Watercooled Knucklehead Midget Help...

Don't feel bad, I sold that Knucklehead Midget for $100.00 back in the 1970;s and it was a Championship winner, original driver/owner was Bill Schindler.

 

Beautiful motor, beats the hell out of a V-Rod!

 

I have a friend building a Drake bobber presently. Maybe he can help. What do you need? Personally I prefer my 84" Koslow as I am allergic to anti-freeze.

 

That's some funny shit there!

 

i never have seen a water cooled knuck conversion id be tempted to put it in a bike

 

I'd be seriously be all over that!

 

Yeah... one moved to Poland... but there are quite a few Midget racers in Wisconsin that raced Angell Park as well as Indianapolis... racer5 on the HAMB knows these guys as well.

I'll spread the word for you... probably a few around here since I live in the same neighborhood as Harley Davidson, Evinrude, and Mercury Marine!

 

Please post more pictures.
I know Tq midgets in the 1950's used a Harley 45 with one cylinder removed. Not to steal your thread but if anyone has any info on how they did this please PM me. Thanks, John

 

Jesse, was the engine in this car watercooled?

PM me if you want the phone number of the owner. Dennis, the shop owner dosn't own the car.
Jeff

 

My friend Ralph Biza has a Drake motor, He is hunting for a flat tail to put it in. He lives in Coalinga and was by my shop last week. A collector across the street from my shop has some of the oringinal parts that were cast and forged here in Fresno for those motors. He has a Petruzzi carb. A round billet before it was drop forged, arod after it had been drop forged but not machined yet, a set of machined and polished rods. Pistons in raw cast and pistons after machining. He also has two water cooled barrels. Ernie Lauck here in Fresno did alot of the machining on the Drakes, The Cartwright shear company in Malaga,Ca. did the drop forging of the rods. Several of the motors were built by Edgar Elders for Ed Gearhardt who owned the Vukovich cars. The parts the gentleman across the street has were mounted on a large plywood board back in the day with part names written on 3x5 cards on the boards. He will not part with his collection, but I thing Ralph Knows where there are some parts. I will call him tomorrow and see if I can get some names. Milt Janzen had 5 Drakes mounted on engine stands that had been freshened by Elders that he let go when he sold his collection. If you know where there are any flat tail body parts around please let me know. I'll get back if I get some more info.
Gary

 

dreyer's ran koslow/harley, jap , elto and do dreyer special 4 cylinders not drakes

 

How did most of the water cooled motors get mounted? The "Catfish" had the motor mounted just like a bike with a chain drive to the rear. Sorry I mispelt Dreyer in an earlier post. I still have two front springs from the Dreyer wiggle front end that was in the car. Real neat piece of work cutting up Model T Ford front end and only using the outer ends of the axle.

 

didn't Trock build some liquid cooled jugs, back in the day?...

 

Hey Jesse, Have not read all the post but one thing I do know is that there was no circ pump...Convection is all they did ..out at top to radiator in at bottom of waterjacket...Have only seen one and it was a "cutaway" display...Kool find. I have built more than a few Knucks and have always wanted find a set of those jugs add a pump and radiator and build a scooter around it...Way Kool....See pix of my current ride at TobySlyme.com..Later

 

Yep Mike your right.

 

Dale Drake's son is John Drake of Drake Engr. Try contacting him.

Drake Engr.
23332-A Madero Road
Mission Viejo, CA 92691
Phone: 714-837-4718
Fax: 714-837-9352

Tom

 

Where did "popeofwelding" come from?.......Sounds like something "BLEED" would come up with.

 

I am pretty sure the area codes are 949 for Mission Viejo these days just an f.y.i

 

Why don't you give a shout to Bluto, he knows a lot about those old midgets.

 

In the mid sixty's I hung out with a guy Tony Bonadies His dad was a very well know midget racer. He was killed in 1964 and they closed down his speed shop in the bronx ny . He had all kinds of old midget stuff including 2 carlhiem's . the guy his mom married about a year later had a motor that looks like the one in the pics .I will email his #

 

2 Carlheims!!! man I would take one of those over a Drake any day

 

What kind of carb is on that thing ? Looks like a reilly ?

 

Isnt ''POPE" Italian for ,likes hairless boy butts?

 

Hey, thats my Dad's car

 

had a chance to buy a h2o motor from ed rounds jr in belfont pa back in the 1970's he advertised old harleys in the washington post to max his profit. I bought a pan basket for $375 and a running knucklehead with a triumph ft end/sporster tank for $900/still have the knuckle motor it's been to the keys/daytona a few times from maryland, I loaded the lot in my brothers borrowed 1969 six banger nova complete bike hanging out the trunk and basket case in back/passenger seat/ thank god older brothers are unstanding as there was a tad amount of oil/dirt all over his car.. bought a lot of bikes from ed. resold in the local want ad book in the DC area..the drake motor was like $300 , he claimed it was a stroker but when he said it was water cooled I passed.used to have a shop back in the day too..
be well

 

Hey man what ever happened to this project?

 

Here you go

 

I caught the last couple minutes of the new show about it, this morning. He wasn't riding it, thou. Said something about it being tempermental, and still shakin' the bugs out. I was wondering what the finished bike looked like.

 

I just watched it too, the whole time I was wondering about this thread and then bam! first one I see when I get on.