Recent content by Brian Sheridan

Creia, Thanks for the reply. I plan to mock it up with a new Hemi 212, I was just hoping someone had a number to save me the trouble. I spent a hour today TIG welding all the tubing joints that Bird Eng. didn't bother to weld, I guess Sears customers never noticed, go figure. Brian

Guys, I am restoring a Bird Engineering minibike frame. The engine mount had been taken off. I'm welding a new one on. Does anyone know what the engine slot offset is to the right side was? I can post a photo of the frame if needed, it is not a swing arm frame, and it does have a jackshaft, and...

Guys, I have been working on my Predator Hemi 212 race engine that I'm putting into my new prototype flat track minibike frame. More on that at a later date. No race engine, short of one at Indy or Daytona or Springfield has ever won a race purely on horse power. Good drive off the corner is...

Guys, I just ran my newly built Predator Hemi mini bike/kart engine for about 45 minutes, to get it broken in. I wanted to get the oil changed, the cylinder head re-torqued, and the valves re-adjusted. After I drained & re-filled the crankcase, I unscrewed the valve cover. The valves were still...

Guys, Over the years I have built quite a few engines, V8's, V6's, inline 4's, 45 degree HD engines & I don't know how many singles. As was previously stated, correctly, to really get an engine balance correctly, it needs to be balance for the application. Here's a good example, OEM...

Guys, I just finished up building my Predator Hemi 212 racing engine. Because we had such a warm day here in WI today, I mounted the engine on my break-in table and ran it for about 45 minutes, at high idle. I wanted to be able to re-torque the cylinder head, change the Red Line 10W40 oil, &...

Thank You Ole

Guys, I can't find anywhere the recommended assembly torques for the Hemi engine. Small fasteners I have covered, but for the flywheel nut, side cover 8mm bolts, and the 8mm cylinder head bolts, I could used some help. Anyone have the correct data? Brian

Guys, I recently discovered that no one sells the E clips that are used on the rocker arm shafts of the Predator Hemi engine. The rocker arms have to be removed every time you want to remove the head, or re-torque the head.The stock ones are soft, and if you misplace one your screwed. So I did a...

Guys, I just measured the height of the Loncin Predator Hemi 212 starter cup on the original cast iron flywheel, & then measured the same starter cup on my new PVL aluminum flywheel. The PVL set-up is 0.195" lower. I still had the crankshaft in the block, so I installed the PVL flywheel & the...

Thank You!!!!! BMHS (Brian S)

Guys, Does anyone know what the jack shaft looked like. I can measure the bolt pattern, that's easy, but the height of the bearings from the bolt pattern will be a guess. I suppose the only thing I can do is set the whole thing up, before I weld, or machine any of the parts? BMHS

Markus, Thank you for the comments. As I disassembled it yesterday, the sprocket was on the left side of the rear wheel, so it did not have a jack shaft. Now, that doesn't mean it did not have a jack shaft originally. So, the 2 holes on the top of the rear brake support brackets were used to...

Guys, Here's what I think I know about this minibike... It was built by Bird Engineering, and because it is a 1" frame diameter model, it was sold by Sears, 1970/1973? What I do not know is the model? The color was red, and it has a very large brake boss, compared to most of the Birds. I know...

1550A Update Guys, A few updates, The tag number is 6190736. A few guys at work, used to work at the Tecumseh Grafton plant where the engine was made. They were produced from 1972 to 1974. I got a parts list today, and I copied a service manual. The engine is 8.17 cu. in, so it's big. It has...