steel bike frame, here:

That bracket will come out and away from the bike far enough for a mounting point to be attached with a nut. It will then go down to the lower M12 bolt (that I expanded from an M10, a long time ago) that holds the bottom mount of the seat rail to the steel bike frame, here:

I'm thinking 1/4" (6mm) flat stock should suffice, with sufficient bosses to provide a little stand off from the steel bike frame.

A strut (to be bought/fabbed) will then run from that mounting point to either the middle or the rear mounting location on the top frame tube of the hack.

This is the currently unused middle top mount hole on the top frame tube:

I am leaning towards using rear mounting point, though, since that would form an additional triangular plane that would eat some of the acceleration and deceleration forces between the bike and the hack. TBD.

I can put the rig back on the road without the middle strut, and it will still be stronger than it has ever been, with the few recent mods and the new A arms (that I will also triangulate to the top frame tube, in addition to their already massive strength.)

I might temper my riding a bit, though, before adding the 3rd top strut, and a strap from the new middle top mounting point running to the front top strut mounting point that has always been able to flex forward and backward due to it's cantilever mounting to the bike frame.

Fun fun fun!

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

Made a little progress with the repairs to Black Betty (that sweet girl) today. Shop was a very pleasant temperature, so pretty much spent the day in it:

Since I had the nice new A arms from TSC, as of last night (THANKS @SIDECARUSA JONNY AND KENT!!!), I decided to do a little prep work and get them installed. I had delusions of maybe going for a ride, later, but spent far too much time fussing with alignment to really make that happen.

Commentary/observations: Since I have now been able to compare the old DMC A arms, a set of transitional TSC A arms, and the newest next gen A arms side by side. here are my thoughts.

Welding is pretty nice on the TSC generated A arms. The next gen ones that I am now working with are the nicest of the bunch.

The design change to go with a full length clamp seems to be a sound idea. I have observed the failure modes on the two prior sets. They all seem to start at the outside edge of clamp, and propagate around the welds to the cross members. This design should increase the force required to flex the clamp at the weld area under deceleration and acceleration. So good idea.

There are also a pair of triangular gussets added in lieu of the old cross brace. This increased the contact with the clamping surface and should make them resist tearing out, a little more. (maybe a lot more.)

Now to work:

First, since there were plenty of threads in the end pieces (weld nuts?) I decided to shorten the front A arm by about 5/8" or ~15mm. I wanted to do this because it has always been tough to get toe-in and lean-out to work with the top strut lengths and equal length A arms. I always had to crank the front heim joint in as far as it would go, then adjust toe-in with the rear one. Doing that, I still had less than optimum thread engagement with the strut mounting points and end eyes. Almost always right at 5 threads engagement and not really set the way I wanted it.

So...

Looked like the threaded sleave was welded at the outside end (that I cut off.)

So I fused it with the TIG welder and cleaned up the weld face to have a nice surface for the lock nut to engage with.

So next, I bolted the new A arms up, kind of loosely, and dialed in the bike 1/2 degree lean out, supported with 4x4 s, shims, and a jack while I had the hack level front to back and side to side, with the tilt set in the middle of its range.

This was kind of a starting point for screwing with toe-in. I got a little bit obsessive, since when I get the A arms braced, as I will describe in a later update, resetting toe-in will be a little more of a pain in the ass than it is currently.

I also loaded the bike seat up with weights equaling my weight in full gear, after a big lunch and installed the aluminum straight edges for toe-in measurement.

8 tries was the charm. I had been running 5/8" toe-in, and decided that I want to try 13/16" before locking everything into semi-permanent adjustment.

Managed to stay at 0.4 degrees lean-out, decided for no great reason other than imagined aerodynamic improvement, to adjust the front to back angel of the chair to point nose down by 0.4 degrees. Any reason this is a bad idea? I'm thinking it will level out if there is a passenger in the side car, but didn't test it.

Both top struts, and both top mounting points are at maximum length with 5 threads engaged. I definitely need to make some new struts that will give a little more range of adjustment AND have a safety factor for thread engagement. Not sure what the thought process was with old DMC length selection. They are too short for my liking.

Decided that was the stopping point for the evening. Started around lunch-time, finished around midnight. Sheesh, you'd think I was getting paid by the hour, huh?

Here is what it looked like as I went in for dinner... yes, that is a 10 lb sledge leaning up against the tool box. The top front mounting tube had bent forward about 3/4" (19mm) in the festivities on the BDR, and required a bit of adjustment back to straight.

Tomorrow, I will test ride it with the increased toe-in and see if I like it. If yes, then I will lock every thing down tight, and fab up the mystery braces, that are in my fetid imagination, to take some of the torsional load off of the A arm clamps to the lower frame tube.

Stay tuned for the insanity...

 

[Dieselboy]

Beowulf, I will start by saying hacks are not my thing. I have no plans nor contemplations about ever riding one. However, I very much enjoy your detailed rationales and meticulous build notes. It is a pleasure to watch you craft and improve this unique machine. Passion always impresses....👏

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

I managed to entertain myself in the shop, again, for a bit, today.

I decided to ride Black Betty (that sweet girl) out and around the county a little, to see how yesterday's toe-in shenanigans has worked out, prior to welding up the braces for the spiffy new A arms.

Side note: Heard from Jonny this morning; it seems that I might not of needed to shorten the front A arm, as it was already 1/2" (13mm) shorter than the rear one. Maybe this is new, or maybe I never really checked the others, but it does explain the 4" (100mm) of toe-in I started out with, after I lopped an additional 15mm off of it, yesterday! I don't mind it being even shorter. For the kind of toe-in that I am gravitating towards, it keeps the range of adjustment easy.

So, prior to taking off on an experimental voyage, there were a number of bolts to check torque on, zip ties to replace, exhaust to hook up, and other fiddly stuff to keep things from getting into mischief. I didn't bother to reinstall the winch, heat-shields, side covers, etc.; since there remains some work to be done with the new bracing.

She ended up nice and solid, no free play when bouncing the side car around, so I decided she was respectable enough to do a few errands, and take a blast down the freeway to see what the increase from 5/8" to 13/16" toe-in felt like.

I decided that I like it. Those hack tires last too long, anyway.

Took her up to warp speed on the interstate and discovered that the steering stays neutral up until about 85mph, before a pull to the right develops (no windscreen deployed.) This raised the "no pull to the right" speed by about 10 mph, so will call it a win, as long as I don't go through hack tires every other week. The last one lasted over 30,000 miles, though.

After assorted errands and Tom Foolery, I decided to start the bracing project that I have in mind for the new A arms.

I took the oldest, broken set of DMC WA A arms out of the scrap pile and reshaped the torn clamps, then welded them up, into original shape. Likely about as strong as they ever were.

Yeah, the welding is ugly, but no doubts about penetration.

Hit them with a little Krylon, and called it good enough for a support brace to A arms that are likely much stronger than the last pair, to begin with.

Goal is to take some of the twisting force off the new A arm clamps on the bottom rail by transferring some of the rotational force to the top rail.

Applied a band saw to the rear one, and created a stubby A arm, cut at an angle closely approximating the one needed for it to mate to the new, installed and adjusted A arm, while clamping to the top frame tube:

Not exactly brilliant engineering, but available materials, etc.:

The rear most clamp falls almost exactly on center with the top strut mounting point. I decided that weakening it by relieving both the A arm side and the clamping shell side to fit around the mounting point was a compromise that was ok to make, since any strength this adds is on top of what strength the new A arms bring to the table:

Doesn't even cover up the serial number sticker!

Here is a longer shot at about the point I decided to call it an evening:

Looking down, from the front of the rig, at brace in position on top of the rear A arm.

Brace is just sitting loosely with a bolt in each clamp to test fit.

Tomorrow's nonsense will involve prepping for welding, and modding up the other one of the pair to use on the front A arm. Front one does not require relief for the clamps on the top frame tube, but will be a little fiddly around where it will attach next to the winch mount.

All in all, a fine day, with no handling surprises. It is pretty funny how you can get used to slop creeping into a rig's handling, slowly, over time. It had been about 14,000 miles since the last set of A arms had puked. I think the last set were slowly cracking and allowing things to loosen up (along with the top mount and top strut mounting points.)

While out riding, I kept thinking, wow, no slop in the handling. Instant, light response. I think I think this way every time I fix something and it feels better. Probably a function of gradual, hard to notice, degradation in performance, then the shock of handling better than it ever has. Who knows how much is real, but it definitely feels taut while riding and very responsive.

Will post the rest of the bracing project as it completes, likely tomorrow if I don't get distracted.

 

[Beowulf]

Well Friends,

Got back out to the shop this afternoon to continue with the A arm support brace idea, using old A arms as the starting point.

From my observations of failure modes of several sets, they always look like they start tearing at the bottom of the clamp, like the downward force that the hack applies to the joint twists it, similar to if you stood on the A arm and jumped up and down.

With that thought, I believe some of the twisting could be transferred up to the top frame rail with a shortened bracket, welded to the top of the A arm. It would not have to be super strong to resist the twisting forces, just stuck down to the A arm and clamped to the top frame tube.

Yeah, I know, build a new frame/sub-frame and call it a day. Not quite ready to do that, although I am sure I will eventually.

So, here is what the next evolution is looking like:

Most of the welding is connecting the old A arm reinforcement triangle plate to the new A arm triangle reinforcement plate. Both are 1/4" steel.

We are not zooming in too close on the welding... It would have been nice to have done it on a bench, but I wanted the clamps already tight on the frame tubes, before welding, so did it on the bike.

The view from underneath the tub... Where I spent considerable time fiddling with getting bolts in and tight.

Cut the front one at a little more of an oblique angle, to accommodate the winch mount. Since the winch mount was welded so nicely to the triangle plate, I welded the brace to both.

Stuff finally cooled off enough for a rattle can of Krylon to turn it black, again.

Sure, there are cleaner, better ways of doing it, but I think the A arm breaking problem is likely taken care of.

Now about that 3rd top strut... stay tuned.