new bonanza project.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#1
this is my new bonanza I just bought it off craigslist. but after a close examination its in worse shape than anticipated. so far I've found out the engine is a latter model hs50 twin shaft snow blower motor (not original) with a home made clutch cover and moved to far over to the right for the chain to line up. its using sise 35 chain on the engine to jackshaft side and size 41 from the jackshaft to rear wheel. the rear drum brake is missing and someone installed a scrub brake, the front wheel isn't original. the fenders are home made and the rear one is welded to the frame, the front forks are stuck and twisted and the rear shocks are stuck and the left one the threads that screw in the bottom eyelet are stripped so there's no fixing it and the throttle cable is stuck. and it appears someone didn't like where the foot pegs were so they removed them and welded new ones to the frame and the kick stand is missing. and the wheel spacers have been replaced with nuts and washers. on the bright side the engine dose turn and has compression and the clutch seems ok and it has a nice looking seat.

so since the engine isn't oriental I may switch it for the 6hp briggs in the picture below I saw a picture of one of these bikes with a briggs ohv in it and it looks sweet. and the 6hp is the smaller boar version of the engine the briggs animal is based off of so there's plenty of aftermarket racing parts for it and its far more powerful then the hs50. as far as the broken shock I have a set of shocks I bought at a flee market a while ago for 2$ with no real use for them at the time but they seem close enough to work. and I have 2 un reparably rusted out wheels from the same flee market with 2 different brake hubs so I'll see if one of them will fit this bike. and I may use the nice tires off them on another bike so they have become far more useful than I originally thought lol. I'm not sure how to un twist the front end yet but freeing up the shocks should be easy enough. I'll think on how to un twist the front end and chat with a few friends who may have ideas, the twisted front end and replaced front wheel, look to suggest someone may have run into something so hard it broke the wheel and twisted the forks at the same time. the hard parts going to be finding the missing original parts, I know a while back someone started making reproductions of these bikes but I don't know it they are selling parts and if the parts will be cheep enough to be worth buying. for now I'm not in any hurry. I'll just get it running and buy parts as I come across them. bonansa left side.JPG bonanza right side.JPG new engine option.JPG new shock option.JPG
 

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#3
I forgot to mention, your right about the seat, its a bit loose the rear stud has broken loose from in the pan so I cant tighten it, it just spins. got a solution for that? and is this a common issue? also I've never taken this particular front end apart before and I don't know yet how to un twist the forks any advice? and I may get it running quick but this project might take a while before I finish all the fine details I've got a speedway mtd and rupp to work on as well. all I need is a fox to look like the tags used on ebay or craigslist lol. the collection is so I can take my friends out ridding with me and bring them to local mini bike events with me.
 
#4
Very common with the seats because people don't use the rubber mount between the frame bracket and the seat pan. With out wrecking the cover you can cut the flange out of the pan that is under the fiberglass. Install new bolt in the flange (drill out broken bolt) and spot weld it to the flange. Then glass the flange back to the seat pan. I use a little JB weld on the flange before I glass it in.
For the forks, Take the front wheel off. Up on the top of the forks is a bolt that goes through the fork springs. Just take the bolt out and the forks should drop down. I have done 3 sets of those and I think that is how it went. lol. I have a good memory but it's short. lol.
 

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#6
I found a wheel for sale called an 8 inch Azusa spinner that appears to be the same rim my bonanza uses except the finish looks a bit different. can anyone confirm this? if it is correct I may buy that rim later if I cant find an original.
 
#7
Very common with the seats because people don't use the rubber mount between the frame bracket and the seat pan. With out wrecking the cover you can cut the flange out of the pan that is under the fiberglass. Install new bolt in the flange (drill out broken bolt) and spot weld it to the flange. Then glass the flange back to the seat pan. I use a little JB weld on the flange before I glass it in.
For the forks, Take the front wheel off. Up on the top of the forks is a bolt that goes through the fork springs. Just take the bolt out and the forks should drop down. I have done 3 sets of those and I think that is how it went. lol. I have a good memory but it's short. lol.
Your welcome.
 

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#9
more progress. I just picked up a reproduction bonanza clutch guard at gomas swap meet. as well as a billit flywheel, billet rod and a better flowing briggs animal head for that inteck. I love how easy it is to get high preformance parts for a Briggs, much easier than doing the same on my ohh55 Tecumseh. and I plan to add a high performance cam and stronger springs and do some porting on the head and then slap an animal carb and intake on the engine. so this is going to be one fast bike. I'll know I did it right if I can scare myself when I dump the throttle. I'll start these mods once I've gathered all the parts. untill then im going to get it running as is. I also just bought an azusa brake hub to replace the one missing from the rear wheel. I'll be test fitting that tommorow. its a very large brake compared to my other bikes. so it shoold have a ton of stopping power. I wont be surprized if i can lock the rear wheel while at full tilt.
 

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#10
I'm beginning to get the feeling I'm meant to build this bike.

first I bought a set of shocks with no real use for them i bought them just because I found them cheep. and then I bought an engine because it was cheep and I'd never had that engine before. then i found the frame with bad shocks and the ones I had just bought just happened to fit perfectly. and the engine i just bought just happened to be the one i would have bought for that frame. and recently I bought an animal head at a flee market to fit the engine because i thought it would flow better. not to mention I found a cheep billet flywheel and billet rod for the engine at the same flee market. that's a good part of what I'll need to build the engine the way i want. and most recently i discovered the engine was missing the bolt holes around the exhaust port on the stock head it looks like the port was damaged somehow. so an aftermarket exhaust wouldn't have fit so it would have needed a head anyways.(I didn't know that when i bought the new head). this is beginning to be to many coincidences.
 

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#11
got back to work on this today. after removing the rear wheel I found out today the azusa 5 inch brake dumb i bought fits like a glove and after removing the front wheel i found out the bearings in both wheels are shot. I then removed the bolts that hold on the front fork springs on, and they both slid right out and I found out the sleeve on bent side of the forks was free and slid right off while the non bent side was stuck,. go figure. I haven't gotten to fixing that just yet. I also removed the tecumseh to test fit the briggs. then removed the tank from of the briggs and stratton. and looked at removing the screw in exhaust. hence the broken head discovery. with the tecumseh out I can start removing the crappy, improperly placed foot pegs and remove the now unnecessary scrub brake one of the previous owners added and restore the foot pegs to there proper position.


005.JPG

004.JPG
 

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#12
I changed my mind on which bike has priority and pushed this one to the top of the pile I'm trying to get it done this month for the race called gomas minibike massacre, so there's going to be a lot of progress in a short time.

so far I've stripped the bike doun to the bare frame fully dissasembled the stuck bent forks to straiten them and started on the motor work. billet flywheel installed, carb pulled and throttle plate and gas tank removed (tank wont fit in frame) im putting the engines tank up in front of the seat for now. I've got a cam from dyno cams on the way with matching valve springs and billet lifters. as well as a header from roberts torque tubes and I bought a walburo pz22 carb and intake from an animal racing engine. I havent installed the rod yet but ill do that soon and I'm going to port the animal head I have for it.. this engine is going to be insane. I also found out all the bearings are shot on both wheels and the jack shaft. and I cut off that unnecessary scrub break. I havent cut the foot pegs off and put them back where they shoold be yet. the current pegs aren't great but they'll do for now until after the race I'm scrambling to build this for.


anybody got advice on how to get the rear wheel bearings out without braking the wheel.? they're rusted up and stuck pretty good. I already took a steel rod and tried to hammer them out but they wont budge.
 

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#15
also dose anyone know what the stock gears were supposed to be on the jack shaft? the previous owner had a 35 chain on the engine side and a 41 chain in the wheel side. and I'm pretty sure that's not right. the remaining 41 chain sprocket is worn out so I'm replacing both sprockets. and the jack shaft as well since it was bent somehow. I was thinking of trying an 11 tooth on the engine side and a 9 tooth on the wheel side, am i close? I want really good acceleration off the line with it only wheeling just a little so I cold lean forward to keep the wheel down.
 

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#16
if anyone has the original front wheel or tank for this bike I'm interested in buying as long as the price is reasonable. also anyone know the sprocket sizes should be for the jackshaft? I'm not sure what to buy.
 

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#17
the bent forks are straitened also alot of my parts are arriving and I just ported the motors new head. Im still waiting on a few key components. but it looks like I should have the bike running soon. I'll try to get some pictures as soon as I have a moment..
 

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#20
This is the animal head with the port work completed. I may shave the head later but theirs no time right now so its going on as is and its getting a good cleaning first. and the second picture is the partly disassembled engine. it has the billet flywheel installed already.


animal head with port work.JPG inteck engine partly dissasembled..JPG
 
Top