Every motorcycle enthusiast dreams of it. That one true in the barn find that's never been touched for years. The one that the previous caretaker of history lovingly put up for the next caretaker to find and breathe new life into. This is ours and we have brought "Ollie" back to life.
About three years ago, we got a call at the shop asking if we bought old motorcycles. The owner asked if I knew what a 440 was and if we would be interested in it. Sure!
So we rode over to take a peek at this old Indian. There it was, covered with an old brown duck tarp and put up on a pile of sawmill lumber since 1962. We uncovered it, cut the chain and drug the bike out into the sunshine.
We listened to the story of how and why Ollie's father parked this bike in 1962. It was quite interesting and we were excited to learn it. So we brought "Ollie" home and started tearing it apart.
All hands on deck....everyone got to help. We learned so much in rebuilding this 1940 Four.
Deciding to keep it in the original barn find condition as we found it, we began the motor building process. A whole new learning curve was achieved as we now know how to pour babbit bearings, line bore a four cylinder, and build the motor piece by piece. Wow!
Justin, Jared and Eric were eager to tear it apart so the rebuilding could begin
Buck helped out too!
Pouring babbit bearing required patience, patience and more patience
Line boring the new bearings
Making sure everything is just right
Cutting the rods to size
Karson helped with hammering out needed gaskets and wiring up the bearings
We were schooled by an awesome teacher, Joe Gimpel, who shared his knowledge of fours with us and we were students who absorbed everything we could. Notes were made, pictures were taken and long discussions over the last two years of spare time building of this motor were accomplished. Success .... "Ollie" has come back to life and we are loving it.
Next, we will put the motor back in the frame and begin the reassembly of this 1940 Four. For now, Ollie is covered back up until we have time to complete the project.