There's always something

Having got the magneto back on, and the bike up and running properly, I went for a little ride... and it was great.

Back in the workshop, it was time to tidy up; while cleaning the oil draining trays out, I found this little chunk of cast steel:

Hmm...

Casting around for help on the AOMCC Forum, Adrie de Graff, from Holland, sent me this marked up picture of my own timing chest and suggested it was a bit of a cam follower.

This was backed up by the ever knowledgeable Nev Hunter, from Australia. I needed to investigate.

The cranked tin funnel came in handy again:

And with it all apart again, we could pull out the followers and have a proper look. This is the exhaust follower:

You can see in this picture that it is very thin around the cup:

It's a brittle fracture, with heavily discoloured material in the break. It's so thin, the case hardening would have gone right through the material. It's been like that for years.

So, Mr. John Budgen to the rescue:

I will be using the two on the left.

Vintage Motorcycle Club Forum

Folks,

Another plug for the new Vintage Motorcycle Club forum, which is up and running at:

http://forum.vmcc.net/index.php

This is a great way to make contact with other vintage motorcycle enthusiasts the world over.

Mention Amelia's Blog when you sign on!

Making a number plate

It's getting around to the time the W/NG magneto should be back from refurbishment, so we might be able to ride it soon. Time to make a number plate.

First, you need to find the right font. For our bikes, we need to print the number in Charles Wright Bold, 64 mm high letters. I used this site

https://www.fonts.com/font/k-type/charles-wright/bold

You can type in your number, and the page will display it in the chosen font:

You want to size it to 96 points and capture it using alt-print screen; you can then paste the picture this creates into MSWord. You'll end up with a picture which you can stretch larger - resize so the letters are 64 mm high

Print it out in light grey, so you don't waste lakes of ink. Stick the print on coated paper; it's going to get wet, and you don't want your stencil falling to pieces. I used a discarded magazine cover.

Cut out the letters with a scalpel.

I made a bridge out of the letters to hold the middle of the '8', using double sided tape:

Apply the stencil to the number plate & retain with magnets. The dark shapes are pieces of broken magnet:

When I do this again, I think I will buy some of that magnetized sheet; then I can cut shapes that hold the stencil in place, or maybe I will cut the stencil from magnetic sheet...

Spray the colour of your choice. I used Ford Ivory White, left over from the Bantam tank panels.

Now, before the paint dries fully, remove the stencil and clean up overspray when the paint is hard. I used wire wool and Farecla G3 cutting compound:

It's almost there, but could do with a bit more cleaning up. What I like about this is that the ivory colour and the slightly uneven lettering fits well with the patina of the bike as a whole.

Lucas SSU700 Side Lamp Holder

A few pictures of the SSU700 Side Lamp Holder I made early on in the SQ4 rebuild.

I've fixed a LED sidelamp in it, from Paul Goff.

The bulb holder slides under two grooves cast into the underslung sidelamp housing, and is stopped by the two ears formed on the sidelamp holder:

In case anyone is interested, the Lucas part number is 516597...

This is a real one, from AOMCC member Lee Mallabone's KH:

Girder Fork Damper 'Wing Nut'

Since I've had the W/NG, the 'wing nut' used to adjust the fork dampers has been missing a wing. Unable to find a new one, and not afraid of trying anything new (especially when challenged by other AOMCC members) I decided to repair the old one.

One thing i don't much like about old bike restoration is the notion that you can buy a new part rather than repair the old - replacing bits is not 'restoration' to me. This is the old nut, removed and cleaned up:

I selected a bit of scrap, the flattened end of a stop cock key:

I chopped a useful bit off and filed it up to shape. Near the end of shaping, I heated the new part and flattened it where I was to weld:

Old part and replacement end:

Set up in the vice for welding:

As usual, I used the TIG to weld it up, set to about 45 Amps with the tungsten ground with a shallow angle to give better penetration:

Next, some more filing. Not looking too bad here, but needs more work; the new end looks distinctly heavier than the original:

And back in place, ready to get some patina:

Getting a grip on Repro Parts

Today, the Bantam got some NOS genuine Amal grips. Much better than the reproduction ones she had been wearing:

Occhio Lungo

Occhio Lungo - the 'far seeing eye' is one of my favourite sites. There is some very impressive 'how to' stuff here:

https://occhiolungo.wordpress.com/tag/how-to/

Holiday Snaps

I've added a new page to the blog, telling the tale of an AJS Model 30 I had in my youth. MAP 984 now adorns a Mercedes according to the DVLA, which is a shame - I wonder what became of the bike...

Oil Purifier

You might recall that I was working on the oil pump, sump and other areas before my attention was diverted by a damaged timing case and a magneto that was playing up. Since those are on the way now, its time to attend to the lubrication system again.

Ariel provided a sludge trap, shown in the picture as a plug in the offside flywheel, which traps particles circulating in the oil. You pull it out periodically through the sump plate and clean it.

Here it is, alongside the pickup pipe. The purifier appears when the engine is at TDC, despite what is shown in the drawing:

They can be a bit of a job to get out if the hexagon is mangled. I was lucky - this one is perfect:

You need a good fitting socket to get the oil purifier out safely. Here it is, full of sludge. If it's anything like the sludge traps on the SQ4, it will be very hard:

Here it is, cleaned out:

Although the purifier itself is clean, we can see that it's been so long since it was cleaned that the drilling in the flywheel which leads to the purifier is also blocked with goop. I cleaned this out with a 1/2" twist drill.

Part way there:

Once I had got as much as I could out, I injected oil into the end of the crankshaft to clean it further. I did this first with the purifier out, and then, having put the purifier back in, I tested communication from the end of the crankshaft to the big end.

Oil dribbling out of the open sump plate proves that the big end oilway is open.

Rotating Footrest

Fixing the magneto and the timing case means that I have an opportunity, with a little more dismantling, to fix another minor problem that the W/NG appeared with after its leisurely Italian sojourn.

Fixing the footrests last year I found that the peg on the engine plate, that prevents the footrest from turning was missing on the offside. I fixed this temporarily with some 4 mm rod I wound around the footrest and poked in the hole left by the missing peg.

Removing the magneto platform is straightforward, and demonstrates why the 1/2" headless bolts have to go in from this side. One of them needed the thread chasing out and some of the washers are missing.

An Ariel single, with an engine plate out:

Here's the plate as I removed it, covered in grime. Notice the hole:

I'm loving the parts washer:

Here's the inside of the plate. I've welded in a short length of 1/4" steel rod, which I'll cut to length later.

Here's the repair from the other side, after cutting to length and priming:

Painted black:

And back in place: