Heathkit Hilltopper find and build

#81
I took the Hilltopper for a 12 mile ride today through Coyote Canyon. I picked up a couple of trails I have not ridden before. They turned out to be not passable with the Hilltopper because of shear vertical walls of limestone several feet tall. I'm still running the wide original rear tire and I just will not give me the traction needed to keep moving.
The foot pegs are too low and I sheared off the right foot peg again hitting a boulder. I was able to make a temp repair and continued with my ride.
On the above note the rear tire caused two crashes today. One doing about 10 MPH down a 50 degree embankment of loose gravel. There was just no breaking ability what so ever and the rear of the bike swapped ends with me. Some sheet metal for the heat shield got bent,other than that all is still O.K.
Later on I was descending a very steep dirt road going back to my car when a motorcyclist cut the corner towards me. I yielded to my right and the rear tire went into a truck rut that left the road during the winter and the road had been muddy, and into a ditch. I was doing about 25 then and was able to slow down a little before the crash. My pride was hurt more than the bike.
The new rear tire is somewhere in shipping and will be a godsend when it shows up.
I met up with some other fellows who were riding their off road 4-wheelerss and bikes and we had a good chat about the Hilltopper and minibikes.
 
#83
Part2:
Two of the guys had owned mini's as a kid.
I video taped the ride and will need to edit the footage its a couple of hours long.
Once I re-adjusted the idle up 100 more RPM the engine ran beautifully at all angles.
At a really low idle the engine did not like the steep angles and stalled out several times.
The chain drive got really hot on several of the climbs up trails almost too steep to walk up. Once the bike hit 45 degree angle and steeper climbs on loose rocks there was just no traction. In the vids you can hear the tire spinning.
The ride was better than I thought it would be. Both ends of the bike took most of the heavier blows up pretty well. The rear shocks had all of the anodizing worn off of the new aluminum telescoping shaft covers from all the compression of the shocks during the ride.
Some of the climbs were very steep and had a nice compacted earth trail to take. The bike climbs very well indeed with very little throttle needed.
I need to check the bike out from stem-to-stern to see if any part was broken as many large rocks and boulders were struck during the ride. The way the trail is layed out and the usage by other bikers, many boulders that were covered are now exposed and right at the bikes foot peg and nurf-bar height. I may need to weld the pegs a few inches higher on the frame.
I like the bike and how it handles the mountain trails. With new rubber,the bike should really be a fun,safer ride.
 
#84
I need to be sure that that the bike will not leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere. Out here that is just a few minutes ride off the beaten path.
The heat shield I built for the engine is toast. It look to have taken the brunt of the impact on the first crash. I need to rethink the design a little.
The bike did not have any real damage to it other than paint being scratched a little as well.
The foot pegs need to be replaced,boy did they take a beating today. They are just too low to the ground to be safe.
The nurf-bars saved the day for the front of the bike, I padded the butt-end of the bike!
I'd love to have you members come out here and do a ride with me in the mountains. We have hundreds of miles of trails just for scooters and motorcycles.Tote-gotes would be in their realm for sure. Any true trail scooter / bike with at least 5 HP would do very well indeed on our trails.
 
#85
I removed the smashed heat shield and double wrapped the header pipe with fiberglass tape.
I found a NOS 1970's set of clamp on foot pegs which I will mount up by the nurf-bars. I will gain one inch for sure maybe more and be protected by the bars to a better extent.
The placement will get my leg farther forward away from the exhaust and still keep my COG I hope.
 
#86
The new clamp on foot pegs showed up today. I mounted them on the nurf-bars and the ride on my back road was not too bad for balance.
These new pegs raise my feet up an additional 5" which should help. No harm to the frame done as they just clamp on and are very sturdy. Made in Japan, imported by AZUSA.
I still wanted to use a heat shield in caste of a wreck the header pipe would really burn if touched .
Finding I had an old piece of aluminum diamond deck I was able to heat it up and do a nice even bend to divert the heat of the engine and the header pipe. I made heavy duty brackets out of 3/16" flat stock and secured them to the bikes frame and engine.

footpegnew1.jpg

foot peg new2.jpg

Aluminum heat shield.jpg
 
#87
Going for a ride today to try out the new foot pegs to see if the ride is safe with the shift in center of balance. If this doesn't work out I will have to go to a taller front tire and move the original foot pegs onto a lift spacer somehow.
 
#88
I ended up going to the " Five Hills of Death" In the National Forest. These are challenging trails for Mountain Bikes and motorcycles as the trails are loose rocks and boulders for many parts of the trails.
I tried three of the five trails, two being closed off for restoration due to over use by riders.
One trail was interesting and a really fun ride,as it was narrow, with lots of loose rocks and boulders , with very steep declines and inclines.
I'm editing a video to share with you members . While the rides were fairly long, the distance was only about 6 miles total.
The new foot pegs worked better than I thought they would. The Center of Gravity is more towards the front of the bike now and handling was not too bad.
The rear tire knows it is going to be replaced and does not want to be replaced. I was on a relatively smooth trail portion and the rear tire decided that steering me into a tree was a good idea. No damage done to me or the bike, just no reason for the rear tire to do that, but it did.
I had an argument with a very large tree-root as well and lost. The front tire bounced over and cleared the root with ease. I gunned the engine and the frame of the bike hit the root head on. All Stop! I did not go over the handle bars but did do a nice hand stand.
The Hilltopper handled the boulders well. Only a few of the larger ones had me going off at an oblique angle that was not planned. That darned rear tire.
The 4-Wheel drive roads were in bad shape. Many of the ruts were 3 feet deep. All of the roads were rutted, 1 foot deep on average with large out-cropping of boulder fields right in the middle of the road. Once I was in a rut, there was no getting out no matter how far I leaned the bike over and turned the front wheel, I was going down the rut no matter what.
The Forest Rangers really had laid out some interesting obstacles to deal with.
The new heat shield I built stayed cool for the whole ride.The clamp on foot pegs for the most part stayed where I clamped them on.I did not bottom-out the new pegs but I did take on some pretty good jolts during the rides.I need to Loc-Tite the threads on all the foot peg fasteners.
In all it was a fun ride. Went up to about 9,500 feet ASL when I climbed up thee summit to Cedro Peak and most of the trails went from 7,500 to 9.500 feet ASL several times.
 
#94
I took the bike to Coyote Canyon to hit the trails that were a problem with the original tire. The new SunF tire worked very well indeed.
The front tire did slide off a rock at the worst possible time and throw me into a small tree. No damage done to me or the bike.
in all I would recommend this tire as it really is as good as folks post and say it is.
I have several parts of the 6 mile ride in the mountain video I shot to post after I edit them.
NTA.JPG

NTB.JPG
 

copyman

Well-Known Member
#96
Do you happen to have any guide to the wiring? Also do you know the gold color code or what paint matches?
Someone posted this in my Hilltopper thread about electrical wiring: https://oldminibikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/heathkit-hilltopper.171135/

The original instruction manual only shows wiring for the kill switch. The headlight & tail light wiring was in the accessory manual GTA-101-2. Been looking for this manual for months. But if you have the Original TEC H50 engine with 2 yellow & 1 green wire than the wiring diagram in the link above will work.

As for the paint any good body shop will take a chip of gold paint and computer will match it exact!
 
#97
Someone posted this in my Hilltopper thread about electrical wiring: https://oldminibikes.com/forum/index.php?threads/heathkit-hilltopper.171135/

The original instruction manual only shows wiring for the kill switch. The headlight & tail light wiring was in the accessory manual GTA-101-2. Been looking for this manual for months. But if you have the Original TEC H50 engine with 2 yellow & 1 green wire than the wiring diagram in the link above will work.

As for the paint any good body shop will take a chip of gold paint and computer will match it exact!
Thanks for responding
 
#98
I have 2 Hilltoppers. The parts bike has the original goldish brown paint. The complete bike was spray bombed Rust-oleum metallic champagne bronze. It's sorta kinda close, but I wouldn't used it for a restoration.

When I researched the paint code on this site earlier this year, Rick "Chatten63" posted on 8/4/2014 that the code is Y8-1972 Chrysler Imperial gold leaf iridescent.

Then I did a little more online research and found the following:

Rinshed-Mason Products
1972 Chrysler Imperial Gold Leaf Irid. Y8
A-2419G, E-2419G

Chrysler code: DT6359
Ditzler PPG 2307
Dupont: 5309L, 5309A, 5309D
Sherwin Williams: 3126

I hope this helps.
 

copyman

Well-Known Member
Just sharing a view of mine almost done, sure would like a wiring diagram if it's out there. Thanks
Looks great! Nice work. There was a separate wiring manual which I could never get. I have a bunch of photos of original wiring I took before taking apart. Most of the connections are inside the headlight housing but see you don't have original light so not sure if it will help you. If you want PM me your email and will send what I have.
 
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