'63 Imperial Mark IV

Hey all, I've been busy building this for a friend of a friend, figured I'd share some pics.

This is the stock bike how I got it. She's a '63 CCM Tandem, all steel heavy beast w/F/R 5" Drums




The axle was barely in the dropouts due to a too-short pedal chain and missing derailleur, so they set it and forgot it...


Due to the size of the Drums and the minimal clearance, I had a 6" hole cnc'd in a 60T sprocket

looks huge on there


But it sits flush with the Drum:


Carefully laying out holes:


drilled:


and mounted:

So this's where I got to tonight:


There goes all my spare chain Going to see if I can get away with the idlers mid frame where they are and keep the chain going on the sprocket straight... If not, I'll have to bend the rear crank when I bend the front.

Oh yea, it's a pull start/centri'd 66cc... would've been a pain in the butt to bump-start with a 60t with 2 older people. Lol, cue "Benny hill music" imagining that.

Supposed to be nice the next few days. Hopefully get a couple of shake-down runs in. Will be able to do that before bending the crank(s) with the pull/centri.

Should be a fun "putting around" bike for the owner.

Thanks for reading. I'll post more when I have more to post.

Thanks Goat Herder!(Ninja posted while I was posting )

Oh yea, no the idlers aren't going to sit like that. Was just mocking them up to check clearances. I know better than that, heh heh.

Thnx rc!

Yea GH, ideally engine out back would've been better. But no torches to alter the pipe, and extend throttle cable... I already had the extra chain and idler. Hopefully it'll putt along okay. Should be able to take it for a shake-down run tomorrow, then worry about bending the crank(s) if I need to move the lower idler closer to the back I'll have to bend the rear crank too.

Picked up two 4' lengths of 1 1/2'ID 1/8"wall pipe from the scrapyard for $2 each today to make a wayne z style bender

Hey that's a good idea synchronizing the pedals! Eep, I can imagine how you figured that out, ouch.

Yea, the guy I'm building it for just wants to putt around the park trails, and a parade here and there. Slow is the name of the game on this bike

"Adventures in Pull Start - Centri"

1st- Gahhh! K, I feel better now.

So when I first dragged the bike outside, the centri was sticking... more on that later...
Put some fresh 24:1 mix in the tank and it started on the fifth pull, and the cable broke at the same time... lol. Took it apart, replaced the chincy pull cable with a brake cable, and while putting it back together the band spring decided to unravel... Clamped the plate in the vise, vicegrip on the outer spring catch, small vicegrip on the inner and rewound/tightened it back into the plate(what a pain in the butt). *carefully* reassembled it. In the handle the chincy cable had a knot on a nut, so I tried an old brass nib from a clutch cable. Over tightened it, and the nib split in half... d'oh! Tied a knot on a nut. Now that's solid.

The carb that came with the kit would only run with full choke. No air leaks. Noticed when changing the C-clip the needle is almost flat at the tip... will worry about that carb later(check jet and whatnot). Spare carb went on, fired up and ran great. Chain was a bit wobbly, but stayed on track. It'll need a spring tensioner to take out the 'slap'... It's a crazy long chain. Two full lengths and over a third of another.

Then I realized... Even at idle, the centri didn't go to neutral... gah! First I tried applying the brake when giving it a little gas, but no luck. So I take the cover off from over the centri, and its not centered in the bell and binds up. Even turning it over with wrenches(one on sprocket, one on clutch) It's binding in one spot. The clutch itself works like advertised, pads in at idle, out after some rpm. So it's not like its not disengaging, just binding in that one spot.

So in the morning, have to get a thread puller to get the clutch off. Will take a grinding wheel on the dremel to the bell to clearance it...

Then all should be good What a headache of a day though... arrgh! Big storms supposed to kill the rest of the week, so was hoping to get a shake-down run in while it was nice. Oh well, next week's another week

yea Cali, thought that too, but its definitely off center. Got it off with a custom puller, and it spins freely in my hand. If it was oval I wouldn't be able to do that, I'll have to clearance it where its binding and hope it doesn't stutter when it starts to bite.

Yep maniac, had a hammer puller made... felt good, heh heh. That side of the crankshaft has an extended shaft(engine came with the clutch installed), so unlike the ones we install ourselves I couldn't just thread a bolt in it like normal...

Had to wait for a 22mm x 1.5 thread nut for a couple days. Couldn't find one in town for the life of me... friends with welders are better than friends with trucks, eh? Bit of grinding to get it to clear the weights so it'd bottom out good...


Some Ready-Rod and a piece of pipe for the hammer, and it was good to go... Felt good smacking on that, ahh stress relief...


Yay! Of course the gears and needle bearing were dry as a fart, maybe having to pull it was a blessing in disguise, would have been noisier than it needed to be... Clutch spins freely in the bell when its off, so its definitely off center and not oval'd...


A shot of the back of the clutch, was surprised to see one continuous spring is wrapped around all the weights. (my chain oiling bucket too, old paint brush on some oil, let'em soak)



And last but not least... the offending area that will get clearanced once I get another coffee in me.



Whoohoo, can start moving forward on the project again!

Cool azbill, thanks for the tip/info.

I've been slacking, bleh winter, more to come...

Got the clutch bell clearanced and everything back together. Still have to bend the front crank, and find a better top idler pulley before the plastic explodes. I'm thinking a skate wheel or a ghost sprocket should hold up good, depends what I can find locally.

Made a vid after taking around the block a couple of times, starting and stopping to make sure everything was smooth. Picks up pretty good with that 60T on the back, should haul two people around at a respectable speed. Maybe 20'ish Wot, I'll gps it, but its new still, will be better after break in, and components settle in.

Here's the Vid:
66cc in a Tandem first test - YouTube


And a couple of pics:

So I finally got everything buttoned up, after waiting 3 weeks for a ghost sprocket(and a couple'ish more for me slacking)

Ghost sprocket with guards in place: (the screw is on the outside of the sprocket, so its not as close as it looks)



bendy front crank to clear the pull/centri: (hot bent, could look better, but it does the trick, it was to tough to cold bend)



rear to front:



front to rear: (wide load mirrors, for when their ol'lady's on the back, heh heh, jk)



That canuck guy:




So yea, it took forever, and was a pain, but hey... live and learn, and onto the next one.

Thanks for reading.