new bonanza project.

joshua. c.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#61
#61
short update: motor build coming as soon as I have time to work on it. I tried working on the block a few weeks back and I set the ring gap to the gap a card in the box told me to just to realise it was pritty loose. I checked with an engine builder and found out I was way off. I just receved the new rings I orderd so I'm very close to building the motor.
 
joshua. c.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#63
#63
Another quick update: set the ring gap for the piston properly this time and found out the rod I have probably isnt from ARC. I threw out the busings to get new ones just to find the new ones from ARC for the rod for this motor don't fit. this must be either an out of date model or be made by a compedator. I will have to order a new rod to get one with freash bushings. (not risking my investment in this motor on old bushings)

On a different topic I picked up another Briggs Animal recently for 150$ at a flee market and picked up a vintage mini bike correct hs40 for 20$ Quite a day! I was told the Animal only has one race on it since refresh.
 
joshua. c.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#65
#65
Just got the new arc billet rod so I started the motor build. The bottom end is assembled and I'll have the rest of it done as soon as I get another afternoon to work on it, then comes the tricky part (carb tuning). Aftermarket carbs are ussualy a bit off out of the box mostly because they're jetted for the motor they were made for (ussualy a motorcycle motor). I hope the jetting of carb I have is close enough to get my motor started so I can get a read on which way I need to go.

on a related topic I just bought a tank of argon for my mig welder so I can get moving on the welding I need to do for this and several other projects.

on an un related topic I just got new tires put on my MTD mini bike and on the frame of another future project. These tires are nobby so they bite into the dirt better and get alot better traction than the stock smoother ones. I may put these on 3 or posibly 4 other bikes at some point but its not a cheep upgrade so I'll space those out some.
 
joshua. c.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#69
#69
I just got the head mounted to the bottom end of the motor so its mostly together. I'm just waiting on a couple odds and ends to arive in the mail and I'll have a fully assembled motor, Then I just need to add fotpegs to the bike buy a few more parts and assemble it. Unless there are some un forseen complications I'm going to have this bike running and ridding by this spring.
 
joshua. c.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#70
#70
Dose anyone know where I can find a briggs and straton #4 offset key to advance my flywheel timing to 30degrees btdc.? Ive been looking for one and none of the racing sites I have looked at currently carry any, google search and ebay are also A bust. I could run it with a stock key and swap it out if and when I find one but I'd be loosing a little power.
 
Ginz61

Ginz61

#71
#71
joshua. c. said:
Dose anyone know where I can find a briggs and straton #4 offset key to advance my flywheel timing to 30degrees btdc.? Ive been looking for one and none of the racing sites I have looked at currently carry any, google search and ebay are also A bust. I could run it with a stock key and swap it out if and when I find one but I'd be loosing a little power.[/QUOTE
Click to expand...
Disregard. It was for a clone engine so I deleted it.
 
Last edited:
joshua. c.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#73
#73
Timing key arived and I'm missing a coil mount bolt, I'll pick a new one up this week. I'm looking into fenders, I'll need them where im going to use this bike. im thinking since origenals are imposible to find and repops are no longer avalable I may pick up a set of universal chrome fenders made for 8 inch wheels from ebay, they look close to the origenals and if I trim the front fender to the origenal length they should look very close.
 
joshua. c.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#74
#74
The motor is mostly assembled and waiting on the exhaust, oil, spark plug, clutch and 2 plugs for un neaded holes. The exhaust neads to be razed up about an inch to clear the spot where the fender will eventualy go. (when I find fenders that will work.) I still need to mount the tank, gear the jackshaft, install the throttle, mount the footpegs, install the chain, mount and brace the exhaust, jet the bike, and lastly paint it.

I'm also going to keep the orange motor paint, It won't match the bikes cullor that well but it indicates what motor im running. Not everyone knows what a Briggs Animal is so it should be fun to see how many people actualy know what they are looking at.

DSCN0358.JPG
 
joshua. c.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#75
#75
I just noticed its getting close to mini bike season and I don't have a race bike running, my other old flathead race bike is getting a refresh and big valves and this one is close but not complete so I need to get my but in gear and get some work done on both! On the bonanza Im getting a different exhaust made for the animal that lifts it up about 1 1/2 inches to clear the future fender spot. The pipe guy is has about 3 weeks of work before he can get to this for me so I'll be working on other parts of the project untill then.
 
joshua. c.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#76
#76
Im probably going to work on this bonanza more this weekend.

Just wanted to put this out there: I need a set of renders for this bike but the replicas that used to be sold by Go Kars USA have been out of stock for a while now. I'f any of you have a set of the replicas you decided not to use that you would be willing to sell me for what you payed for them I would be interested.
 
joshua. c.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#77
#77
I got my old flathead running for my blue bike this weekend just to pop the head gasket.(This is the bike in my avatar) I thought I torqued it to the correct speck so im not sure what went wrong. This motor has been refreshed and has big valves now. It was idling pritty well on full choke and I was playing with the carb to get it idling without the choke (It needs a richer idle jet now) and it sputterd out then would not re start and felt like it had no compression. I cant wait to see what difference thise valves make! fast is fun!

I also just started re assembly on an ohh55 Tecumseh 5hp flathead (late model without points) This is a mild build, it has a billet connecting rod, porting, a 275 lift cam, stronger valve springs, a header and the govenor is removed with the hole plugged. I'll be looking into a mikuni for it at some later point but for now im sticking with the stock carb to get it running quickly.

As far as the bonanza I need to downsize the holes around the exhaust before I can mount it. the current holes have been hogged out to 3/8ths and need to be re sised back to the origenal much smaller m6 size in order to mount the pipe. I bought some aluminum 3/8ths bolts from my work and am having the center of them tapped out to the origenal m6 size. as far as the Pipe, before I came up with the fix I mentiond the hole issue to the pipe builder and asked if he could make a flange to match what I had and I guss it was one request to many and he said no to making me a custom pipe so I'm on my oun on this one even thow Im fixing the flange issue he dosnt care and said as much. I have a spare flathead pipe I got cheep at a flee market and im going to cut a pice out of it to extend the ohv pipe I have up the 1 1/2 inches I need to to get the pipe to fit the bike. I dont like waisting a perfecly good header but I don't have many choices hear and Im on a deadline.

At some point this next week I need to get the bonanza frame over to A local welding shop to have the footpegs mounted. Im not very good at welding and my welder isn't fully set up yet so Im taking this to the profeshionals. The footpegs I have aren't even close to the origenals But finding origenal stuff for a bonanza seems imposible right now as most of it is either non existent or priced threw the roof and these are a quick fix.
 
joshua. c.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#78
#78
The mild build is pritty much done and ready for testing I just need to get a return spring for the throttle from a hardware store first. I only have 1 week left bedore Windber and 2 weeks before Gomas mini bike massacre so im cutting it close on my builds. I don't know if I have enough time to finish and jet the bonanza before gomas and my old race bike needs re jetting and I need to figure out the head gasket issue. Im going to work on both but prioritize fixing the old race bike since its more complete. I at least need 1 running before the race at Gomas.
 
joshua. c.

joshua. c.

Well-Known Member
#79
#79
DSCN0364.JPG


This is what Im playing with tomorro I think its either A Trail Horse or a Gilson with rupp rims and the forks are the ones from go power sports. If anyone can confirm The brand of this bike I would apricciate It. The forks are widder than the pair the rupp front wheel is made for so I haven't figured out the front brake setup yet. I think Im going to reduce the width of these forks so they will look better and fix the brake mount issue. This is the second mini bike I ever had and this is it's therd motor. It started with a 2hp briggs but that was to wimpy so I switched to an older hs50 and rode the snot out of it weekly untill it wore clean out then switched to this one. Back when this was my best bike I rode It allot, I mean running the tank dangerosly low on the way home distances. This bike got sidelined once I sourced some full suspention bikes. I eventualy had to move and had storage space issues so gave it to my cosens dauter and she had it for a while and when she didn't want it any more and I had gotten a house with plenty of storage room she offerd it back to me so I took it home once more.

Now I'm looking into adding rear suspention to this bike to make it just as good as any other bike I have. Eventualy its getting a mikiuni and a better looking seat as well. For this year this is it! For now I need a race bike so this one is my backup plan. Its not super fast with this stock carb But I dont have time to be picky and If all else fails at least I can still participate even if I loose.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top