American Motorcycle Dealer AMD 242 September 2019 | Page 32

ULTIMA MACHINE SHOP SERVICES EV Following our article back in June about Midwest Motorcycle Supply's Ultima program and the Evo and TC 'A' Engine Rebuild Programs, we were contacted by Brian Brace, the Program Manager and Lead Engineer for the Ultima Products program, and he told us more about the machine shop services that the company offers to its dealers … he article we published in June was as part of our 2019 series marking the 35th anniversary of Harley's now venerable Evo platform - arguably the engine that not only saved Harley-Davidson, but that created the foundations of the aftermarket we have seen "evolve" ever since. Brian told AMD that at Ultima it is their engine cases that are the "rock solid foundation to our motors. These cases are extremely beefy and built to handle high horsepower and torque. CNC- machined in- house from C356-T6 aluminum castings, all Ultima case halves are line-bored as a married set to insure a perfect center line, with Colony Machine chromoly cylinder studs to top them off. "Ultima's crankshafts are completely assembled in- house. Our cranks are dynamically balanced to provide a smooth core to our engines. Ultima T Words by Robin Bradley [email protected] Pictures - Howard Schroeder, Midwest/Ultima engines use a 3-piece crankshaft similar to the Twin Cam crankshafts. High quality bearings, crankpins and H-beam rods with .927 wrist pin ends make these cranks virtually bulletproof. "The flywheel halves are pressed together with our custom 80 ton press – and with .008" press fit on the crankpin, shifting of the flywheels is never an issue. Then the final assembly is trued to no more than .002" total run-out." Brian says that Ultima cylinders are machined to tight tolerances and honed in-house. Every cylinder is plateau-honed with diamond stones in torque plate Ultima crankshaft assemblies Ultima engine cases 32 AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER - SEPTEMBER 2019 www.AMDchampionship.com