Indian 640 Canadian

[rob love]

As an aside, this is the other item I am performing a little maintenance on. Just like the older vehicles, what starts as a simple job turns into 10 other jobs. I brought it in for excessive smoke on start up and hard starting. That was over a week ago. It will hopefully be done this week. On top of the tune-up and checking a few injectors, it has fed over to a compression test, replacing an exhaust manifold gasket, an oil change, replacing all crossover lines, replacing a xmsn temp switch, repairing the tachometer cable, repairing the oil pressure gauge, a zero pressure check and replenishing the oil in the turret hydraulics (thanks for the help Laun), pumping up the equilibrator, refilling the nitrogen in the main accumulator, (shhhhh.....don't tell the artillery.....cleaning rust from the breech area), and likely a few more jobs which will crop up.

The artillery want to come by for a bit of professional development/"the way we used to do it" briefings next week.

[welbike]

Rob,

Looks nice!! but why did they took it apart in the first place??

In the older photos you can see it has a real late "Harley" style airfilter on it, probably from an Indian 741 it should have the civvy version, much easier and cheaper then the tall round one that I have (appx. $1200.00) and you don't need the special inlet tube casting.

Have no idea whats missing on the sidecar wheel as the parts books don't cover the sidecar, but have an Indian 340 p/l somewhere, will look in there if I can find it, they had the same sidecars.

Speedo's are indeed pricey, but so is everything Indian, I have found out!!

This is the Speedo (Corbin) that you need, NOT the same as 741! (see below)

There is a guy in Canada that does real good work;

http://www.speedoshop.net/?p=productsList

Cheers,

Lex

[rob love]

I have noticed that Indian parts are not cheap. When I restored a folding bike the other year I thought parts were expensive. Now I am starting to see what expensive really is. Seems like a speedo runs in the $1100 range when you can find it.

I can't explain why people like taking things apart. It's just something people do. Have you ever left a camera or a watch on the kitchen table to later find out a child has disassembled it just for the sake of doing so?

There are parts still on the bench for it, such as the gas tanks, the lines, and the air cleaner. Once I get back onto this project in a week or so, I have to make up a list of parts to order, and it should hopefully be driving again this summer.

[David Dunlop]

Definitely a different look between the two side cars in this thread. Any indications if this was specific to USA and Canadian Contracts, or just a variation between early and late overall production?

David

[welbike]

David, better disregard the sidecar in my picture, that is I believe a pre-war Indian Princess sidecar, not necessarily Military.

Here an original Canadian picture of a 640 with sidecar;



And another, with the civvy aircleaner visible, pictures from Canadian Archives via Clive Law.



Cheers,

Alex

[DenisLutman]

Hi, I accidentally ran across this forum and was excited to see a thread about Canadian Army 640s.
I'm restoring one as well and have learned A LOT about these motorcycles and would like to share some information.

First, here's mine as I bought it. It came from way north of Saskatoon.



Here are two photos as it stands now, nearly finished.

[derk derin]

I call shotgun!
Derk

[DenisLutman]

Originally Posted by welbike

David, better disregard the sidecar in my picture, that is I believe a pre-war Indian Princess sidecar, not necessarily Military.

Here an original Canadian picture of a 640 with sidecar;




Cheers,

Alex

I suspect this is US Army model sent to Canada for testing since it has the blackout light on the front fender. However, it looks like the Canadian spec seat is mounted to the rear fender and the passenger may have his hands resting on the grab rail.