PDX Klunker - Electra Rocket - ii

Anyone whose heard of the Portland area,

has got to associate it with the bike life.

After living here for a while,

that doesn't mean only granolas or hipsters,

there's just a lot of people who ride bikes.

Compared to San Diego,

it doesn't seem like the bike Mecca,

however SD riders don't ride in the rain,

unless they're from Portland.

During the packing frenzy,

I obviously was going to bring a bike,

but which one?

Without having a home base,

it would be risky to bring a collector bike,

unless money was needed for a fire sale.

I chose the hot rodded-dented frame Rauler,

the perfect mishmash of campy, suntour and beater parts.

This is actually a great riding 70's Italian bike,

that I'd be sad to lose equally as the others.

The van filled up quickly,

but there was still space left on the trailer.

As a last minute thought,

I tied up a newly acquired klunker project next to chief.

(If you look closely you'll see the wheels.)

It looked precarious enough 

that people wouldn't drive too close.

This was one of my summer swap meet scores,

an $80 Electra Rocket from the late 90's.

A cool aluminium cantilever frame,

with similar angles of a typical hardtail mountain bike,

so it rides more sporty then a raked cruiser.

The best part is the Nexus 7-speed hub.

I've always wanted to put one on a prewar frame,

but they're hard to find for cheap.

I cleared out my thin mtb stash,

adding the fatter tires, S-works crank and pedals,

also drilling holes in the brake levers.

Drillium always a priority,

running out of time for the Judy shock.

After a few short PDX rides,

(can ya see the bike in the back?)

the front suspension would be worth the effort.

I didn't trust the 20 year old aluminum fork,

I've smashed my face from a broken fork,

while also clearing junk out of the van. 

One cold night was spent swapping shocks/forks.

The headset was the bigger 1-1/8",

allowing a newer functional fork.

It's tough to find a working shock

for a 1" headset on a true vintage frame.

I also tried to rebuild the sticky Nexus hub,

the internal changing system 

would skip the middle gears.

Way more work for one evening,

I ended up just dribbling oil into the dry hub.

It actually worked much better!

Maybe adding a zirk fitting would help...

The next evening I was ready to ride,

even in the almost freezing 34 degree chill.

The first 3-4 miles were so smooth,

a great way to learn the neighborhood,

until the dreaded back tire pop.

Holey chit.

Typically I'd ride-flat to get back quick,

but the 2.30 Michelin tire wasn't cheap.

It was a brisk walk.

Fixing a Shimano Nexus flat sucks.

There's no quick change for lazy speed freaks,

and there's two cables - brake and shifter.

15mm and 10mm wrenches are needed,

as well as a pump and a rag,

throw in a half hour for adjusting chit.

Not something fun to do on the roadside let alone inside.

The Nexus was showing its flaws,

weight and maintenance.

It took a couple days to rally the flat fix.

In the meantime 

I found a cool clip-on fender by PDW,

designed in Portland... built in China.

$5!!

The seller got it as a work gift.

Thanks Tonya!!

A little blingy but matches the bare aluminum.

A windy saturday finally got the bike fixed,

ready for a perfect evening ride.

I figured I'd jaunt over to the bike shop

and get some overpriced bike lights.

The kinda heavy klunker 

loved the couple inches of crunchy snow.

I wore so many layers I was sweating.

Next time I'll bring clear safety glasses,

the snowflakes actually hit my eyeballs.

Portland is gun shy with the ice conditions,

as a result the bike shop closed early.

Buncha babies.

Now I'd have to ride back with no lights.

I've ridden hundreds of night miles lightless,

in my old age and fatherhood it seems riskier now,

just cause there's more drivers that suck.

I'll prolly end up going cheap and taping flashlights.

On the San Diego Christmas blast home,

Jake, his friend Jon and I took a bike ride to the Point.

He's been getting into riding as you can see,

but wearing the Xmas present helmet

was just not pimp.

We're riding and everything is cool,

other than me wheezing behind these two punks.

Close to the lighthouse entrance,

cars were backed up a quarter mile.

I lead the way slowly,

then some jerkwad in a black shiny truck

chooses to pull into the last cemetery entrance.

The kids thought I did a swell job avoiding catastrophe,

although I smacked his fender pretty good,

and was on the ground in a split second.

It had been a long time since I've had bike road rash!

The best part was the kids won't question wearing helmets...

Ok where were we... the LBS was closed,

I took way too many bike pics,

Oh yea.

So during the snow ride I found this phone.

Back at the house all of a sudden it rang,

and I ended up riding back out to meet them,

which was cool cause riding in the snow is great.

Madeline had lost it while riding her moped.

They were super nice,

and drunk kinda.

Thanks for the beer money M!

Could I write anymore about this?

Yep.

Don't mind the mess on the table,

check out the new bike project.

A 1978 Mercian Vincitore. 

So effin cool those lugs are bitchin.

I'll probably flip some of the speaker hoard 

to be able to fund the parts...

More later!

TP

40 gets a stick - v.ii

After sitting for almost a half year,

the 40's AOD transmission was slipping

bad enough to be undriveable.

The tranny always had issues even in the Lincoln,

and driving with low fluid was the last straw.

No magic fix this round,

major surgery was needed.

I weighed rebuilding the AOD with a shift kit,

but for the cost a T5 could be found,

and my heart was set on a stick.

Now the kids could work for video game time!

All that brick work had found its real purpose...

We had that drivetrain out so fast!

It was like conducting an orchestra,

child labor at its finest.

Now what....?

No quick swap...

parts acquisition wouldn't be quick.

The 40 teased me whenever I'd walk by.

The firewall was always a cringing sight,

a ton of hack work during the 302 swap of 2013.

The plan had been to remove it for a final smoothing,

and that never happened.

No holds barred here.

Welding... hammering... filling... epoxy...

Coated with the finest white rattlecan.

Ooh la la...

This was the first month,

as money was saved and parts found.

Oh yeah,

this project started at the end of May!

Little by little the parts came together.

Bellhousing, flywheel, clutch...

and most important a t-5 transmission,

thanks to the Sharp family.   

Typical family affair throwing it together...

We did this twice as I forgot the aluminum spacer plate.

Interestingly enough,

this was a Ford "world class" T5,

but the insides were chevy.

I found a common hot rodding trick 

was to use Astro Van internals,

which meant different shaft splines.

The 5.0 10-spline mustang clutch

swapped for a 26-spline camaro.

As usual over the counter performance grade stuff!

Jake found a use for the house tractor

as we prepped the patient into the operating room.

There's always a space mystery swapping trannies,

however the aod vs t5 are at least in the same mustang family.

It fit perfectly.

Better have as I whittled the X-member for the huge AOD.

The driveshaft length was perfect,

but here we found out the rear input shaft was GM.

The 28-spline ford yoke swapped for a 27-spline chevy,

which would then need a conversion u-joint.

Always something!

Jaxon learned how to change u-joints,

and why not barber pole the driveshaft...

Then what luck a care package arrived,

straight from Iowa!

Jeff had designed and cast the most bitchin custom fuel block,

and this was the 3rd one.

Perfect timing as I had misplaced the fuel line!

Tricky to mount but it fits perfectly.

Only needed  a "Mayer Speed" logo...

Thanks a ton Jeff!

The new pups tried to help...

The crucial last part was the clutch linkage.

The original pedal had to contact the arm.

My first idea was a bellcrank system,

but it just seemed too bulky,

and also a lot of work.

I tried a bendy rod first,

which would need lengthened pedal arms.

This gave the longer throw needed.

This worked great...

See anything wrong with the pic?

The angled bar is the brake pedal.

Yea.

It went into gear so smooth,

and a WTF when the brake pedal was locked up!

Holey Chit!

A little frustrated,

I found that original mustangs used a cable.

Hey,

we had all kinds of old Morse cables!

A lock bracket was whittled out,

and a lock tube slid into a bellhousing hole.

Easy!

A couple issues...

Kinda in the way of the exhaust,

and mainly there wasn't enough throw.

Holey Chit!

All this time I coulda gone with plan A.

The bracket took maybe 2 hrs to make.

Another hour for the drillium.

A couple quick linkages...

And man this was a sweet setup.

The clutch had enough purchase holes?

there was plenty of adjustment.

Yessss....

The first drive.

Always exciting.

I had the shifter on backwards,

so only had 2-4-R.

Doh.

Easy fix although I was prepared to tear the tranny apart!

Sloppy had donated a Moon fuel gauge,

topping off the fuel line.

It's gonna be cooler with a tripower!

A long '39 style shifter finished the interior.

Lotsa gold and chrome wow!

One last change was the exhaust.

The Lincoln logs for some headers.

The first day's drove with no pipes,

wasn't really that bad!

Now there's some short pipes,

I ran out of bends.

It sounds like a hot rod!

I'll need to rebuild and rejet the carb,

and then it'll be a rough daily driver.

This June bug really liked the wires!

Anyway feels good to have it back.

Hard to not chirp the tires!

TP