Racer Corner	www.virtualindian.org
December 1999		Home / Archives / Racer Corner 1

This is the 6th of the VI "Theme Pages", and here we will follow the building of two hot SS racers as they go together. There will be detours into factory race parts, new  parts, and ancient and modern tricks and modifications. This page will be added to regularly as the work progresses.

"Fasst" Jim Wall is perhaps best know to VI website visitors as the builder/rider of the 1928 racer on which he won the races at Davenport this year, and as the guy to come up with solid information on the mythical "Big Base" 1948 Sport Scout engine cases, but he is also an avid Sport Scout racer.

Jim is currently building two 45" Sport Scout race bikes. One is a rebuild of the 1936 he has had for some time, and the other is a brand new Big Base cased model. The 1936 will be referred to as "the '36", and the new bike as "the BB". Over to Jim.
 

My '36 45" came out of the back room of Walte Timme's shop 10 years ago. Walte Timme has been the Indian dealer for Pueblo, Colorado since 1937. And he still is today; being in his eighties. It has been a good honest motorcycle, and the problems I have had with it have been oversights by myself. I have raced it in a lot of places and had a lot of fun with it. It is a pretty straight forward 45" with the most radical thing being Schunk cams. The other 45", which will be a Big Base, is being put together with parts and ideas I have collected over the years. I feel real fortunate to have the ability to do what I do with what I have.

This will be the Big Base Scout (here seen with stock engine cases). It has the 1940 and later front section, 741 rear section and narrowed to 6 3/4" wide 741 forks. The original narrowed forks where 6" wide and where used mostly on the mile tracks because they where stiffer. The 1940 and later front section also kicked the front end out a little more than the earlier frames. 741 front sections have even less of an angle to the headset. I know of one Scout that was built up lately with the 741 front section, that was having terrible high speed wobble problems on the track, so this is important.

The BB and the '36 where supposed to come up together. That way, in theory, I would never be out of a racing Scout again. The BB has S&S wheels, Carrillo rods and Big Base cases. The top end and camming will be the big difference. The cylinders are equipped with the big (1/8" larger bore) Art Hafer nipples, did 'em myself; kinda fun. The front cylinder was a .010 over with a bunch of fins knocked off. Repaired all the fins and did the nipples the same time. The rear is a 841 cylinder that was never run but had a bad exhaust valve seat casting defect. Sent it off to Williams Cylinder Head Repair in Iowa for repair. They do furnace welding of cast iron, it looks the same, machines the same and is wheelabrated on top of being left in the furnace for a couple of days after being welded. They are so good with cast that they weld fins back from scratch.

On this motor I want to use the KR '69 type system. They have a dome on the piston, that is the same radius as the bore; the head is machined to mirror this. I have been fooling with my own pistons because I need them, as no suitable off the shelf pistons are available, and to learn how to do it. A friend of mine, who is retired and builds things like V-6 Hendersons, has got the itch to own a CNC mill. He wants to build a V-8 Henderson now, and does not want to use the manual machine again. He has been aware of my efforts to make my own cam lobes for years, and has made a point of telling me the mill will be used for that purpose also. The idea is to steal all of Harley's ideas for the KR and use them on the Scout. I have all the KR parts on hand for inspection.The long term goal is to flow a KR cylinder and try to get the Scout to do similar numbers and then make up the 4 cam stuff, using something similar to their numbers. Lots of work but someday it will happen.

The fastest Scout is still the GMA bike that was put together by a fellow out in California. They clock the guys with a speed gun at Daytona, and most people go just a little over 100mph on their Scouts. I think the GMA bike was up around 110. Years ago, when Ed Kretz Sr was still alive, they let him do a lap in some kind of ceremony on his Scout and he was just shy of 120. Also in talking with Smitty, he says right at the end they where hitting 120 on the mile tracks. The '68-'69 KR where the fastest KR's at Daytona, I think running just shy of 150mph... Jim
 
Click here! for Part 2: All about racing tanks!