Hurricanerider
Active Member
Regardless of it’s physical value, I rebuilt my Hurricane to enjoy the handling, the sound of its triple, and the thrill of shifting at 8,000 rpm’s. I rebuilt, not restored it, to ride not hide!
The left side oil feed from the crank journal plugged and the rod let go. Being a late 60’s BSA A7 (Rocket 3) motor, the alloy used for the casting might have been used in the Triumph and Norton since they were under the same umbrella of ownership.
I’m in need of information for what tig rod alloy should be used to weld the crack.
Now you can stop reading and not get bored with my story of how I came about my Hurricane story or continue and find out how it came about! Here goes:
I grew up in the outskirts of Toledo Ohio farm country. I had a mini bike that I rode it the woods, on the rode, and frozen creeks, and ponds having added screws through the tires. At 15, I started my machine training and had availability to bore and shave the head plus port and polish being that I was working as a plastic mold maker apprentice and 2 years of Vocational Machinist training. I finally got my first car, a 57’ Ford. As my wage increased, at 17, I purchased a Ford Mach1 Mustang with a 390. It was bad ass from the factory but with 2 friends working for a Ford dealer ship, they re-built it our way after blowing up 2 engines, 2 trannys, and 1 rear end. ALL UNDER FORDS WARRANTY!
I was driving when I say my friend on the first Hurricane sold in Toledo. We both stopped and was BS’ing. The bike was something that was so different that I said to Kenny I would love to ride it. He says, let me drive your Stang’ and you can ride my Hurricane. Agreeing on a time and place to meet later, off we went.
Throwing my leg over and sitting on it was a
moment! The feel, the way the bars angled, I just sat and admired it. Then when I heard the sound!! That was the first time I knew I wanted a bike like this. No twin BSA, Triumph, or Harley’s for me. I never forgot that first moment.
I moved to Jacksonville Florida and never saw that bike again until the early 80’s. I visited a friend (Jeff) in Boaz Alabama who was the Hurricane’s owners good friend and found it on shelves in pieces, literally. He had bought it, beat the hell out of it, and needed to rebuild it. We agreed if he got rid of it, I got first chance to buy it. Fast forward to 1999.
I went back to Toledo for my 30th school reunion. I was at his brother Bill’s farm when within an hour, Jeff pulls in on my second favorite bike, a bad ass Vmax. Not saying hello, I said, where’s my bike? Jeff’s says, I haven’t heard from you in years, well you ain’t going to believe this, but just 2 weeks ago, I gave it to brother Jake. Having partied our ass’s off with Bill and Jake, I devised a plan of attack. I knew he needed a hip replacement and couldn’t ride until it was replaced. I bought a 12 pack and headed to Jakes house. After several beers and his eyes were getting glassy, I asked about his beautifully restored Harley. I can’t even ride it anymore! There was my intro, well if you can’t ride, what the hell you going to do with the Hurricane? He says, Jeff told me 2 weeks ago, you were supposed to get the bike but we had no way to contact you so he gave it to me for a some mony he needed. You want it don’t you? Hell yes, what’s it going to cost me. You really want it? I said, stop f@&king around, yes! He says okay, you can have it. Ok, how much? Just take it, it’s in my way. Well, I it was in pieces, with parts stripped and gone and in worse condition than when I last seen. I didn’t care, it was now mine after having rode it 26 years prior. I strapped the frame to the ac unit of my motor home, the body under the bed, and stashed parts everywhere I could. It took ten or more years to find as many original parts to start rebuilding. The motor inner 2 casings, crank, rod, and pistons were still intact and I decided to not tear it down any further. That is possibly where the problem from the oil flow stopped to the rod. I got 4,000 miles on it before it gave up.
After this rebuild, I’m going to treat it like it needs to be treated out of respect of surviving the 3 people who rode the piss out of it.
It is going back to stock bore. The original carbs, I bored the bodies and sleeved the slides. Every gear has been drilled and machined to run true to the shaft axis. Internal clutch casting have been machined to run true. The crank, rods, piston assemblies have been race quality balanced. I decked the cylinders to within .001 after finding it out .007. I fly cut the head to true it up flat. It’s ported. I also drilled the 4th oil circuit in the crank for tru oil flow.
I’ll play hard with my 1995 Triumph Sprint setup for track racing but street legal.
The left side oil feed from the crank journal plugged and the rod let go. Being a late 60’s BSA A7 (Rocket 3) motor, the alloy used for the casting might have been used in the Triumph and Norton since they were under the same umbrella of ownership.
I’m in need of information for what tig rod alloy should be used to weld the crack.
Now you can stop reading and not get bored with my story of how I came about my Hurricane story or continue and find out how it came about! Here goes:
I grew up in the outskirts of Toledo Ohio farm country. I had a mini bike that I rode it the woods, on the rode, and frozen creeks, and ponds having added screws through the tires. At 15, I started my machine training and had availability to bore and shave the head plus port and polish being that I was working as a plastic mold maker apprentice and 2 years of Vocational Machinist training. I finally got my first car, a 57’ Ford. As my wage increased, at 17, I purchased a Ford Mach1 Mustang with a 390. It was bad ass from the factory but with 2 friends working for a Ford dealer ship, they re-built it our way after blowing up 2 engines, 2 trannys, and 1 rear end. ALL UNDER FORDS WARRANTY!
I was driving when I say my friend on the first Hurricane sold in Toledo. We both stopped and was BS’ing. The bike was something that was so different that I said to Kenny I would love to ride it. He says, let me drive your Stang’ and you can ride my Hurricane. Agreeing on a time and place to meet later, off we went.
Throwing my leg over and sitting on it was a
moment! The feel, the way the bars angled, I just sat and admired it. Then when I heard the sound!! That was the first time I knew I wanted a bike like this. No twin BSA, Triumph, or Harley’s for me. I never forgot that first moment.I moved to Jacksonville Florida and never saw that bike again until the early 80’s. I visited a friend (Jeff) in Boaz Alabama who was the Hurricane’s owners good friend and found it on shelves in pieces, literally. He had bought it, beat the hell out of it, and needed to rebuild it. We agreed if he got rid of it, I got first chance to buy it. Fast forward to 1999.
I went back to Toledo for my 30th school reunion. I was at his brother Bill’s farm when within an hour, Jeff pulls in on my second favorite bike, a bad ass Vmax. Not saying hello, I said, where’s my bike? Jeff’s says, I haven’t heard from you in years, well you ain’t going to believe this, but just 2 weeks ago, I gave it to brother Jake. Having partied our ass’s off with Bill and Jake, I devised a plan of attack. I knew he needed a hip replacement and couldn’t ride until it was replaced. I bought a 12 pack and headed to Jakes house. After several beers and his eyes were getting glassy, I asked about his beautifully restored Harley. I can’t even ride it anymore! There was my intro, well if you can’t ride, what the hell you going to do with the Hurricane? He says, Jeff told me 2 weeks ago, you were supposed to get the bike but we had no way to contact you so he gave it to me for a some mony he needed. You want it don’t you? Hell yes, what’s it going to cost me. You really want it? I said, stop f@&king around, yes! He says okay, you can have it. Ok, how much? Just take it, it’s in my way. Well, I it was in pieces, with parts stripped and gone and in worse condition than when I last seen. I didn’t care, it was now mine after having rode it 26 years prior. I strapped the frame to the ac unit of my motor home, the body under the bed, and stashed parts everywhere I could. It took ten or more years to find as many original parts to start rebuilding. The motor inner 2 casings, crank, rod, and pistons were still intact and I decided to not tear it down any further. That is possibly where the problem from the oil flow stopped to the rod. I got 4,000 miles on it before it gave up.
After this rebuild, I’m going to treat it like it needs to be treated out of respect of surviving the 3 people who rode the piss out of it.
It is going back to stock bore. The original carbs, I bored the bodies and sleeved the slides. Every gear has been drilled and machined to run true to the shaft axis. Internal clutch casting have been machined to run true. The crank, rods, piston assemblies have been race quality balanced. I decked the cylinders to within .001 after finding it out .007. I fly cut the head to true it up flat. It’s ported. I also drilled the 4th oil circuit in the crank for tru oil flow.
I’ll play hard with my 1995 Triumph Sprint setup for track racing but street legal.
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