Got my frame back and its not right

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kelso

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I had a local bike fab guy do the tail on my bike and when I got it back the lower motor mount is not at 7" it is a hair over 6 3/4. I don't wanna mess with driving an hour back out to his shop to have him fix it so I am wondering if there is any reason why it would be a problem to grab a grinder and take a 1/16" off of the inside of each lower mount on the frame so the motor would slide back in. As long as it is even it shouldn't throw me out of center so it seems like it should be fine. Any thoughts?
 
Wow, a 1/4 in. I had to grind mine out on the very first one I ever did. I doubt it will hurt anything. It has to go in so what are your options. I think you would have to take a 1/8" off each side. Try to keep it nice and square.
 
Yeah that's what I thought. The gap is closer to 13/16 and the motor is closer to 15/16 so I am thinking maybe a hair over 1/16 on each side. I am aggravated that I gotta do it but whatever. I just wanna get the motor in.
 
That's not so bad. Get the grinder out,and have at. Once it is in,you can see how the rear mounts line up. They might need a little help as well. I think lots of guys go through this to some degree. Leave everything loose untill you get all the mount bolts in. The top doesn't matter so much because you can move that quite a bit.
 
It might be a good idea to find out WHY that mount would be out that much if all he was suppose to do was add a tail. Make sure everything is square and level. If your out a 1/4 I would suspect some issues somewhere.

I'm sure you could just grind the mounts into submission, but I would try to identify what the problem is. Did he use to much heat and warped some stuff.. is something bent? This could be a bigger problem then just grinding the mounts. If he didn't use a jig the frame can easily have been twisted.
 
After grinding I got four mounts in, with some effort. The bottom rear is a 1/4" off. I'm thinking of calling him tomorrow and seeing when is a good time to chop it off and return it so I can order an Ardtail. I am not sure how to even go about checking the squareness of everything. I mean I am a carpenter so I understand the concept but I am not sure what to square off of. That is why I paid a professional...loosely speaking...to do the work
 
Yeah that to me sounds like some stuff is out of square. First there shouldn't of had to be any grinding, that is a dead give away.. then having to put 'some effort' into it.. I built my own hardtail and checked squareness throughout, made sure things were levels and precise so if this 'professional' obviously couldn't do it there is some issues. I can take my motor in and out it fits like a glove everytime no problem.


Found these videos these may be able to help you figure out the route to take when checking the square. This might be a great topic for one of the frame builders on that board to chime in with their tips/tricks for checking on this.


 
thelowlife said:
Yeah that to me sounds like some stuff is out of square. First there shouldn't of had to be any grinding, that is a dead give away.. then having to put 'some effort' into it.. I built my own hardtail and checked squareness throughout, made sure things were levels and precise so if this 'professional' obviously couldn't do it there is some issues. I can take my motor in and out it fits like a glove everytime no problem.


Found these videos these may be able to help you figure out the route to take when checking the square. This might be a great topic for one of the frame builders on that board to chime in with their tips/tricks for checking on this.


Click to expand...

These'll help. I should be able to get a pretty good sense for whether it is tweaked. Trouble is that witht he frame he is working on he is able to do minor adjustments with shims because all of the parts are mounted on flat level mounts. The xs650 is obviously a little different, there si no shimming when things are mounted with horizontal through bolts.

Man I just wanna start putting this thing together:banghead:
 
Get a tape measure and a plum bob. drop a line down the neck and cross measure everything. cross the front motor mounts, rear mounts, exhaust tabs, and axle plates.....that will let you know where it is at. Might have a lot more problems than you think.
 
where you at? was this a shop that is supposed to be able to do things right, or was it a dude with a knock off welder in a garage? he fucked it up, he pry knows it, he should fix it.
 
He is a bike fab guy with a shop full of killer bikes and he has won bike shows. Not sure what the deal is. I called him today and he took responsibility and said bring it up he will check it all, take care of it and give me back $50 for my trouble. He makes full frames and does a lot of custom stuff, not sure what the deal was here. He is being stand up about it at least.


...I'm in Iowa...need to figure out how to add my location to avatar...
 
Did he have an engine or engine jig in the frame when he welded on the hardtail?
 
I wonder what he will say/do after he sees you tried to grind the engine mounts into submission...?

Atleast he is taking responsibility for this. Who knows what really went wrong as I mention could have been too much heat added. Or even the frame was tweaked to begin with and he worked with it assuming it was square.
 
When I delivered it I had a stripped down locked up motor still bolted in. When I picked it up the engine was out. Don't know at what point in the fab it was removed.

I took it back once because I didn't like what he did with the area where the backbone comes down to meet the bottom of the frame. It was the way he usually does them but they usually get covered by a battery box. He knew that but didn't think about it when he was putting it together. He said he would clean it up so I dropped it off and when I said I had the engine too he said he didn't need it, he'd just weld in a piece to temp hold everything. Then he cut out the lower crossmember and redid it. i think that is where the problem came from. I told him I ground on it and got 4 out of 5 to fit and the rear was 1/4" off and he said it was his fault, he should've checked the mounts for fit and that he would make it right. I will be happy if he takes care of it all for me. Sucks to have to drive and hour each way to drop it off for the third time but he is gonna give me back a $50 for my trouble. Like I said, he's being stand-up I think.
 

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