SuzukiSavage.com - Retro Thumper project

LANCER Serious Thumper Alliance Member Offline Savage Beast Performance Parts Posts: 10586 Oklahoma Gender:	Re: Retro Thumper project Reply #150 - 03/19/22 at 08:24:28 Inflation is running strong.
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Re: Retro Thumper project
Reply #151 - 03/20/22 at 11:34:29

Yesterday was wet and a bit cold.....so I hid in the garage and made stuff.

Since I have my plated hardware I can start bolting things together again. I put on the back wheel, then started assembling the forks. I realized I needed to get the turn signal and headlight mounts on the fork tube before I got them attached to the top triple clamp.....so getting those parts ready was necessary.

The turn signal mounts just needed the clear coat stripped and new powder coating applied....that took about an hour.

I was not all that prepared for the headlight mounts - it was too late to order anything so I began the process of making some mounts. When I made some mounts for the Cafe' bike I used a set of turn signal mounts and modified them to have arms pointing forward to hold the headlight. That headlight has an 8" light and the spacing on the turn signal mounts worked well - for this 7" headlight bucket I will need to make things an inch narrower.

I first started by machining a step in the turn signal mounts that will hold the new arms at the proper spacing.

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Dave YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 17784 Camp Springs, Kentucky Gender:	Re: Retro Thumper project Reply #152 - 03/20/22 at 11:36:12 The hole that is on the backside now is where the turn signal stalk used to insert - and it is a big hole. I needed to make something that would fit into the hole and have 8x1.25 threads. I started with a 5/8" bolt and milled off once side of the hex.
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Dave YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 17784 Camp Springs, Kentucky Gender:	Re: Retro Thumper project Reply #153 - 03/20/22 at 11:38:15 Then I shortened the shank to the same length as the thickness of the part of the turn signal housing where the hole was. Then I drilled and threaded the bolt as shown in the photo. The photo does not show that I then thinned the hex down to reduce the height.
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Re: Retro Thumper project
Reply #154 - 03/20/22 at 11:40:12

I then made the arm that will hold the headlight. I assembled the pieces and found I needed to trim off a bit more of the turn signal clamp as it hit the back of the headlight bucket....about 3/16" had to come off and that is why the curved portion of the turn signal mount is now gone.

This photo shows all 3 parts prior to assembly.

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Dave YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 17784 Camp Springs, Kentucky Gender:	Re: Retro Thumper project Reply #155 - 03/20/22 at 11:42:31 This is what all 3 parts looked like after the parts were all assembled with JBWeld and allowed to cure overnight. The next step was to file/sand and beadblast the parts to get the ready for powder coating.
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Dave YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 17784 Camp Springs, Kentucky Gender:	Re: Retro Thumper project Reply #156 - 03/20/22 at 11:44:06 After church this morning I got all the prep work done and got them powder coated. JB Weld is able to withstand the 400 degrees it takes to get the powder coating baked, and the powder will stick to it.
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Dave YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 17784 Camp Springs, Kentucky Gender:	Re: Retro Thumper project Reply #157 - 03/20/22 at 11:45:10 And here is what the turn signal and headlight mounts look like when installed. (Hard to believe that this took me about 14 hours of time to complete).
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LANCER Serious Thumper Alliance Member Offline Savage Beast Performance Parts Posts: 10586 Oklahoma Gender:	Re: Retro Thumper project Reply #158 - 03/20/22 at 14:36:44 Time flies when your having fun !
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ohiomoto Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 2681 WTF is JOG?	Re: Retro Thumper project Reply #159 - 03/20/22 at 17:41:59 Nice.
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Re: Retro Thumper project
Reply #160 - 04/09/22 at 03:35:19

Work has slowed down a bit on this bike.....garage time has been spent on other issues like getting a bike ready for the Texas ride, assembling a new propane grill to replace our 20 year old one that died.....and doing yard work.

I was able to spend some time making the 7/8" hole in a BMX brake lever into a 1" hole so it can be used for a manual compression release lever.

When I first did this about 8 years ago I had a drill press and a 1" wood spade bit - it worked but was crude. Now I have a small milling machine and proper tooling - it works so much nicer!

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Dave YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 17784 Camp Springs, Kentucky Gender:	Re: Retro Thumper project Reply #161 - 02/06/24 at 17:49:26 I was able to get some work done on this project today. The weather was good enough to play blacksmith outside......I worked on getting the fuel tank to fit. This is the bottom of the GT380/550 fuel tank. The center is not shaped to match the top tube of the Savage frame, and the tank sits too high as a result.
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Dave YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 17784 Camp Springs, Kentucky Gender:	Re: Retro Thumper project Reply #162 - 02/06/24 at 17:51:37 I started at the front of the tank and heated with a torch....then hammered the center down to straighten out the curve and raise the center up higher. The area that has black marker is the area where the top tube splits into 2 tubes and it has not been raised yet.
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Dave YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 17784 Camp Springs, Kentucky Gender:	Re: Retro Thumper project Reply #163 - 02/06/24 at 17:53:24 This is with more work done - at this point I started putting it on the frame and making small adjustments to get good clearance to the frame. It is a bit ugly.....but the tank now sits down low and looks like it belongs on the bike!
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Dave YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 17784 Camp Springs, Kentucky Gender:	Re: Retro Thumper project Reply #164 - 02/06/24 at 17:54:37 The Savage tank mounts are in the wrong place for this tank. I cut off the factory ones and used these parts to make the new mount.
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