Mostly British motorcycle parts repair, trying to save those precious bits from the scrap man! Machining, welding, fabrication, modification and restoration in my home workshop, and some other stuff thrown in there as well.
5 - 4 mm wall thickness? That’s loads! Have you seen the thickness in the same area on a 745 commando when it’s on a 60 thou rebore? It’s around a bit over 1 mm. That’s why the 850s used a different casting for the cylinders with that area filled in and long through cap head bolts from counter bores in the cylinder to head joint, I’ve had cylinders separate many years ago on my old 750 commando when thrashing my mate on his GS750 Suzuki, that was many years ago, I sold that commando as I couldn’t get the camshaft to last more than a few thousand miles, switched over 35 years ago to a Jota which I still own, my old commando has been around the block and was rescued by a mate from a hedge in someone’s back garden! I’m building an A10 at the moment, it’s going to be a big off road monster, for events like Red Marley hill climb, I’m sick of all these Triumph twins being used off road 😂, I’ve junked the cast iron hubs, wheels etc as they weighed with tyres approx 18 kgs each, so I am using old Honda scramble wheels with a twin leader drum on the front and a drum braked scrambler Honda rear wheel. With a set of Paioli forks. I’m doing a similar job to you on the oil pump but have decided I shall make a new pump using some of the oil routing that Norton use on their twins, an end feed to the crank I’m also going to use twin rollers on the crank in a similar way to the post combat commando engine, a pair of NJ306E M1 superblends, there’s not a huge amount of material in the cases so I shall make some bosses to house the bigger mains and weld them to the cases. I’m fortunate in having my own engineering company, next time you’re near Monmouth Ade, message me and I’ll put the kettle in! Your A10 work has really inspired me to get this bike finished, but this engine of mine needs some serious attention! Keep up with the great content Ade
I love these interesting accounts of others experiences. It would be interesting trying proper mains both sides, would you be into the oil pump mounting boss though? Glad to have inspired, I need some of that again along with time at present. I've been changing jobs a bit, 3 different places in the last 3 years, so I've had to concentrate on those. I think I've found my ideal place now to take me to retirement, it's only 10 minutes from home and it's a bit old fashioned with some reasonable machine tools I'm sorting out a bit plus getting tooling together. My day job is multi skilled maintenance, the last couple of jobs have been more electrical, so glad to have a good mix with this one. I'll certainly you up on a visit if I'm in the area. All the best, Ade.
not many give out info like that, I have been following you for a while and very grateful for any info on tools etc ....as I am across the pond and not many British bike enthusiasts left the young uns dont seem interested in getting their hands dirty
I found out a solution for this problem even without lathe or any tools. Uneven or eccentric drum is not only common on old bikes due to rust and wear, but it is very common on cheap chinese bikes because of manufacturing shortcuts and poor quality. I recommend every 500 km or so remove front wheel from the bike and observe for shiny and dull spots inside the drum and then sand the shiny spots down a bit with 400 sandpaper just by hand. Then the common procedure follows such as cleaning the drum with acetone or gasoline , checking brake shoes, eventually clean them as well with file and acetone. Doing so regularly will repair uneven drum in around 2000 km just by braking. It is not a professional repair and you will probably still feel a bit that the drum is not perfectly even but it is tolerable on old or cheap bikes as fast and sporty bikes use disc brakes anyway.
Just found your video, thank you very much. I'm just about to start machining a bare casting (my first time with this) so your methods will come in handy.
My Bsa b33 has very poor front brakes , they have been machined ,very little runout now, new quality shoes I've been bedding them for two weeks now but at best , they are about 40% of my good rear brake , it looks like I can make a longer brake arm 20mm, or hopefully get some higher friction material bonded to the old shoes , the contact area is at least 80% + , the drum material seems to be steel ! , I will try these things first and machine the new shoes to the drum diameter . Modern bikes have pads running on stainless type discs , so I am hoping there is a grippy material that can be stuck on . Have you had issues like this ? .cheers.
Been through the same, I made a longer brake arm for my Ariel, I'd say it gave a 'slight' improvement, but not much. I'd have to refer you to Villiers services or Saftek for lining choice. Days long gone Ferodo AM4 was the racing choice, but racing braking conditions are not the same as road. A lot is personal preference.
I had a honda xl250 Motorsport and the drum need machining oversize , well the material they glued on was fantastic, my bsa 7" half width hub could surely be as good as a small trail bike front brake , has to be in the material. Cheers .
Hello, it is very unlikely that your rear brake is better then front one. I suppose that the issue is with not sufficient braking force on the front brake as every bike is braking some 80 percent on the front wheel and 20 percent on the rear one. In other words, if you have similar quality brakes front and rear, the rear will block the wheel easily but the front will not be able to do that or with severe problems. What you need is take care of your front brake and keep it in the best possible condition and it means: No plays in brake lever, no plays in the cable, cable is fresh, clean, strong and well lubricated, all moving parts inside the brake are clean, degreased, without plays and probably polished, disc drum is even and not scratched and shoes are premium quality from good brand manufacturer. If it doesn't help, you will need bigger drum or twin leading shoe drum brakes or both. Twin leading shoes drum brakes were used on vintage sport bikes, such as MV Agusta for example. If it is not an option for you, you will have to live with the limited braking power on the front wheel and use it together with rear brake and stopping power of your engine.
@rofo2107 I got some similar pad material to that RZ gold . It has brass strands in it I think, and got them machined to suit the drum , big improvement so far , I'm hoping they will improve more as they bed , i know the front brake should be alot better than the rear , but it just wasnt working as well as it should i said 40% to give an idea how bad they were , i could pull the lever on as hard as possible on shingle and only get a slight skid at 5mph , they were bad , cheers
I am just doing my forks , exactly the same Mines a 54 b33 , clips were difficult as the end wasn't near the notch , I found the new lower bush was too big to fit in the lower leg and I made sure to deburr the clip area and still lightly polish lower brass bush in the lathe .good video , most helpful .cheers
Thanks again very much Ade for this really helpful video. It was terrific to see how this works and I just did the same and gave you a little shout out 😊 best wishes, Mike!
Great video, thank you! I was going to do the same repair on my A65 as the splines are shot, and searched to see if someone already did that :) I bought a new shaft and want to re-use my existing selector - it changes gears beautifully so I don't want to replace it. I got one question for you: You drilled the body to 10.01 mm, what diameter did you use for the 15mm length of shaft that you pressed into the body? Thanks!
Thanks for watching the video, I had to rewatch it to remind myself!. It was at the time a 10mm bore in the selector and 10.01 outside diameter on the shaft, none of the dimensions are set in stone, just a light press fit or even a sliding fit and loctite retainer, personal choice. Best wishes, Ade.
Paint from RS Motorcycle paints online, decals are original masked off before painting. They are available on ebay from a couple of sellers but finding the turquoise tank side panel decal is not easy. Muscat green metallic is the paint name. Classic motorcycle decals on Ebay are still listing tank decals £58 plus postage.
Fantastic job. Be great to see you posting films like you did before. As it suits you of course. I will watch whatever you put out at whatever frequency.
los angeles calif. will send with return envelope and shipping. no one has the plates tried transmission shops motor cycle shops and no dice . please help
Doesn't take much resistance to stop the kick start returning....as you were telling us. I dont have any machine equipment....would love some....my dad was a tool maker. My crude attempt was at the other end....on the outside of the case.....I use a sort of counter sunk cutter in a drill....my o-ring sits between the back of the kickstart lever and the case. Not prefect....but surprisingly its helps a lot. The kick start has to be pushed onto the shaft all the time while nipping it up to maintain a slight pressure on the seal...... Very crude and amateurish I know.
Just discovered your conversation series, and I am thoroughly enjoying watching them. But as an ex mechanic, I've been wondering how you'll set the correct end float on the timing side. Previously there was a top hat bush, but now there is only the casing with bush locators. Will you use a shortened top hat bush to sit on the circlip, or shims... I guess I'll have to watch the rest to find out. Great work so far, and nice seeing this done from an engineering perspective 👍
Just about to rebuild an Ariel Huntmaster 650 engine with the help of some friends, people who know vastly more than me. Just came across this video and I'm in awe of such skill. What a cracking fella, so much care and time taken to get it spot on. I'm down in Kent, wish I lived closer. Thank you for making such a clear video, even if it was a while ago, timeless. Kindest regards. Richard
The chap sould have bought a Honda .............. leaking a small amount of oil is in my opinion acceptable and is part of owning a old BSA..... people have too much time and money on their hands
Thanks for commenting. The component analysers are on Ebay, Amazon etc. There's an updated version about now in a nicer case, about 15 to 20 $£'s now. Search for LCR TC1 or M Tester.
Great video 👍thank you for your time .I have recently inherited my father‘s 69, 650 lightning A65.He was always concerned about the oil pressure dropping at idle when warm , he told me, I would eventually have to replace this,bushing. again, oil pressure will come down when warm ..Appox. down below 30 pounds at idle ,he had recently installed high pressure oil pump with good oil, he told me that I should consider replacing this bush in the future due to low oil pressure , the other day I took it for a spin in the evening it was about 80° outside and when I got close to 5 miles of driving around my neighborhood (never got out of third ) stop and go basically ,oil pressure started to come down at idle. However, with engine off idol oil pressure would be high (30-40 psi)no problem .❤ this bike was my dad‘s baby. It is absolutely cherry. Low miles. Everything has been overhauled or updated. With the exception of the lower end. Thank you for your time.
Nice work, simple enough concept, guess if you want it a little smaller then you can face the blocks off. I can imagine that needs an awful lot of pressure to compress the cable? Do you think there would be any benefit in hardening the formers?
It works pressing in a vice, so not massive pressure needed. If you were using a lot then harder would help, but for very occasional home use, mild steel is fine. Thanks for taking time to comment.
Most suffer from burnt resistors on these early meters as they had no fuse protection, fortunately an easy repair provided the meter movement isn't damaged. Thanks for commenting Carl.
A very nice piece of kit. Perhaps it had too many amps at some time. I had a similar (poorer quality for sure) meter made by Micronta. Best wishes, Dean.
I still have my Micronta bench top digital multimeter that I bought when I was 16. It still works and I still use it. At the time, 1986, it was quite something. It's now being going strong for 37 years!
