What have you done with your bike/s today?

[berger]

i have mentioned a while ago that when i had my 6 spring clutch on i adjusted it so i could get out of gear when stood with the engine running and no slip on a thrash day. this sort of set up enables the party trick of cracking brasil nuts between finger and thumb. i now understand why some people put the trumpet clutch on as i did a few months ago

[RDfella]

I realised this evening that this clutch issue has meant I've broken a policy of a lifetime - not letting other people make their problem my problem. In this case, dopey BSA 'engineers' who thought putting a dry clutch in an oil bath was a good idea. How do you think your car clutch would react if you dumped a pint of oil on the driven plate? Does anyone put a few squirts of oil in their brake drums to help braking? It's beyond stupid.
As I've remarked before, every bike I've had over the last almost 60yrs that I've put oil in the primary has had clutch slip. The worst was my Triton - clutch slip meant the kickstart was slow getting a piston over TDC, with the result the mag wouldn't strike a light. That was the bike where I learnt no oil was the cure. Yes, some clutches do work in oil, but that's because they're designed to do so. Like marine gearboxes, where often the plates are bronze and there's good hydraulic pressure holding the plates together - 160psi in the case of BW boxes, around 350psi for PRM boxes. I seem to recall Laycock overdrives run around 500psi and some tractor 'overdrives' 3,000psi.
Well, hopefully I've cured my GF, as I've just drained the oil out and it's staying that way.

[Black Sheep]

On a couple of occasions I have run a dry primary chain.
On the first, the Norton shed all its rollers on a ride from Edinburgh to Bristol, about 350 miles.
On the second I rode the Velo up to Helmsdale and back, 560 miles. The chain had stretched beyond all recognition.
On the BSAs, or any of my bikes, I have had no problems with clutch slip with the correct quantity of oil in the chaincase. There must be something amiss if you are getting clutch slip.
Running dry is not the answer.

[Worty]

I get what you're saying RD, the idea of a dry clutch soaked in oil seems mad, but it does seem to work for some reason.  The only time the clutch slipped on mine is when I overfilled the primary by quite a bit.  As soon as I dropped it down to the proper level, it was fine again.  As BS says, it must be something else - surely.

I must admit though, if I shred another ATD on mine I will be at a complete loss to what the problem is.

Oh, one other thing - if I want to lock the maggie up with a bolt in the earth brush hole, what size do I need??

[muskrat]

G'day Fellas.
Found my first problem with the fresh A7 plunger.
I was going to wait till the new carb arrives but it was a beautiful day here yesterday (rarity) so I rode her to work the long way. On the way home I could hear a click click click. On investigation I fount the joiner link is rubbing on the primary case. 
When I ordered the new chain I asked for a standard 530 but when it arrived it was a heavy duty chain. I should have sent it back but it was a special order (not many want non O ring these days) I put it on. I'll now try to get a std chain, the HD will go on the XT.
Cheers

[Worty]

Ok, SHM, but would it work??  Wasn't thinking of belting it up TBH, and I did wonder about possible damage, especially if I forget it's there and have a couple of swings on the kickstarter.

[Worty]

It was designed as a locking taper and with a slight tap and careful tightening but not too tight it should stay put. 
I read in a Vincent forum that the ATD nut should be just beyond finger tight and the taper will work.
[/quote]

So, not belting it up too tight then??

[groily]

Other people here do it so it must work for them, personally I would not.
I think there is a risk (small) of deforming the armature.

You won't hurt the armature SHM. The brass cheek is solid enough to allow the pinion to be seated initially. (It would be a total eejit who tried using a bung to counter the force of fully (but not over-) tightening the nut - that's what crankshaft pinion nuts are for!.)

Wood, or a tailor-made nylon (or similar) screw, is fine. They won't mess up the brass the earth brush runs on (it does that quite happily all on its own, with the telltale dimples at one or both the firing points of the magneto on long service units).

What I mostly do though, is shove a long arm through the frame to hold the cb centre screw gently with a 4BA socket on an extension bar while setting the pinion or sprocket.  If that doesn't want to work, then it's 'down the 'ole with a bung'.
On some machines with chains (not A7/10s obviously), it is standard practice to perform these dark arts with less pain at the camshaft sprocket having done the mag end up already.

The thread for the earth brush holder is 5/16ths BSF on a K2F and (most) others by the way. (Somebody asked.)

[muskrat]

G'day Fellas.
My nice shiny new premier 932 carb arrived today. Threw it on after work as supplied #3 slide, 300 main, 106 needle jet, #17 pilot, needle clip in the middle, pilot screw 2 turns out. Started 1st kick and with a few quick adjustments of idle and pilot screws settled to a nice idle. Pilot one turn out. Coming off idle the slide sounds good. Rain for the next few days so will wait till Sunday to check the main & needle clip.
Cheers

[Greybeard]

G'day Fellas.
My nice shiny new premier 932 carb arrived today. Threw it on after work as supplied #3 slide, 300 main, 106 needle jet, #17 pilot, needle clip in the middle, pilot screw 2 turns out. Started 1st kick and with a few quick adjustments of idle and pilot screws settled to a nice idle. Pilot one turn out. Coming off idle the slide sounds good. Rain for the next few days so will wait till Sunday to check the main & needle clip.
Cheers

[Worty]

[quote author=slighthitchmitch link=topic=13293.msg148814#msg148814 date=16

Although with his luck, worty, locking the armature would probably result in the headlamp glass exploding due to internal stress, the petrol tank to split along all seams and the seat to spontaneously combust.
[/quote]

You're probably right SHM.  Just wondering now if I tightened the ATD bolt tighter than it needed to be, although shouldn't really make a great deal of difference I guess.

[groily]

as I recall you can do the ATD nut up comfortably tight and then you apply quite a bit more force to start it acting as an extractor. 
If what you have is machined a bit 'off spec' then it could possibly start undoing itself very slightly too soon, if that makes sense.

It won't threaten to self extract by being tightened - it's when it's being UNdone that the centre bolt comes up against 'something'. That 'something' is the first turn of a raised left hand thread half way up the bolt, which is a fit with a female LH thread in the yoke of the ATD. As you continue to unwind anti-clockwise, the ATD is pushed off. The idea then being that if you pull and turn the centre bolt clockwise when the unit is in yer 'and, the bolt will come out. Er, sometimes.

I rant about these ATD things too often, I know.
But for a ha'pence worth of tar a very good idea from the magneto's electrical performance angle was made, in the flesh, into a sow's ear. Also on the downside the question of additional stress on armature spindles, with possible consequences as in Julian's pic from a few days back, can't be ignored. A one-piece machined drive end would have been much better - with the benefit of hindsight, yes - but they already knew there were good reasons to go 'solid' from their experience with the racing instruments. An ATD imposes greater strain than a plain gear, and further out to boot.

I wonder - in my complete ignorance - whether back in the day it would truly have been much more costly to make one piece items? I dunno, but as RD pretty much said, 'that's no way to make things'.

The 'best' auto advance units I have ever seen on a magneto were 'inboard' at the drive end, clock spring and rollers (like BTH bike ones) in a cast housing, with an outrigger bearing  . . . Bullet proof but big and pricey. With the likes of Edward Turner demanding magnetos at about £1 or 25/- a unit, it is said, it's a wonder Lucas were able to provide anything at all frankly.

[groily]

30+ years and put probably 40,000 miles on it in that time.  Never needs attention.

I think it comes down to parts that have always lived harmoniously together, not been chopped and changed time and again. My A10 was a bitsa, admittedly, but a long-term one and did about 50K miles with few problems before it was sold last year.
One of my other bikes has done somewhere between half a million km and half a million miles, and a large percentage is still original - most of the frame, the tank, the oil tank, one wheel rim, both hubs and brakes, silencer (one), barrels and heads, fork sliders, yokes and steering stem, gearbox, speedo head, headlamp shell and supporting bracketry, toolboxes, swing arm except bushes, the mag and the dynamo bodies, all the timing gears, the oil pumps, the rods (but not the crank sadly, that broke in the 1980s). The mudguards rotted beyond my pathetic metalworking skills so went to someone who could, but what it has all meant to me is ultra-reliability from parts that are on intimate terms with each other. Like people celebrating golden wedding anniversaries. A bit of disharmony now and then, but a sound relationship at base.

GB referred  a few days ago to the Motor Cyclist's Workshop by Torrens of the Motor Cycle. I referred in turn to a chapter called 'Is It Worn Out?' - which has been a guide to me since for ever. Ring gaps - 'don't panic Capt Mainwaring', double the  'book' gaps won't kill anything. Bore wear? - wait till they get to the limit before messing with them, and buy a few pints of oil in the meantime if you need to. Ditto valve guides etc etc.
"Perfection is the Enemy of the Good".

(Big ends though - Act Immediately you have the hint of a smidgeon of a suspicion.)

[Greybeard]

GB referred  a few days ago to the Motor Cyclist's Workshop by Torrens of the Motor Cycle. I referred in turn to a chapter called 'Is It Worn Out?' - which has been a guide to me since for ever. Ring gaps - 'don't panic Capt Mainwaring', double the  'book' gaps won't kill anything. Bore wear? - wait till they get to the limit before messing with them, and buy a few pints of oil in the meantime if you need to. Ditto valve guides etc etc.
"Perfection is the Enemy of the Good".
(Big ends though - Act Immediately you have the hint of a smidgeon of a suspicion.)

This explains how ancient motorcycles have survived for a very long time despite having sloppy crank endfloat and partly blocked sludge traps; they are not precision instruments.

[Worty]

Ok, me lovelies, latest update.  Fibre gear arrived 2.00pm and fitted by 6.00pm.  Rivet holes in gear were slightly too small for the rivets I have, so drilled out 0.2mm from 4.6 to 4.8.  Then had to grind down rivet heads and shorten by around 2.5mm - also on the bench grinder.  Fitted the back plate and went for the steel backing plate and carrier - then had to take it apart and turn the gear round because holes wouldn't line up   To get the rivets to partially line up with the backing plate and carrier, I chamfer the ends of the rivets to give them a 'start' on the holes.  I also put the rivets in the other way round to Priory, so from the back into the carrier rather than the other way round - just find it easier that way.  Ground down the excess on the rivets with a dremel and tapped the collar back on, centre punching it for extra security.  With new springs, the action is good and it SHOULD all hold together - cannot see why not.  I now have enough bits for two more decent, complete ATDs.  Will get them built up for when the beastie eats the one I'm about to put on.

Incidentally, the new gears have more definition on the teeth than the originals, and seem deeper.  This convinces me that the old gears swell and turn to cheese over the years.

Wish me luck, my friends.  Oh, and SHM, the condensor went in the maggie about a year ago.  Sourced a replacement from Priory which has proved excellent.  If anyone wants a complete maggie that needs a new condensor, give me a shout!