Hello again Michael. I realise I'm extremely late on watching these but I'm gradually working my way through this build of the c15. I had a 1959 c15 road road bike (engine number 396!)for 10 years in the 1970s and it proved to be an amazing little bike - 100 + miles a week year in, year out never missing a beat. I have been so very tempted to do exactly as you are so this is going to be a brilliant series for me. I don't recall my rocker cover being difficult to remove but it was a while ago 🤣. These are lovely little bikes and ideal for 'lanes exploring'. You really do brilliant videos. Thank you - much appreciated. Peter
@@richardortiz8704 Oh Richard that's such a shame. Is it going to be having to be buying another and using those parts to keep yours running. Good luck with whatever you decide. Peter
Windy gun works perfectly well...it does if the button is the right way. In on the first attempt and out on the second... You had us going there Michael!! It helps with mine if I help it round with my hand on the socket on really tight nuts and bolts. All the best, Dean.
2-00 AM Monday morning finishing of your therapeutic vid and a Black Bush. I been around Brit stuff all my life and didn't realise the C15 was based on the Cub and rebuilt a B25 Baracuda and RGS engine in my teens. I didn't have many BSA's preferring Triumphs when my mates had RD's, GT's, CB's and KH's, I do have a C11G kicking around in one of the sheds and D7 on permanent loan to a great Bradford friend and Engineer who sold me his Comet after 35 years asking. Thanks.
This has been so helpful. I have just taken possession of a C15 at the age of 65. All Japanese and Czech bikes before, but since schooldays always wanted a British bike. My retirement toy leaks oil like crazy so I am going to have to do a bit of work. I can't thank you enough for sharing your effort and time.
Nice tip Mike about drilling nut an old mechanic told me when I was an apprentice York time is never out you always learn something new cheers Alistair
Loved it! What a blast from the past... my first bike was this model of C15, - bought for £55, ‘distributor’, poor big-end and all. I stripped that motor a few times for big end bearing, mains, rebore and all the rest... on my mum’s dining table! “Tales of an apprentice Motor-Mechanic”. I was saying,”Don’t forget the distributor screw” as you were taking the right-hand casing off. I hacksawed though the tail-end of my outer case so one screw removal would allow a change of clutch cable. Thanks for letting me into your workshop again. Les in UK
Really enjoying this series of videos. My best mate in 1970 when we were 16 year old hoodlums had a c15/that he turned into a bit of a chopper ( long forks, ape hangers, banana seat etc) and it was a great fun bike and even though I was a Lambretta mod I could appreciate his work 😀👍
My first bike was a 1964 C15 (CCH552B, engine number C15D596.....remembered that although I sold it in 1976). I totally rebuilt it when I was 15 years old, only for the brand new crank pin to snap during the running in period....BSA had somehow double drilled the oilway or used a broken drill, because the inner end of the hole was bifurcated. I had it rebuilt by Roy Pidcock, who was the East Midlands grass track champion. He rebored it to plus 60 thou, which made it a 272 cc, fitted a Triumph Trident 12:1 piston on a scrambler bottom end and a methanol cam...with a high level exhaust and a reverse cone mega fitted, it flew! Michael’s engine has certainly been apart before. Apart from the fastener bodgery, that piston certainly isn’t standard compression (it’s possibly 10:1, should be 8:1 I think) and there seemed to be no primary chain tensioner fitted.
Hiya, Michael. I had a C15 trials bike. I had the timing side cases off. My mate who knows nothing about Brit bikes looked at it. He said "Make no wonder they leak oil. The engine is built like a blooming sliced loaf" LOL!!!
Before I had to start wearing bifocals I was able to grab the proper socket or wrench nearly every time. With bifocals it's hard to even get close to the proper socket size without measuring it.
Greetings from Canada , I grew up in the Boro, I had a C15T ex works and it had energy transfer ignition but the timing was never right the key way in the alternator was just a bit off. The motor never ran right, It was a nice bike spoiled by the prince of darkness.
@@BritanniaMotorcycles Hi I worked at both ICI Wilton and Billingham my dad worked at Cleveland and Lackenby Dorman and Long I immigrated in 1967, up the Boro!!
chap up the road had one of these complete about twenty years ago-it looked and sounded lovely and he prized it even above the Matchless 500 which was his other bike.The problem he had with it was the distributor which tended to rotate due to vibration throwing the timing out-he never thought of a fix for this being kids we couldn't advise.
you prolly dont care but does anybody know of a way to get back into an Instagram account..? I was dumb lost the login password. I love any help you can give me.
@Brett Aryan i really appreciate your reply. I found the site through google and im waiting for the hacking stuff atm. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
Regarding the sump cover nut up against the frame, don't fret! It's a common problem with C15s. The previous owner has bolted it up and left out the spacer (part number 40-4080). Interesting that the parts book for the earliest C15s (like mine) don't show it but the 1961/62 parts book does! I had the same on my own C15. I just levered out the frame and fitted a spacer. The cover nut can then be accessed easily enough ;-)
What a pity Triumph And BSA at the time didnt bring out a double OHC engine (250 cc ) or even a desmo version like DUCATI with a frame that wasnt frightend of corners we had the engineering knowledge to be able to do it Iam sure . Dont think somehow they would have had the backing of the Bean counters sitting in there offices ,that waswhen our motorcycle industry was going on rocks shame!!
Exemplary bit of mechanising there Michael those nuts were determined not to come off! lovely bit of precision drilling. I wish my Bullet had a large cover behind the clutch like that, it would make cog changing a lot easier. The piston looked lovely and clean when the barrel came off, no burn marks with blow by or score marks, nothing. Wonder if it's standard compression? seems quite a high dome. Well that's it for another week, Stay Safe, REgards to Linda. Dave UK
Restoration coming along nicely good bit of engineering work used to have a TRIUMPH TIGER CUB trials 200cc then uprated to a500 gold star BSA in clubmans trim ok once you got used to the starting procedure .and didnt flood the carb
Interesting that the sump plate didn't come off, doesn't appear to be any damage there that you can see. Maybe with engine out and frame cleaned you might find something. Thanks Mike.
Your frame bottom tube is touching the sump plate because someone lost the bottom spacer. The bottom tubes have been squeezed together. This is described in Rupert Ratio's book on page 29. This can be fixed with threaded rod and 2 nuts.
I hope you will clean out all the gunge of decades of wear, from the oil tank. Bound to be lots of debris in there ready to destroy your rebuild engine
So some ham fisted bodger stuck a sheet metal screw into the sheet metal cover! Problem with British motor bikes and cars for that matter until the 1960's. We (in the US) don't have hardware stores anymore but even back in the 1950's asking for a "No. 2BA Cheese Head Screw about 1 ¼ inch long" would get something much less than an interesting response. I had car mechanics back in those days tell me that British bolts were metric threaded. Bicycles too. Then time passed and they did go metric! Cheers!
@@BritanniaMotorcycles True if you lived in a metropolitan area. If you were in a small town it was tough. It is far easier today to get replacement spares for my 1953 Norton ES2 than it was in 1962. Parcels to and from the UK had to be tied in twine; a real 19th Century holdover. Money orders were a problem and it took forever for a check to clear, etc. Learned to use Traveler's Cheques to pay. Today, I can email or call, go to ebay, check out the Norton Owner's Club spares program. The adjusted relative cost of transport is about the same. Surface mail took a long time! Bought an engine from Pride & Clarke in 1964-came into the Port of Mobile. It was an experience to say the least.
