Rocket Gold Flash

[MG]

Bill, I also had problems fitting the new pipes to the head after chromeing. An air grinder with a flap wheel, a bit larger in diameter than the pipe itself, did the job.

Cheers

[bsa- bill]

Cheers MG, I have some flap wheels, didn't think of them at the time but they would be more gentle/controllable.
Probably now would be a good time to do it as the heads off

[chaterlea25]

Hi Bill
The usual problem with the alloy heads is that the pipes are loose!!!!
I'm having a guess here !! are the ends of the pipes out of round? probably from the bending process??
Try fitting the silencer end into the port for size??
I have used pipe expanders to get the pipe circular and tight in the head
do some measuring with a caliper and see if the pipes are circular and the right size
HTH
John O R

[bsa- bill]

The reason the engine was so tight to turn over appears to be down to the dynamo belt drive, the large pulley circumference had gouged out grooves  the inner and the outer timing case, also the inner edge of the pulley had marked the boss that forms the oil hole for the idler gear shaft in the inner cover case.
The latter probable due to the taper in the pulley being to large, the marks made by the outer edge of the pulley are harder to explain as with the pulley replaced the edge is some way off the webs in the cases.
Anyway I've tidied up the cases, the pulley taper is shot, perhaps it was like this when I fitted it and I failed to notice.
To be fair to SRM I should point out that I bought this belt drive second hand but supposedly unused, it did look as if it had never been on but there you go , buyer beware, the trouble with a project like this that has taken so long (5 years or more, mainly due to work)  that it can be a long time between purchase of parts and fitting them.
On the plus side I can now turn the engine over with the kickstart by hand ( plugs out of course ) 

[bsa- bill]

Fired it up today, sounds sweet and seems to run pretty even, pretty stiff to kick over and spits back a bit, will play with points gap sometime
A few issues to remedy
Siamese pipes don't fit as well as would like, both pipes were off round and needed a bit of rubber hammer work, the short pipe seems a fair bit slack where it slide into the main pipe and the finned collar on the short pipe sits at an angle to the head.
I may have to grind some metal off the back of one side and the front of the other to get it to sit right, and I'll need to make up a bracket to fasten the main pipe to the down tube or somewhere, any body done this?
The Siamese pipes run into a Goldie type silencer, does sound good.
Jobs still to do - gear lever to fit, I seem to have lost the pinch bolt??? - pilot light ( not required I think ) - speedo light to find and fit, it's not an original and just has a hole (without threaded bit), possibly a rubber grommet of some type needed or pilot light from a headlamp lens might snap in there.

If time allows tomorrow I'll sort out some pics

[flashblack]

Hi Bill, good to hear it runs!  I had the same problems as you with the exhaust pipe fit, i had to remove a bit of metal from the inside of the cooling ring but it still doesn`t fit quite right 
Here`s a pic of the bracket i made up from some stainless bar- just one 90 degree bend, and one ninety degree twist.
   regards Rich

[bsa- bill]

Hi Rich - My bracket much the same as yours but I didn't need the twist, tab must be welded on at different angle.
I dug out an old finned cooling collar today and it looks like they have a more convex inside so might have fitted better but they are also as black as coal.
Anyway I got the bracket made and fixed , the gear lever on and pillion footrests also found a lucas pilot light with sort of rubber grommet fixing so I reckon it will fit into my speedo.
All went well today until I went to start the bike and have it road tested, despite running so well yesterday it refused to run today, I might have flooded it first time and it did start a few times on full throttle no choke but closing the throttle any amount stopped it.
Only thing I've done is fill up the tank.
there is a spark at the plug but not a great fat one, checked the timing seems ok hasn't moved anyway and it ran yesterday.
Gave up around six, it is still stiff ti kick over and maybe I'm not getting enough of a swing

[bsa- bill]

Was not too impressed with the spark from my maggie ( as stated previous) seems to be a bit fine and def not blue, I plan tomorrow to compare with the spark from my Flash.
Maggie should still be in warranty so might need to send it back or perhaps look at Thorspark, has anybody got one of these installed ?
Other scenarios to explain non running might include sticking valve like Andy's recent problem

My Flash after being rebuilt fired up after about the third kick and never looked back, this is new territory for me

[a101960]

Siamese pipes don't fit as well as would like, both pipes were off round and needed a bit of rubber hammer work, the short pipe seems a fair bit slack where it slide into the main pipe and the finned collar on the short pipe sits at an angle to the head.

I had the same problems as you with the exhaust pipe fit, i had to remove a bit of metal from the inside of the cooling ring but it still doesn`t fit quite right 

Might I ask who supplied your exhaust pipes?

I had those very same problems with a Siamese exhaust system that I bought from a widely advertised supplier. I junked it, I just could not live with it. The boss of the company did not want to know when I complained about the rotten fit. Arrogant is the word that springs to mind. The Siamese system that I got from Cake Street Classics had none of those problems it fitted perfectly. The bends were correct and the rings are flush with the head. Absolutely no filing or relieving was required.  Incidentally (and I am not being a rivet counter honest!) the down pipe should be attached to the frame direct. There should be no intermediate connection piece/pieces. The proper method of attachment is by a welded on strip that is bent at a right angle in order to line up with the frame mounting point. This also ensures that the pipes are correctly aligned.

John

[bsa- bill]

John I think I bought them off a dealer on the dreaded Ebay and would but could  do a bit of digging to find the supplier as most of the parts I bought were pre purchased over a longish period of time.
I believe buying stuff so far ahead was a mistake while it's tempting to go for items if the price is right any warranty can be nigh over by the time you get them fitted.
I will say the chroming on the pipes is first class, I ground a bit off the mouth to get it round and reduced and didn't go through the copper, on the other had I had about three inches to cut off the other end to get the Goldie silencer far enough on, I think both items came from the same source and the silencer is also nicely chromed and looks quality, as do the pipes apart from the fit, makes me wonder if they are for another twin.
There's no way the bracket would fit, too short and straight, once more has me wondering if they are for the right bike?
However with the finished job is solid and secure just the finned ring to sort out.

As an aside I saw my MOT chap today to collect a battery for my Flash and asked about the speedo light, it seems it does not figure in the test at all nor does the speedo

[bsa- bill]

Well had a good look today to check nothing had bent, come adrift or stuck. A fair bit of brass dust in the sump strainer but probably just what you would expect in a rebuilt engine, tappets all OK, timing seemed off a bit so re-timed it.
Got it all together and got it started, definitely not first kick but went well enough once going.
Stalled it on route to road trail and it took a bit of starting, needed to employ choke so assumed perhaps it was running weak.
I was pretty chuffed with the way it ran and handled on the road, lively even though I was being careful with the throttle, handles nice and light, responsive,
gears not quite so good their all there but the gear lever needs a little prod to sort of get it back to centre position before next change, strange but I can live with it until I sort out starting.
went up and down our road a couple of times maybe did about a mile and a half then stopped to talk to some friends, of course then it would not start again, got a push ( how embarrassing is that) and it fired up and went home.
I noticed just before I stopped the engine at home that the choke makes no difference to running at low revs, also plugs are sooted up.
Tomorrow I think I will recheck the timing to make sure it has not shifted and probably drop the carb needle one notch.
I'm wondering though if this is going to help starting, pilot jet surely is the main thing re starting but I have read the downdraught of alloy head can bother monoblocks.

[muskrat]

G'day Bill,
                good to hear your going, sort of. Teething problems are to be expected. Low revs are controlled by pilot and slide. A common error is to adjust the pilot  before the motor has reached normal operating temp. Try adjusting it after a few miles. Does sound a bit rich.
Gear selection may free with a bit of use.
Cheers

[bsa- bill]

Cheers Muskrat - I also know the slide does not come all the way down (cable) so this is another thing to fix before proceeding further
Posted some pics, one of a plug the rest of the bike.
The Indian tank took a bit of fitting I had to pack out the sides to get them to reach the tank buffers and the tank strap will need bolt holes filled out to fit the tank studs, however after all the time I spent doing that you would have thought I would have noticed it's way off level 

[muskrat]

She looks great mate. You should be very proud
The rocker box gives the motor a nice head of hair. A bit of rubber packing will fix the tank.
Well done.
Cheers

[lawnmowerman]

She looks superb Bill - well done. Makes all the hours in the garage worth it and you still have plenty of summer left to enjoy riding her.
Jim

[Stu55Flash]

Nice neat job well done.

Stu

[bsa- bill]

Project stalled
Have ridden about three miles on the bike, it rode well and sounded great however was extremely reluctant to fire up twice in the same day.
Mixture was a bit rich but really no distance at all to form opinion about as the three miles was over two days and just up and down our road.
My wife was extremely concerned about the effort I was putting in to kick it over, actually so was I.
Seven years ago 357 cam and 9.5 pistons seemed a fun way to go, seven years ago I was two stone heavier, and since then two operations several ailments/conditions and stays in hospital have modified my views. I'm just not quite up to continuous kicking. ( my other Flash is rather more civilized and never needs more than two kicks )
So I bought some lower comp pistons and have a 356 cam to put in.
I lifted the engine out and split the cases to put in the cam and thought I should sort the cam issue as described elsewhere while I did so, seems the bushes have too much shoulder on them, I'm going to have to get rid of about 25 thou to allow the camshaft to tighten up without binding on the bush, think it might be policy to take equal amounts of each bush.
I also noticed the SRM dynamo belt pulley had marked the outer timing case cover once again, not much but puzzling, the answer became apparent when I compared the cover with a spare one I have, the internal web that separates the dynamo section from the pump section below is much thicker on the case I'm using, maybe just a bad casting or from a different supplier back in the day.
Also some issue with the re-bore I had done, the 9.5 pistons ( having done a whole three miles) were showing slight markings, not much but more than I though right so I took the pistons and barrel back to the shop (needed barrels checked against the new 8.5 pitons)
shop owner reckoned they had marked due to grit ??, I washed the pistons in a clean bowl with white spirit when I got them home and found nothing, when I picked up the barrels a week later he said he'd given the barrels  half a thou extra clearance for the "Italian " pistons, draw your own conclusion but I think maybe the first re bore was half a thou tight.

[mikethebrush]

looks great Bill

what an improvement on your pre restoration pic, if I get mine anywhere near that I will be very happy

[bsa- bill]

Thanks Mike - hopefully yours will not take quite so long as mine, I'm sure it will look as good, my mate has an A7 that he had when a teenager and just bought it back a couple of years ago, it looks good

[LJ.]

Just found this... although I've been away... Bikes looking very good Bill, well done! should not take long to sort the minor problems out.