Pete Jackson Injectors
Not many people knew that I was contracted to Harley Davidson Motor Company ten months a year from 1971 through 1977. Dick O'Brian, head of the Racing Department at HD was good friends with Pete Jackson Injectors, out in California and Dick set up a deal with Pete to work with me on putting an injector on my Drag Bike.
After meeting with Pete Jackson a couple times we came to the conclusion that we needed an injector body on each head. He was going to build the set up, flow test it for my 102 inch motor and I had to do the installing.
I'm setting in my shop thinking about how I was going to change each intake port to handle a single mount for the injector. I know it requires cutting, welding and porting for each head because that’s how I did it for my Knucklehead motor. I hated to ruin a couple good heads for something that may not work and I thought about it for a couple weeks.
I had taken the heads off and was sitting there looking at the cylinders and I came up with the ideal of using two rear cylinders, the one on the front I turned 180 degrees so the head would fit on with the intake port sticking out the left side, turn the rocker box back 180 degrees and see if it will fit and with a little grinding for clearance and a couple weekends to look at it and think about it that’s just what I did. Every thing fit perfect. I mounted the injector body’s right to the head with a clamp like you would the intake manifold. I ran the fuel pump off a belt, set up from a pulley that went on the outside of the motor sprocket and made a fuel tank that mounted to the two down tubes in the front of the frame. After doing the pluming it was ready for some test runs. With the injectors on that way it reminded you of a Vincent Motorcycle.
I decided to take it to Fontana Raceway on Saturday night. Pete had explained every thing to me about how the barrel valve works an about the jet working back words. When I got to Fontana it attracted a lot of attention because of the different setup. My wife Pat made a mix, 86 percent, filled the tank and we went to the return road to fire it up. It fired up right away; the idle was a lot different than with carburetors. It sounded more like an injected small block Chevy. I messed with that darn thing all night, trying to get the right barrel valve adjustment and jet change, never did get a run. I went back to Pete, told him what was happening.and he did another flow test on it and gave me a different pump to run.
Back to Fontana the next Satuday night, it was a lot better and I did make some runs but I had to use a lot of throttle off the line and it kept going up in smoke, top end wasn't too bad, over 160 MPH. Back to Pete and told him what was happening. He made three barrel valve inner sleeve with different V-ramps (he called them) that controlled the fuel right off idle.
I made so many changes that Saturday night I was ready to give up. This time I called Pete and talked him into coming to Fontana next Saturday night.
I took my other race bike, King Rat along. When Pete got there we fire the injected bike and he messed with it a little and got it sounding better than I had. I told him I was going to make a run on my other bike first. We had been out there so much the last three or four weekends that when they seen I was making a run on King Rat they really started talking it up on the loud speaker, the fence was lined with spectators. I got a good run carrying the front wheel, the spectators always loved when you did that. I ran 9.09 ET at 167.00 MPH. When I got back to the pits, Pete Jackson said; if you expect to come off the line at an idle with the injectors like you do with the carburetors, forget it, they won't do that.
I tried one more Saturday night. This time I took some files and I filed on those V-Ramps myself and before the night was over after making a couple test runs, I finally got one good run. I ran 9.12 ET, 166.82 MPH but the motor blew just as I was crossing the last timing light.
In my injector experience, I should have use a front rocker box and rocker arms instead of a rear on the front cylinder. I found out later that they are not interchangeable and the injectors on each head were too much power for the four inch tire we had to use. I always wanted to try it again when we were able to get a better tire, but other things seemed to always get in the way.
I can't remember the guy's last name, Jerry I believe was his first name, and he owned some kind of engine building place in Pomona CA. He had bought or some how had the (twin engine) Freight Train Dragster, and we use to joke about trading rides. Jerry had just made a run and was down at the end of the track and watched me get control and not fall down, when I got off the strip I pulled up behind his car. I took off my helmet and said to him, "this would be a good night for that trade because you won’t have to ride the bike". Later back in the pits he walked up to me, handed me his fire suit and said OK come on. I guess he felt pretty safe because it was the night the car only had one engine in it, doing some testing. They took me to the return road out of the way to get the feel of things, made a couple almost burnouts and he talked to me about how you shifted the trans (two speed), it was a lever close to the steering column, you pulled out. At Fontana in those days the dragsters fire up by being towed from the end of the strip, made a u-turn behind the starting line, made there burn out and staged. The anounser was really talking it up about me driving the dragster. Every thing went pretty good and I made a good burn out. They did have to push me back to restage after I rolled past the lights a couple times, got the green and was way out in front of the other dragster and had trouble making the gear change, finally got it in gear but the other Dragster had already past me. When Jerry came to pick me up, he was excited about how I got such a hole shot on the other car. I told him I did just like my bike, let the clutch out first and follow up with the throttle. I only drove that one time, it was an experience. Jerry ask that night if I wanted to start driving for him, of course I turned it down, I already had a ride.
By Granddaddy Joe Smith
All Rights Reserved - Joe Smith
I had taken the heads off and was sitting there looking at the cylinders and I came up with the ideal of using two rear cylinders, the one on the front I turned 180 degrees so the head would fit on with the intake port sticking out the left side, turn the rocker box back 180 degrees and see if it will fit and with a little grinding for clearance and a couple weekends to look at it and think about it that’s just what I did. Every thing fit perfect. I mounted the injector body’s right to the head with a clamp like you would the intake manifold. I ran the fuel pump off a belt, set up from a pulley that went on the outside of the motor sprocket and made a fuel tank that mounted to the two down tubes in the front of the frame. After doing the pluming it was ready for some test runs. With the injectors on that way it reminded you of a Vincent Motorcycle.
I decided to take it to Fontana Raceway on Saturday night. Pete had explained every thing to me about how the barrel valve works an about the jet working back words. When I got to Fontana it attracted a lot of attention because of the different setup. My wife Pat made a mix, 86 percent, filled the tank and we went to the return road to fire it up. It fired up right away; the idle was a lot different than with carburetors. It sounded more like an injected small block Chevy. I messed with that darn thing all night, trying to get the right barrel valve adjustment and jet change, never did get a run. I went back to Pete, told him what was happening.and he did another flow test on it and gave me a different pump to run.
Back to Fontana the next Satuday night, it was a lot better and I did make some runs but I had to use a lot of throttle off the line and it kept going up in smoke, top end wasn't too bad, over 160 MPH. Back to Pete and told him what was happening. He made three barrel valve inner sleeve with different V-ramps (he called them) that controlled the fuel right off idle.
I made so many changes that Saturday night I was ready to give up. This time I called Pete and talked him into coming to Fontana next Saturday night.
I took my other race bike, King Rat along. When Pete got there we fire the injected bike and he messed with it a little and got it sounding better than I had. I told him I was going to make a run on my other bike first. We had been out there so much the last three or four weekends that when they seen I was making a run on King Rat they really started talking it up on the loud speaker, the fence was lined with spectators. I got a good run carrying the front wheel, the spectators always loved when you did that. I ran 9.09 ET at 167.00 MPH. When I got back to the pits, Pete Jackson said; if you expect to come off the line at an idle with the injectors like you do with the carburetors, forget it, they won't do that.
I tried one more Saturday night. This time I took some files and I filed on those V-Ramps myself and before the night was over after making a couple test runs, I finally got one good run. I ran 9.12 ET, 166.82 MPH but the motor blew just as I was crossing the last timing light.
In my injector experience, I should have use a front rocker box and rocker arms instead of a rear on the front cylinder. I found out later that they are not interchangeable and the injectors on each head were too much power for the four inch tire we had to use. I always wanted to try it again when we were able to get a better tire, but other things seemed to always get in the way.
I can't remember the guy's last name, Jerry I believe was his first name, and he owned some kind of engine building place in Pomona CA. He had bought or some how had the (twin engine) Freight Train Dragster, and we use to joke about trading rides. Jerry had just made a run and was down at the end of the track and watched me get control and not fall down, when I got off the strip I pulled up behind his car. I took off my helmet and said to him, "this would be a good night for that trade because you won’t have to ride the bike". Later back in the pits he walked up to me, handed me his fire suit and said OK come on. I guess he felt pretty safe because it was the night the car only had one engine in it, doing some testing. They took me to the return road out of the way to get the feel of things, made a couple almost burnouts and he talked to me about how you shifted the trans (two speed), it was a lever close to the steering column, you pulled out. At Fontana in those days the dragsters fire up by being towed from the end of the strip, made a u-turn behind the starting line, made there burn out and staged. The anounser was really talking it up about me driving the dragster. Every thing went pretty good and I made a good burn out. They did have to push me back to restage after I rolled past the lights a couple times, got the green and was way out in front of the other dragster and had trouble making the gear change, finally got it in gear but the other Dragster had already past me. When Jerry came to pick me up, he was excited about how I got such a hole shot on the other car. I told him I did just like my bike, let the clutch out first and follow up with the throttle. I only drove that one time, it was an experience. Jerry ask that night if I wanted to start driving for him, of course I turned it down, I already had a ride.
By Granddaddy Joe Smith
All Rights Reserved - Joe Smith
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