47 El

[cosmiccowboy]

I lucked into this basket about a year ago, near as I can figuere it's been apart since the 90's when the lady I got it from had a falling out with her boyfriend. It was registered to her so her money his toy, he must have screwed up so she spilt and took it with her. It must have been taken apart for some mechanical problem since the lower end has been redone, new pistons and red goop oozing out between the case halves. There is some evidence of case repair on the bottom of the case on the left side where the belly numbers are, I don't know if it was caused by the lower end coming apart or if he hit something, it was a low slung chopper in it's previous life. I'll need to split the case to get rid of that red goop anyway so I look see how the repair was done. I've rebuilt the trany, the generator, deraked the frame and mocked up the bike so I could get it titled, that took most of last year. I'll be starting on the lower end next so I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions for you all. Any comments or advice will be appreciated. I'll try to post some pictures so you can see.

[attachment removed after 60 days by system]

[ricochet]

Looks to be a nice project underway.  How were the heads?  From the left side they appear to be in good shape.  Hope you find the lower end in newly rebuilt shape.  Would be a bonus.

ricochet

[Ultrashovel]

Was the picture of the frame taken before "de-raking"it? It appears to be raked in the picture and there is a curve in the frame backbone.

There are very few Knuckleheads left of any variety. The 61's were a nice smooth-running motor as I recall. I owned an original one when I was but a mere child in Chicago.

The EL was the so-called "High Compression" model, as opposed to the "E". I never found out what the actual compression ratios were, though.

The E's and EL's had a 3-5/16" bore with a 3-1/2" stroke. They had a "stepped" crankpin where the tapers were stepped down from the diameter of the center of the crankpin. It was the same crankpin as the U and UL flatheads. The Harley dealers would sell you a new one for $2.00 after WWII.

You could always tell a 61" from a 74" because the cylinders were obviously smaller and had fewer fins where the intake manifold entered the heads.

I preferred the 61" models because, as I said, they ran quite a bit smoother than the 74" and, af far as I could tell, they were every bit as fast.

Good luck on your restoration.

[cosmiccowboy]

That is a picture of the frame is the condition it was when I got the bike, the down tubes had 6' added to them and the backbone was bent up to accomodate that. It was the worst chop job I have ever seen, looked like cubscouts did it in shop class. I had to replace the down tubes and the backbone as they were both too butchered to reuse. The front head was perfect, the rear head had 2 tabs broken and rewelded, maybe that was the problem that caused the bike to be torn down and not the broken case. I had to do some reworking on the welds to get the surface flat to accept the rocker boxes but I suspose you could have made it work anyway, I just hope the welds hold. The heads are back together and they look to be good to go so on to the lower end.

[Ultrashovel]

Good. It sounds like you have things under control.

I wish people could have kept their hands off of the original old bikes. I hate choppers in the first place but cutting on a perfectly good 1947 HD frame is sacrilege.

Happy Trails.

[cosmiccowboy]

I agree now but it wasn't always that way. I had a 69 FLH that I bought in 1970 with 5600 miles on it and bone stock. I couldn't wait to chop that bike, that's what we did back then. Fortunately I needed the money I had to pay for college so it stayed stock.