BSA A65 engine crank and bottom end components inspected and discussed. 

1?😉

To be fair, con rods are symmetrical and it is unlikely to make any difference which way around they are, all that really matters is that the caps are on the correctly oriented to the main part of the rod.

Without knowing the full history of who did what & who claimed to have done what, much speculation on this one. I wonder if a previous owner acquired it with it needing some major repairs. He/she is just an enthusiastic biker & not a ‘proper’ mechanic, (a bit like myself!lol ), they carried the repairs they were aware of, but didn’t have the knowledge to identify the issues that someone as capable as Paul can find. Maybe we will never know. On the other hand , if this has been sold by a dealer who claims to be a classic bike specialist & it was described as being fully rebuilt, different story.

The cracking casings and use of plastic metal / damaged barrel gasket ( punched dot left on mating surfaces) would be very worrying to me if it had been assembled by a professional business. I dabble in rebuilding my own engines and whilst I don’t actually make parts or machine now basic assembly and checks in a methodical manner should not allow these sort of mistakes - but who knows?

@@martinowl Agree, you would hope that a trained mechanic would have built it to a higher standard than we see here, it looks more like a home mechanic who quickly assembled the engine on the kitchen table and really just wanted to get it running enough to sell it for a quick profit.

No can do, sorry.