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1942 Harley WLA Frame

The frame is from a 1942 Harley Davidson WLA.  It was at least the first one was until it was stolen out of Kade's truck!  We had to buy another frame to replace it... not happy campers about that. 

Thank you, Hackasaw!!  Hack came through with another frame at a great price in no time.  

Since we weren't going for a completely original restoration, we decided to modify the frame to suite our choice of gearboxes.

British 4-Speed in a WLA Frame

There was a little bit of work involved in creating a transmission mount that lined the rear wheel sprocket with the countershaft sprocket and at the same time keeping the Lytedrive clutch pulley aligned with the motor pulley on the belt drive.   To align the motor pulley to the belt drive clutch basket and countershaft sprocket align with the rear drive sprocket while keeping the centers of the crankshaft, transmission mainshaft, and rear axel in a straight line we decided to cut the frame.

T&T Welding in Ann Arbor did the welding work and fabricated a steel box for the transmission to sit in.   This will drop the gearbox about 1 1/2" and give us some room to adjust the gearbox from side-to-side as well as forward and back.   It also made room for the drive chain to pass under the rear chain stay without whacking the hell out of it.

Victory Library has a good manual on ideas for mounting a British gearbox in WLA frames.

Big Twin Springer Fork

Since we wanted to run a disc brake up front, we decided to go with a Big Twin springer fork rather than the original WLA Solo springer because the rockers on the Big Twin model are on the outside of the fork legs, not inside like the Solo, and this gave us a bit more room between the legs for the disc, calipers, and support brackets.

Kickstand

Rather than the rear stand that's on most WLAs, we went with a side stand that mounts on the left front floorboard support rod.  

Neck Bearings

We replaced the stock ball, fall out and roll everywhere, bearings with Timken roller bearings... but nothing's easy.  The cups are from an early  Sportster conversion kit, but the bottom bearing took a Timken L44640 and the top a Timken 07087 to match the Big Twin fork.

Floorboards

You gotta love floorboards on a motorcycle.  I have no idea why they're not on everything!  These are reproductions from 45 Parts Depot in the Netherlands.  

(c)Copyright 2002 Velocedge, Inc.
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