This engine is gross. I don’t even know what all this stuff is. Doesn’t look like rust. Might be clutch material or something. Nothing looks pitted so far. The clutch basket looks hairy, but it all seems to wipe off. There was so much varnish from old oil that the shift mechanism was stuck. After soaking it over night in PB Blaster, it came free and I was able to unscrew the top (reverse threaded) with a modified 11mm wrench. The gears were also glued in place. I got them spinning first, then was able to get them out one by one, then I got the whole shaft out with some head and a hammer.
I went ahead and ordered all new bearings along with a new cruciform, castellated nut and washers. Once I get things cleaned up, I’ll measure the transmission shaft to make sure there’s not too much wear there. That and the connecting rod big end are the only things that I think could be concerning.
Some of these nuts require special tools too, so those were in the last order. The nut on the clutch basket is a special castellated thing, requiring a special tool, and I think is reverse threaded. Same goes for the output shaft bearing which is reverse threaded and requires a special 9 pin tool. I’ll be popping some of this in the parts washer today.
The Allstate Super Cruisaire was private label Vespa made by Piaggio and sold by Sears from the late 50s to the mid 60s. They tended to lag behind and have fewer bells and whistles than Vespa models. My particular Super Cruisaire has a VNB engine, with a few parts bin features like the split case steering head, 105mm headlight and squarish speedometer. The speedo was an optional $13.79 accessory from Sears, but it appears that mine wasn’t ordered with one.
My Allstate was acquired a few years ago in trade for a Yamaha TY250 that I had. I was no longer interested in it, and my friend was no longer interested in the Allstate. It has a little crash damage in the floorboards, but a little experimental banging with a hammer and dolly has been promising. The underside is caked in greasy mud, which in this case, seems to have created a protective layer to keep out moisture.
I pulled the engine last night. I stated removing stuff and then decided to look up the engine removal steps. I did it all backwards. Pulled the pivot bold and shock mount first, then realized that the cables were hard to get to with nothing holding the engine in place. Then realized that the transmission oil was getting all over the place. Basically, I did everything backwards. This contributed to smashing the bakelite junction box. Oops.
It looks like the thing was moto crossed. The engine number was under a half inch of mud. Luckily, it seems like it’s oily mud, so the metal is clean underneath.
This is not my bike, but I hope mine will one day look like this.
Back in 2005, My friend told me about an old pre-unit Triumph that his friend was looking to sell a while back. My friend was unclear about what it was, and the guy selling it didn’t really know either. It was a 1952 something. Somehow it got into my head that it was a 1952 6T Thunderbird, like the one Marlin Brando rode in “The Wild Ones”.
I had recurring dreams about it for months before I finally arranged to go look at it. I don’t remember how much he was asking, or if there was even a price. It was at his parent’s house, and he was out of state, but when I saw it, it was the biggest letdown. After months of dreaming about a neglected but intact 6T, what rolled out of the garage was a chopped, raked and bondo filled hodgepodge of parts with a triumph engine in the middle. The engine and destroyed frame were probably the only Triumph bits there.
My dreams were gutted. I told him “honestly, with what’s here and usable, I don’t think I could give you more than $150 for it”, thinking that he’d turn me down. To my suprise, he said “yes”, and I reluctantly loaded the thing into my truck, along with a couple milk crates of miscellaneous chopper parts painted bright green.
What that mess turned out to be was a 1954 TR5 Trophy, the last of the rigid bikes, in a chopped 1960 duplex frame with a hard tail added. An autopsy revealed that it was probably built as a flat track bike in the 50s. As all the manufacturers were going to swing arm frames, the flat trackers still liked the hard tail, and it was one of the last to make the transition. It wasn’t until a couple years later that I realized that I probably got a good deal, and what I wanted to do was return it to it’s flat track glory days.
I wish I could show you a picture of the finished bike, but it’s still waiting to become a project. Finding a frame has been difficult. My dad bought one off ebay, but he didn’t really know what he was looking for, and it ended up being a mid 50s swing arm frame with alterations for who knows what? Maybe someone stuck an Indian engine in it?
He bought a second one that was a whole, solid swing arm frame, and now destroyed, but that’s not the bike I want to build. So I started looking for TR5 frames. The first part of the TR5 that’s different, is that the chain case is just a touch shorter, so I looked forever on ebay, and eventually found an inner case. Then a while later I found a full set. So now I have an extra.
Same theme for my frame search so far. The TRW is the same frame essentially, so when a TRW frame came up, I bought that. But that’s only the front half. I’ve been looking for a rear for a while, but haven’t found one. There has been a full frame for $1400 on ebay for a while. It’s probably worth it too, I just haven’t been able to justify getting it, especially when I have all these other frames sitting around that I should probably sell.
