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Slaughterhouse Sally 63 Pan

47K views 249 replies 34 participants last post by  slvrx 
#1 · (Edited)
After a profitable year and being able to comfortably pay taxes I decided to get a Panhead. After looking locally I hit the auction site. $25-30K was way outta budget and the only thing that caught my eye was this 63 swingarm.

Of course I cringed when I saw the color and the pinstripes. Not to mention the shop name all over it. Found the same thing listed on Craigs and made contact. A deal was made and owner took listing off of auction site.

Onto the Porn.....

As she sits today.


The Glory Days.


Should be obvious to all that Suckerpunch built this bike. Not much info on their build as far as I can find. Lots of info on shop after Old Man Clayton burned a few.

So I pick her up last Sunday in BFE Oklahoma. Damn near Kansas border.
Owner Nick does a cold start ritual, and no dice. Waits a few and tries again. Glory Be, she's a runner ! Rocker clutch and Jockey shift. This will be interesting as I have never ridden that setup. Gravel road also. While my wife makes chit-chat w owner I tootle down the drive only to kill it at the road. Fuck. I hope she starts again. She does and off I go. I'm good till time to turn around. Back into first. Wait, where is first again ? Got it. Painful amount of gas and ease the clutch only to rocket down the gravel road with shit flying everywhere. Oh yeah, interesting. I manage to not look like a retard when pulling into driveway only to realize the brakes are shitty. Well, its a long driveway and I make a stop. Big grin on my face and off to do some paperwork ($).

The good:

Clean paperwork.
Recent(verifiable) rebuild on engine. Longbow Customs. See Facebook for build.
Factory frame, transmission, forks.

The bad:

Did I mention it has Suckerpunch all over it ?
Not a fan of turquoise.
Shovel swingarm/brakes.
Lack of braking.
It has Suckerpunch all over it
Seat is lame.
Super B w/ Superbowl is a bit funky when she's hot. Starting ritual is being worked out between she and I.
And it has Suckerpunch all over it.







Kick pedal looks like a chick on rollerskates and a cowboy hat taking a dump. Classy !
 
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#66 ·
I'm having a brain-fuck on the brake stay.


Caliper bracket has 3/8" hole and square swingarm has existing 1/2 hole.
Approximately 12" length needed.

Add to that equation an offset of 1/2".



I have been searching for a solution but main setback is the 1/2" hole in swingarm.



Any ideas ?
 
#68 ·
Instead of digging out a pile of $$ for joe49 or buying some fancy-schmancy, heim joint doodadery I hit the multiple hoard(junk) piles and corners of the garage.

3/4" dom tube, check.

3/8 bung, check.

Welder with 7' of flux core left on reel, check.

The dom tube has i.d. of 1/2". Easy enough. Cut a piece 0.850" and we have our swingarm side. 3/8" bung was 1" so cut off counter sunk portion and we're good to go. Weld 1/2" end and see how it lines up...dead center of caliper bracket. Ok, cut 2/3 of the way into tube and bend an offset. Line up w/ 3/8" bung, tack, remove and weld it up.





If I had smaller rod laying around I would have used that. Oh, well. You run what you got sometimes.
 
#71 ·
Yup.

Considering the front drum is mostly cosmetic at this point, I thought bigger is better. Once I get the foot clutch reconfigured I will make my way to the front brake. I'm considering a round swingarm in the near future so back brake may change.
 
#72 ·
Just chiming in to say im glad you're getting this bike sorted out, it would be an asap thing for me to wipe the previous owners name and paint off the bike. im surpised people are proud of their half ass work on stuff. Then again im just as amateur but i dont put my fuckin name all over my bike and sell it to some unsuspecting soul.

anyways i've been dealing with a lot of similar scenarios on my shovelhead, so wanted to you to know youre not alone thats for sure. im sounding like an alcoholic support group right now. ha hah
 
#73 ·
Just chiming in to say im glad you're getting this bike sorted out, it would be an asap thing for me to wipe the previous owners name and paint off the bike. im surpised people are proud of their half ass work on stuff. Then again im just as amateur but i dont put my fuckin name all over my bike and sell it to some unsuspecting soul.

anyways i've been dealing with a lot of similar scenarios on my shovelhead, so wanted to you to know youre not alone thats for sure. im sounding like an alcoholic support group right now. ha hah
My name is John, Im a bike-aholic.( Hi, John !)
Its been 3 weeks since I have ridden a bike. (Clapping)
It started when I was 5 years old. My father had a motorcycle. His father had a tractor. I knew I was different when at that young age, I burned my fingers on a hot exhaust pipe. After that I have been chasing the "high" for almost 50 years.
 
#75 ·
Welcome, JAWS.

(clap)

So we are hearing that you've spent your life repairing broken bikes cobbled together by booger eating morons with ham-fists for a long time. Troglodytes with wrenches and cool guy t-shirts and tattoos have created monstrosities that seem to find their way to you and you fix them like a mother hen, often at the expense of your own sanity.

How does that make you feel?

(long uncomfortable pause)

(cool guy shop bro at back pretends to get coffee, then slips out the back door)

Wait! All are welcome here. Come back. No judgements

(sheepish shuffling return with eyes to the floor)

Do you want to share today, cool guy? You've been coming around for a while and we haven't heard from you.

(expression shows he's really wresting with this, he wants to come clean)

Uhhhh. Ummm

My love for bikes is real since the day my pop took me on his at my second birthday. It grew as I grew older until one day i got my own. The world was mine, old bikes, places to go, cold beer, good friends. . .

(hesitation)

. . . but somehow I lost my way. Maybe it was the Instagram? Maybe it was the Chop Cult? I don't know how it happened, but one day I started seeing my friends and fellow bike addicts as customers to be fleeced. It struck me that the image could be sold for more money than quality work.

And I rode it all the way to the bottom, leaving a trail of burned relationships and shitty motorcycles with fugazi paint jobs and gaudy logos. Underneath the flash were hose clamps and wire nuts and electrical tape and . . .

(breaks down into tears)

Welcome, cool guy. We love you. Thanks for sharing
 
#78 ·
My ability to post has been hampered by my career as a standup comedy/male stripper. Business is good. Lots of laughs, but I think they are paying me to leave rather than to stay.

Lets recap...

Rocker clutch, gone. In its place is a traditional style shift bracket/lever.
Hashing out if I want 5/16" bolt w/ old brake rod adjuster to hold clutch rod or use another lever w/ 3/8" pin thru eye.



The 3/8" pin uses a snap ring retainer. The shovel kept spitting those off of the shifter drum so I dont have a lot of faith when it comes to using them on a clutch lever.

The 1/8" thick bracket flexes when lever is pressed down but I found one thats 7mm so that will find it way on soon.

Other issue is rod end at trans. Rocker had a spring to keep it from moving around and now this set up is all over the place. Rod freely move in/out of clutch arm, lever move also.

Trans lid is bump stop froward and battery tray is bump stop backward. Not an ideal set-up, for sure.


 
#79 ·
Leave the surclip for the buzzards and use the bolt. Much better holding and use a lock nut, or poly nut. On the rod, just slightly bend the end, so it swedges in the slot. Even a drop of super glue to boot. If you bend it enough it will stay there until you tap it out. On my chopper, I cut the end of the arm off, and drilled and tapped it and use another front eyelet with a shortened allen bolt and longer shoulder to hold it in place with a flat washer. Worked for years and never failed.
 
#80 · (Edited)
The cut and tap method didnt even cross my mind. Thanks for the tip. The arm is chewed up by the chain anyway so its not like a pristine factory original.



What about the free play of the arm itself ? I have 1" of travel.


Edit: O-ring on both sides of "shifter" lever shaft is keeping it from swinging freely.


Double edit : Duh.. clutch pushrod adjustment.
 
#81 ·
A couple things I did to my foot clutch setup . . .

Cut the end off the clutch arm and drilled and tapped (as mentioned) so I could install a rod-end bearing. See curved arrow in pic.

Shorten the lever arm on the foot pedal to get a nice slow release at the clutch. If you look closely at the pic in this area, you'll see an arrow and two lines between the main rotating axis and the rod connection point. You can adjust this length by cutting down the arm and drilling a new hole. The shorter the arm, the less sensitive the clutch will be. I have this bike geared really HIGH and I lived in NYC at the time and needed smooth clutch for riding around town.

Put a piece of rubber oil line hose on the oil tank tab just behind the clutch arm so I wouldn't hear it bang. I hate noises when I'm on long distance rides.

Years after this pic, I installed a round spring on the foot pedal pivot shaft holding it at the release position. Gives it a little extra resistance too as this diaphragm clutch takes almost no effort. Saves the wafer-style throwout bearing I run too.

Made a clutch foot peg that rolls on the shaft. I was teaching myself machining at the time and was practicing knurling. The reason this one rolls is so you can keep your heel grounded on the floorboard and move your foot up and down to release/engage the clutch without the peg binding or sliding on the bottom of your boot.

This thing is like silk. I made this setup in 2003 and it's been that way since without a single failure or hassle.

Jason

p.s. - more random pictures of my old shop in Philly here: Winter morning in Philly shop

 
#84 ·
Wish I had the patience to do photos on here. I can do them on the members page with ease. But the process to put them on here, is beyond my willingness to do several procedures, just to find that the photo is to large, or got lost in internet hell.

Nice work Jason. Mind is more of a cobbling of parts, and I don't really try to make mine look like showroom work. Just make it work and not look like hammer and chisel work. But then, I don't do much chopper work. More in the line of decommissioning old chops(I have two, and am working on my third, and have built them in my younger days, just not so much now), and trying to make them look more original. Even though I am a better mechanic than creator of new things. I fab a thing or two , out of pressure from my customers, but I try to use OEM parts where I can. I love the original look, short of a few things.
 
#85 ·
After getting the back brake and clutch roughed out enough to ride, Sally dont wanna start. Like Stevie Ray Vaughn she's flooding down in Texas. I have kicked that bitch like a govt mule. A little rumble and nothing. My (getting) old 155 lbs ass gets worn out quick.



Im taking it to an acquaintance who loves Pans and is familiar w S&S B carbs. The motor rebuild 400 miles ago didnt include any carb work and I suspect we have the issue there. We will go thru the tune up procedure, 1 at a time of course.



Speaking of motors, while verifying that the petcock was working correctly I noticed some oil seepage around the cylinder base studs. A quick pull on a 5/8" wrench and we have a 1/4 turn on the nuts. I could get to most w/o pulling parts but now it looks like I may have to pull the front exhaust and generator. Damn you, Sally ! This bike is like a bad rash. Keeps coming back to irritate me. No worries, she will be saying "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plains." soon enough.
 
#86 ·
New plugs, different intermediate jet and jettison the Superbowl and we have a winner. Finally got to ride Ol' Sally above 40mph. She will do 70mph no problem.


Revamped foot clutch is working as expected. With the pivot point being above the heel of my boot, its still feels like riding a Ford 8N tractor. Not unpleasant, but something to work on later.


Back brake set-up not great. Altho GMA claims that the Kelsey/Hayes master is a replacement for the Warner style I did need the shorten the rod from brake lever to get the whole shebang mounted. Now pedal is damn near to foot board before making any difference. At that point I can lock it up. Will bleed again to see if that helps.
 
#88 ·
Tap, Tap, Tap. Is this thing on ? Wait...turn up the volume. Ok amp is warmed up.


So I decide to take a Saturday afternoon spin recently. An MC event to be exact. I want to show off to any who care(not many). Ol' Sally fires up like a champ. She and I roll out and all is good in the world. Sun is out, wind in my hair and bugs in my teeth. A glorious day, indeed.


I exit the tollway and take a small back road to where I'm going. 2 blocks later and Sally aint doin it no more. Stalls out. My first thought was fuel. Nope, topped off before leaving. Next thought was the maybe the switch on dash. It has a habit of killing power if wiggled just right. I wiggle switch a bit and check if headlight is on. It is, but dim. Hmm, interesting.


Meanwhile, a helpful local stops to see if he can help. I ask if he could round up a pair of wire strippers and off he goes. The plan is a quick hot-wire job to get her home. 10 seconds after that local leaves, another helpful gent pulls up. This one is an electrician and has a meter. Sweet Jesus, hallelujah ! We check battery and 6 volts. Wait..I'm pretty sure its a 12 volt system. It is a 12 volter, says so on the battery. I assume the worst and claim "Its the generator or voltage regulator".


Helpful local is back and I thank him but the bike wont be fixed on the road. Friendly electrician suggest that he goes home (3 minutes away) and get a trailer to drag Ol' Sally and I back to home turf. I, of course, agree.


Back home, electrician and I discuss mutual acquaintances and how he stops for bikers and veterans. What a delight.He refused any payment for going out of his way.
I make note of his name, recall location of breakdown, 5 second internet search for address and he has a gift card for a steakhouse in the mail.

After helpful electrician is gone, I take a look under the seat. Unhook battery and go about charging it up. My charger is one of those auto, LED, noisy bastards that is a set-it-and-foget-it type. I barley had time to light up a cig when it makes a "ding-ding, Im done" sound. WTF ? A closer inspection reveals a burnt wire along frame a few inches past the seat post. No big deal, Replace and re-route. Sally fires right up and problem solved.


I could leave leave this mess of all-black wiring with pinched and cut bits everywhere or yank it all and start over.


I know the basics. Been there, done that.


So before I start I have but 1 question...is 14ga wire good enough from Franks voltage regulator to battery or is 12ga a better choice ?
 
#89 ·
14 is good, as 12 is like cable and maybe to big to push the voltage through with only about 10 amps. Unless you have a CE high amp genny. And even then, 14 is plenty big. The Franks reg, is only to regulate the amps/volts from the genny. So, do it up with 14, and you should be good. Sometimes I even run 16 on my OEM gennys with OEM regulators.
 
#90 ·
I read the manual and attack the dash switch. I'm a little hesitant but once the brass barbell is out it all falls into (or out off) place.

Crusty



Not crusty



A few minutes with a small stainless steel brush and all is good. One terminal was a bit loose but a slight tap w punch tightened it up. Minor amount of grease and switch works way better.
 
#91 ·
Instead of grease, use dielectric silicone paste. Grease will turn to carbon gunk and prevent continuity. Dielectric silicone will promote continuity, and make it stay corrosion free for a long time. I use it on all connections, here on the coast, where we get a lot of salt spray, and it keeps corrosion from forming. Plus it is as good for being slippery as grease, but better for any electrical connection. I also use it for orings, to make them slip on and slide into tight places. It keeps rubber from aging and cracking as well. But, that is me. And sometimes I am a strange guy. haha
 
#92 ·
On the wire gauge selection process. You don’t determine wire gauge by what your able to produce, but what your electrical system is able to draw. The regulator diverts the excess energy produced by your alt/gen. As your wire diameter gets bigger resistance goes DOWN, not up. The length of the wire plays a part in this also. Let’s say you are capable of pulling a total of 3 amps when every component of your electrical system is on. You could pull this across a VERY short distance of 24 gauge wire because it is short and therefore doesn’t have time to build up resistance despite its diminutive diameter. As the length you need to pull that 3 amps gets longer, your wire diameter needs to get bigger because of the added resistance caused by the length of the wire.
The type of wire used plays a part as well. There is less resistance in a fine, multi strand 14 gauge wire than 14 gauge wire with fewer, thicker wires in it. Why? Because gauge is measured by the outside diameter of the copper strands. There is actually more “surface” area of copper in a cross section of fine strand 14 gauge wire because the individual strands “nest” closer than the thicker strands do. More material equals less resistance which equals an ability to draw more current across the wire.
Remember,resistance is what creates heat , to much resistance creates to much heat and causes the wire to burn. A wire is just like a fuse, if you put to many components on the wire, therefore PULLING too much current across it, it burns. It’s just a little more dramatic than blowing a fuse
 
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