Question for CraigArizona

[04customking]

Craig, I singled you out because I know we have the same Paughco oil tank. I want to get rid of my mousetrap. I don't like the feel with the Primo clutch I have. Do you have any pics of the arm and tank area? It looks kind of tight there and I would like to see how it fits before buying one. Thanks. Jim

[CraigArizona85248]

Jim,

I don't have any photos that show the release arm clearly.  But what I have is the standard "mouse trap eliminator" release arm.  I did modify it just slighly.  It had a tad too much bend in it and wanted to rub on the underside of the oil tank support plate.  So I straightened out the bend at the cable end just a bit.

Here is a photo of the bracket I use to hold the clutch cable down at the transmission end.  This bracket is also from a standard "mouse trap eliminator" kit.



Hope that helps some.

-Craig

EDIT:  I just found a photo that might shed some light.  You can see the release arm just barely in this photo.  Not much light on it, but you can see the shape of the bend at the end.

[rbonner]

Hey educate me Craig, that hole in the crankcase on the pan...  Is that the BREATHER then?  I've heard that the oil that comes out of that lubes the primary chain...  is it just a splash?  The crankcase sumps its oil back to the oil pump the same way as the shovel.  I've heard some guys have drilled the case to have a breather like on a shovel in the back, but have never seen this.

When you put the hose on this and curve it around when you are doing the belt drive where do you head off with it when it leaves the primary? 

Thanks, I like hanging around here and learning about the earlier bike's differences.  BOB

[CraigArizona85248]

Bob,

The big twins up until 1964 had a "total loss" primary oil system.  That is, any oil that went into the primary to oil the chain eventually dripped out on the ground and was never recirculated back into the system.  So the "oil leaks" that everyone talks about on the old bikes are there by design.  This was all long before the EPA and before we cared too much about how much oil we let leak out into our environment.

The pipe on the side of the motor is both the crackcase breather pipe and the oil supply pipe for the primary chain.  In stock condition there would have been a little elbow piece fitted on the end to direct the oil drip down onto the primary chain.

I've heard of guys making the mod you are talking about, but I haven't done it or seen the details.

Since I run a belt drive, the breather tube gets redirected out of the primary and I just have a piece of hose the vents to the air.  Some guys put a filter on the end of the hose (I don't).  Since I'm not oiling a primary chain, I close the screw on the side of the oil pump that feeds extra oil into the breather.  By doing this I get just a tiny amount of oil out the breather hose.  The oil gets whipped up in the crank case and a little mist is carried out as the crankcase breaths.  When I come out each morning, there is usually one drop of oil directly below the open hose attached to the breather.

-Craig

[04customking]

Thanks Craig. That's what I was looking for.

[rbonner]

OK Craig, great explaination...  So the oiler has a screw just like the shovel except dumps into the breather.  OK.

I knew about the open oil system but didn't know what year they stopped with that, thought it was possibly 47...

Thank you muchly for the info.

BOB

[fourthgear]

Craig, I singled you out because I know we have the same Paughco oil tank. I want to get rid of my mousetrap. I don't like the feel with the Primo clutch I have. Do you have any pics of the arm and tank area? It looks kind of tight there and I would like to see how it fits before buying one. Thanks. Jim

I think some use a Shovel arm ,if I remember correctly. Its been a long time since I put an eliminator kit on. Any arm may need tweeking.

[Dave_R]

If I remember correctly, the old mousetrap eliminator kits came with a shorter arm to make up for the difference in the shorter cable movement (pull) that the cable has over the mousetrap linkage.
(Cable pulls in (moves) about 1/2 inch versus the mousetrap moving (pulling) about an inch on the arm).
The effort to pull in the clutch does get a LOT greater for a stock clutch set-up with the eliminator!
I went back to the mousetrap because of the clutch effort being too heavy for my old age.
(But, I used the mousetrap eliminator arm so that I can have a really large clutch-plate spread due to the shorter arm)

[04customking]

Thanks for the input. Clutch pull effort isn't going to be a problem. I have a diaphragm spring on the Primo clutch and it should be fine even with the increased effort.

[rbonner]

Yeah the Primo jobby turned my Shovel into a girl bike.  Very easy clutch, before I wouldn't have had to worry about the OL at all...  Now I have had to tell her to stay away from my bike; or else.

BOB