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It's been a long time but I have some updates. I went to the dirt bike shop and there are no modern bikes that use the same diameter crankpin. I found someone selling a used one but it's not good enough for the shop to use. So still looking for an NOS or excellent used one. HD part number 23962-63B if anyone has any leads to old shops or buyout stashes.
Meanwhile I started disassembling the black cart. I needed the two floor panels and the left fender as well as the main body. Here is my progress and the piles of parts. I will be using the front wheel and hubcaps too. I'm sure the gas tank will come in handy somewhere, but not for now.
Aaauuuugggghhhhh!!! This motor is cursed! First the last NOS crank pin in the world gets lost in the mail, now the motor shop called with nothing but bad news. When he pressed the new pin into one of the crank halves it went in very hard, and a little crooked. He wasn't concerned with crooked, it happens a lot and he knows how to fix it. Then the new old stock HD bearing wouldn't fit on the pin, confirming the pin was oversized (it was from a later year motor). The used bearing that was in the connecting rod fit so he decided to use that one. Then the other crank half went on hard and crooked too, by about 0.030 total misalignment! Yes, thirty thousanths. When he wedged the crank to straighten it, the pin started pulling out. After much cursing he determined there was no way to align this crank. He has assembled over 10,000 cranks over the years, and this was the first time the patient died.
I sent the crankshaft to Todd Cutchins, in Wisconsin. He is a Harley Davidson Golf Cart specialist and he will fix me up. Todd has a huge collection of parts, and services the motors.
Meanwhile, the weather is warm, so I started working on the body outside. First off, strip the many layers of paint from the front console. A razor blade removed the last two coats very easily:
There were four more layers of paint and primer underneath. In the areas that were hard to reach when assembled it was a mess, and the razor wasn't cutting it.
Some quality time spent with my dual action sander and it's down to gelcoat and prior repairs. I'll have to do them over, correctly.
Same procedure on the footwells. The driver's side is terrible, but I can fix it.
The previous repairs all cracked again. I suspect they didn't bevel the back when they slopped on a bunch of layers of fiberglass.
Now that my back has recovered from the other day, I repaired the cracks and unnecessary holes. The previous repairs consisted of laying a ton of bondo over the cracks. No surprise they cracked again. I did the repairs right, with fiberglass mat and cloth.
First remove the bad repair and expose solid fiberglass:
Then clean and taper the back of the cracks and holes:
Then build a backing form where there are big holes or cracks. I use cardboard and or masking tape with wax paper underneath as a release agent. I just taped over the little holes.
Apply resin, three layers of mat, using a cheap paintbrush to push more resin into each layer, then two layers of cloth and resin. That's about the same thickness of the original part, and the glass strands stop any cracks from forming.
After working on one fender/footwell I removed the tape and forms and sanded the outsides. I'll work the outside next week, most only need a little filler.
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