Underutliized Machinist

[Ed Miller]

See what happens when work gets slow for my machinist friend here?  His name is Mike Burns.

[Justin B.]

I hate appearing stupid but what do they do?  

[Ed Miller]

I'm surprised you haven't made your own, Justin.  The plate is for measuring bearing shimming on an Airhead gearbox.  I need to get it milled perfectly flat by another machinist friend of mine, who will actally charge me a little to do that.  The other tool is the combination tool for removing the gearbox output flange.  First you use it to hold the flange still while you remove that great big (24 mm?) nut, then you use it to pull the flange off of the tapered shaft.  I got the idea after I had to take my gearbox up to Wirespokes' place to have some work done.  

With any luck, these tools will sit unused in my BMW box of stuff for some time, unless some local Airheads want to work on their tranny.  

I found links to the plans on this page:

http://jhau.maliwi.de/mot/gearbox.html

[Justin B.]

Oh, OK.  My "shimming plate" began life as a rear cover which I milled down and my yoke puller isn't quite as "elegant" looking!  

[Ed Miller]

My pics don't really do that puller justice.  It's like jewelery or something.  Stainless steel.  He's the same guy that reproduced a Warn locking hub for my '58 Chevy Napco because my old one was so damaged it wasn't practicle to repair it.  This stuff is the reason I can't retire until I have a lathe and a mill.

He rides an F650 GS, so will probably be at the National in Salem.  I'll have to buy him breakfast or something, as he doesn't drink so won't accept the normal payment:  a case of beer.

[Justin B.]

Here's my shimming plate and output flange puller.  Not quite as purty but worked OK...

[tvrla]

Beautiful stuff isn't it? Almost makes you hope the transmission develops problems just so you can use the tools.

[Ed Miller]

Beautiful stuff isn't it? Almost makes you hope the transmission develops problems just so you can use the tools.

Well, I'm the type to hope that somebody else' gearbox needs to come apart, not mine.  I wonder how long it's been since Tom had his apart?  Better yet, I could score a used one to rebuild at my leisure and keep for a spare.  

Here's a better pic of the puller:



Justin, people kept getting upset when I tried to pull the rear cover off their gear boxes to make a shimming plate.  Crazy, I know.

[tvrla]

Funny you asked about Tom's...

It was making a whining noise. Pulled it and sent to Prokop who discovered something wrong with the intermediate shaft. Don't know what... but they're NLA. I think they found one somewhere and it's probably back together and working by now.

Yeah, a spare tranny is a very good idea.

[Justin B.]

Bob - you can actually find (for cheap) "broken" ones on fleabay.  This one had the speedo cable bolt hole cracked off   and I seem to remember it was about $10...