Trike Rebuild
By Larry Campbell, for any suggestions or comments please email me at:
trikerman72@gmail.com
For BTW's website click on this link: www.btw-trikers.org
For some trike videos check out this site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lf8i1SksvY
Keep watching this site, changes happen often.
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I bought my trike near San Diego in October of 2010. As soon as I took it home I joined BTW, Brothers of the Third Wheel. It was just what I was looking for, a place that I could get a lot of info about trikes and can meet with other members socially and learn more about trikes.
When I got my first magazine from them I saw that there was to be a Trike-In at Madera, Ca. That's just about 265 miles from my place, so I made plans to head up there.
I got the trike all packed up and started up on its maiden voyage; actually, both of our maiden voyages since I had never driven a trike before just picking it up when I bought it. I had been a two wheeled rider for over 50 years, but three wheels takes a little getting used to.
All went very well up until the time I just about got to Madera when somewhere on the freeway my back seat bottom seat pad flew off without me knowing it. Surprise, surprise; when I saw that I had arrived at the meet without my back seat. I tried to get an award for having the worst luck, but a lady did have worse than I; she broke her trikes tranny and had to be towed.
I saw so many great looking trikes there. What a trip in more ways than one. It was great until when I was going home and going over the grapevine the engine started to miss. It got very bad, so I told her that if she would get me home I would give her a wonderful rebuild and a face lift. She got me all the way home, complaining all the way, though.
I started working on the engine right away. With the body hanging down over the engine I had to actually lift the body up about 6 inches just to clear a way to work on it and get it out.
While I was rebuilding the engine I thought it would be a great idea to honor my promise to my sweet little lady, whom I call, "Wild Child," and give her a face lift. I bought chrome everything for her. She looked great! I gave her a few other nice things; like a new 110 cam, 90.5mm pistons and cylinders, which made the engine a 1776 cc, and a 44cc Weber Carb. She runs like a top.
With all that done I decided to continue with the face lift and complete the rebuild giving her all new wiring and upholstery. I'm not sure when I can complete the upholstery job though, since it will cost somewhere around a thousand dollars. What a job that is turning out to be. I am glad that I did that though since most of the wiring was a mess. It was a miracle that the trike even ran. Many of the terminals were corroded and many wires were just twisted together and left that way. Some wires were put together with electricians wire nuts. I had to completely remove the body, which showed a lot more trouble spots with rusted through bolts and such. I am going to attempt to show pictures of the rebuild as I go along with this story. The beginning picture is what it looked like when I brought it home. For some reason I cannot make the picture smaller. I hope I learn more about this program as I go along. This is my maiden voyage with this program as well.
Below are pics of my processes as I go along with the rebuild.
Here is the start of getting the wiring out in the open.
I found that I couldn't get to the rest of the wiring, so, off came the body with the help of my good friend and neighbor, Alex and his son, AJ and I picked up the body so I could work on it with ease.
Here is the rats nest that is supposed to be wiring.
Here is her new face lift; lots of chrome
Below is the battery box that swings down from the hinge on the left and held by the bolt and nut on the right side
Above is the battery box swung down so the battery can be accessed.
1/17/2011
Today Robert, the Director of our San Gabriel Chapter of Brothers of the Third Wheel, (BTW) came over with his friend and member, Jim. They helped me with the trike. Jim is a good VW mechanic and Robert is a good welder. Robert welded up a swinging door for my battery that in the past could not be checked without removing the body. The same goes for the brake fluid reservoir which could not be checked or filled either. Both were remodeled to give access. Robert did a good job. See the picture above.
2/6/11
I have been working on the trike most every day, but just now decided to add the pictures to show some of the work. Jim has been coming over most every day to help. Robert has a job so he can't make it quite as much, but he adds his input to at times. They sure are a lot of help.
I can't seem to make this program do what I want it to do. Now I can't type this info under the pictures like I did in the previous pictures, so the following pictures are showing the new upholstery. It turned out pretty nice. As I mentioned earlier that the upolstery would cost around $1000. I did most of the work by removing all the seats and dash, so it only cost $400, so, as you can see, I got it done.
The next pictures are of the front forks all torn down and all polished up. No more rust. Then I am showing the new springs next to the old rusted ones. I hope this all goes together okay. If it weren't for Jim I wouldn't have the springs or the knowledge to rebuild the springer front forks since I have never had them on a bike before. I'm learning a lot. I had to do all the polishing with steel wool and cutting compound. It's amazing what a little elbow grease can do. I see that this program is putting the pictures in backward order than I had wanted them, so you will just have to bear with me and figure it out yourself. Sorry.
I did find out a new trick thanks to Robert. To remove rust from a chrome part use a single edged razor blade to scrape the rust off first. It doesn't seem to scratch the chrome, but removes all but the most stubborn rust. Then just dip a very fine steel wool pad in some cutting compound and rub, hard and long. It did a great job for me.
I 
2/21/11
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