Rocket Gold Flash

[bsa- bill]

Started work in earnest this week on this project
Reluctantly split the engine to put in 357 camshaft as the plain bearing seemed nice and tight and little if any end float on the crank.
First thing I noticed was an odd size for the nut that holds on the camshaft pinion, nearest I had to fit was a 20 mm socket, none of my whitworth would fit, is this the correct size for this nut?
Also the timingside plain bush is of the bi metal kind, are these reliable I have heard horror stories about them.

All the best - Bill

[trevinoz]

BSA had a few nuts which were 25/32 AF. Seems odd on a machine on which had B.S. size fasteners.

[bsa- bill]

Yes strange, but stranger still is the timingside bearing is within original tolerance, it has at the most very most 4 thou wear and yet the bigends are on spec for their fourth regrind ( currently on -40 shells ).

 currently I'm attacking the sludge trap, one plug came out fairly easily, the other refuses to budge so I'm in the process of flushing the crud out, got it all out of the tube so I'm leaving the thing on end full of petrol to see if the stuff betwixt tube and crank will melt out, can't be that much in there as the tube looks to be a close fit, anybody had one out?

[G/F DAVE]

HI, BILL I HAVE JUST REBUILT MY 52 GOLDFLASH MOTOR USING A BI-METAL BUSH, NEW OLD STOCK  MADE BY ALPHA THESE ARE LEAD BRONZE SPEC AS PER ORIGINAL THE INSERT IS PEGGED UNLIKE CHEAPER COPIES, I HAVE FOUND THE ONE PIECE BRONZE BUSH MADE FROM PB1 WEARS THE TIMING SIDE JOURNAL INSTEAD OF THE BUSH (BAD IDEA AS CRANKS ARE GETTING HARD TO FIND) .REGARDS THE BIG ENDS ON FOURTH GRIND WITH STANDARD TIMING JOURNAL HAVE THE BUNGS EVER BEEN REMOVED & CLEANED OUT? IF NOT TIMING  SIDE JOURNAL IS GETTING ALL THE LUBE, AS FOR THE SLUDGE TRAP I USE A STEAM CLEANER TO BLAST EVERYTHING CLEAN ALSO USE IT ON THE OIL TANK DOES A BRILLIANT JOB, ALL THE BEST G/F DAVE..

[bsa- bill]

Yes the bungs have been out going buy the pip marks, I got the second one out after buying a compressor from Aldi with tools one of which was an air chisel - magic.
got a new bush and had it line reamed at our local machine shop, seemed ok until I tightened up the crankcases and the crank went tight even tough there was plenty endfloat, so took it back and they did it again for free ( so they should) and it is perfect this time, they can't say what went wrong first time but I suspect it was not in line.
Measured ( with cheap dialguage) end float this weekend and shimmed the crank up aiming for minimal endfloat, bolted up the crankcase and the crank spins freely with no measurable endfloat - magic again.

Busy now with the gearbox - making one good one out of two hopefully

All the best - Bill
 

[a10gf]

Hello Bill ... a few work-pictures for us ?

[bsa- bill]

Well here's the before one

[bsa- bill]

would have liked to send a progress picture but my camera, has died ( I did have it to bits a while ago?)
Anyway a few issues have come to light one of which is the swinging arm, the rear wheel adjuster on the right hand side would not screw in square to the arm, after several attempts I decided to renew the thread via the Hellicoil method, drilling out for the oversize tap proved difficult, the drill did not want to drill through square trying all the time to assume he same angle as the wheel adjuster did.
Finally I got it drilled and tapped although the tap did not feel right and then I had to remove the collar  from the hellicoil tool as the screw that holds it on would catch the swinging arm - all in all not a great success and proved to be useless when I screwed in the adjuster it cross threaded and pushed the Hellicoil out.
What to do, the swinging arm had been powder coated so heat had to be avoided, I waas thinking if sinking a nut into the s/a somehow when I remembered I had a spare extended nut for the rocker box ( alloy head ) biggest job was finding a drill as near the outside diameter of the extended nut as possible, 7/16 was the nearest, I drilled into the s/a and then cut the nut bit off the extended nut and tried it in the hole it was tight enough to need a tap with a small hammer so I have put a good coating of locetite in the hole and over the extened nut (now tube ) and tapped it in.
I will leave it over night to set, and screw the adjuster in in the morning, it should be ok as there should not be much if any pressure on the s/w arm once the rear wheel nut is tightened.
all the best - Bill

[bsa- bill]

Well things are progressing if not at a great speed, I retired about six weeks ago but still had a couple of weeks of recovery from a heart valve replacement op, then managed a couple of bouts of gout so did not get into the shed as much as I thought I would.
However some progress has been made as I hope you can see from the pics.

first one is of the rear mudguard, my friend Les is making a rear carrier for me that will take a top box that I have.
Second one is getting ready to drill the headlamp brackets to take indicators ( shock horror I know but this is not a show bike I have one of them already ), that's a bit of wood taped up behind the bracket to save the headlamp from the inevitable.
Third one is the finished headlamp indicator array

All the best - Bill

[bsa- bill]

Hi all
For some time I've been wondering what a black rocker box would look like on an alloy head, well I got the chance to see via a scrap box.
Not everyones cup of tea I suspect but I like it - think I'll go with it

What do you think?

All the best - Bill

[flashblack]

That looks really nice in black, also once the tank is on it will be easier not having to polish it!
               
                     Richie

[manosound]

Bill,

I think I am in the "not my cup ot tea" group. I suppose powder coating would avoid it chipping and such, so, maybe, I can't argue against it on the durability side. On the aesthetic side, while I do think it has a distinctive look when sitting in the open with the tank off. I think that, once the tank is on, it will tend to disappear from a short distance away, making the engine appear unusually squat, stopping at the top of the alloy head. It's different with a cast head, because that matches the barrels and does not draw your attention the way the alloy does.

As they say in the world of abbreviations, "Just my 2p."

Richard L.

[bsa- bill]

Hi Richard - it's your welcome tuppence worth allong with everybody's that I'm after, I think I'll go with it for a while and see what it's like to live with, the bike is hopefully going to be different, and it's not irreversable.

All the best - Bill

[bsa- bill]

rebuild gathering pace thank goodness.
some pics of filter, primary case with SRM cush nut and Lyfords alloy clutch pressure plate, this one needs no cutting of clutch pushrod, have also used thinner clutch plates to get one more in there.
Also pic of rear carrier my friend Les made for me.
The clutch took some time to get right due to a faulty/slack clutch centre ( rubber cush type) plus getting supplied with wrong centre nut then wrong washer, eventually bought a NOS non cush type.

about to fit carb now so looking for some advise as to jetting and set up.
Factors are 389 carb 1.5/32 bore, 357 cam. 9:1 pistons. alloy head.
As it is now carb has 420 ? main, pilot25, needle jet 106 and cutaway 3, needle position 2 recommended ( DOH I can never remember if that's second notch from the top or bottom of the needle).
I also have a 330 main jet available if needed. Any of you fine people have a similar set I'd much appreciate a pointer as to whether this is OK as it is or have you found a better setting.

[a101960]

Any of you fine people have a similar set I'd much appreciate a pointer as to whether this is OK as it is or have you found a better setting.

I had the same settings but after experimentation changed the main jet to 430 (needle still on second notch that is to say second from the top). Changed the jet to help combat pinking. The pilot screw is out 1 and 1/2 turns. I use Tesco 99 octane petrol.

John

[muskrat]

Looking real nice Bill. 3 1/2 years, you got a lot more patience than me. That carrier looks better than pro ones.
Cheers

[alanp]

Bill, looking at your lovely black rocker box reminds me of a picture I saw last year in a classic bike mag of an A10 with black painted timing and primary covers. It had strong hints of the beautiful black casings on Vincents and looked absolutely stunning in contrast with bead blasted engine casings. No doubt the paint was not just a quick lick with an aerosol for durability. It would take a brave man to take the plunge in that direction but if you already have another bike in standard trim, you could take a walk on the dark side with this one! It was a possibility for my RGS rep. but decided I needed to go with the RGS standard.
Cheers
Alan

[MG]

Bill, great project, looking forward to see the bike once it is complete. Love the red on the tool box and oil tank.

[bsa- bill]

Thanks for the setting John, will get a 430 jet in give me a bit of a head start.
Hate to admit it Muskrat but it was on the go before I joined the forum, more like five years .
I have a spare rockerbox Alan, just in case it starts to annoy me, so far I still like it

[bsa- bill]

The issue of the engine being tight to turn over with the kick start got to me today, just had to investigate as I recalled some comment on the forum about someone having to relieve some alloy from the camshaft through after fitting a 357 cam.
Although little resistance could be felt turning it over with a socket on the drive end of the crank ( with a breaker bar ) the kickstart would still seem to go solid at a certain point, removing the primary chain resulted in the kickstart spinning the clutch effortlessly mmmm
Visualizing cams gauging channels in the camshaft trough I though it prudent to strip it down, remove the idler gear and see how the camshaft spun, although I can't think that I would have missed anything like that when I built it up, more mmmm
First thing was to remove the dynamo drive, a belt drive I installed, interesting it had been digging in to the inner and out timing cases, probably would have made a road for itself in time but also produce a lot of swarf that would do the belt no good at all.
So a little job for the dremmel tomorrow.
On the bright side the camshaft seems free to turn, I'm thinking the gearing from the kickstart to crank is fairly high, very small kickstart pinion to clutch wheel will make it tough to turn but it does still go almost solid, think I need to look at the kickstart itself, could be jamming somehow when extra load put on it.
Other issues this week - four throttle cable, not one correct, had to find the nearest and cut some outer off to get full throttle travel, shart air cable the same.
Also I have  Siamese  pipes to fit, but they are too tight , won't go in the Alloy head, tried an ordinary down pipe, it's the same, the head has been vapour blasted would this  reduce the size of the hole for the pipes in the head by roughing it up a bit?
I'm a bit wary of using a dremmel in there in case I end up with them slack, is it usual for Alloy heads to be difficult to fit pipes into???
Any comments welcome guys