Great Mechanical Disasters

[Swarfcut]

 Reading posts of what folks find after a new purchase or a roadside failure makes me realise there must be a huge amount of stuff of interest being pictured and worth sharing.

 Any thoughts on something along the lines of "just a picture"......... featuring the blow ups, failures and previous owner bodges?

 Swarfy

[Greybeard]

Limited to A7 & A10's?

[muskrat]

Guilty.

[Swarfcut]

GB  A7 and 10 as an obvious watch and learn, let's see what other folks reckon.

 Musky. Innocent until proven..... Exhibit A  Yup... A class act.

 Cheers.

    Here's one I made earlier.

 MI Motorway, Newport Pagnell 1971 Outside lane, running fine.  Felt a little hesitation......

 Swarfy.

[Greybeard]

That picture of a claggy sludge trap should be mandatory viewing for people who want to put modern oil in one of these engines without a proper clean!

[Swarfcut]

     Well said GB.  Used  heat around the plug hole as an aid to getting the plug out with minimal violence. All was revealed!!! Back in the day the sludge trap got just a brief two line mention in the service sheet. Folks reckoned they were sealed for life and left well alone, and the crank grinders kept quiet and knew you would soon be back again.

 Amazing that up to then it had run just fine. So, don't chance it, clear it out.

    Crank survived, rod, barrel were scrap. Piston skirt broken, valves bent. Cylinder head reused with new valves and guides. New oil pumps were still in production and second hand engines regarded as junk, bought one from Bob Joyner's on the Wolverhampton Road in Oldbury. Crank reground at Gordon Smith's in Halesowen, and a quick mix'n match put it back on the road.

  Sadly these businesses are all gone.....

 Swarfy.

[KiwiGF]

GB  A7 and 10 as an obvious watch and learn, let's see what other folks reckon.

 Musky. Innocent until proven..... Exhibit A  Yup... A class act.

 Cheers.

    Here's one I made earlier.

 MI Motorway, Newport Pagnell 1971 Outside lane, running fine.  Felt a little hesitation......

 Swarfy.

I have two spare pairs of crankcases, and one crank, that I will only part with when I cannot ride the A10 anymore 🙄

I also have a badly welded up timing side case that matches the drive side on the bike but will always be just an ornament 

But I am banking on someone one day selling new barrels 

[Black Sheep]

Some evidence of a few minor incidents over the years. Norton crankcase sliced clean in half. The engine was still running on one.
Snapped A10 crank. The odd broken con rod or two. Or three . As for pistons...

[mikeb]

what was left of the timing side bush. i'm sure i'm not the only one

[JulianS]

Autojumble "spare" magneto.

[RichardL]

Swarfy,

Great topic! Not looking forward to sharing any future events, but not so optimistic as to think there will be none.

Richard L.

[morris]

Dismantled an SA gearbox I bought a while ago in good faith on a bike jumble.
Seems to have been run with grease in it. Found traces of grease all over the place...
These boxes have a reputation for being sturdy so I don’t dare imagine how this one has been treated.
All gears are absolutely knackered, one of the cam levers has been broken and (badly) welded, the gear change lever shaft is twisted... would need a pretty heavy person to stand on the lever for it to twist like that...  All that because some ham fisted knob taught that filling the box with grease was a good idea to get rid of the oil leaks...
Main shaft, lay shaft and cam seem to be reusable and the housing and covers aren’t too bad either.
At least I have a box of spare parts now...

[a10 gf]

Excuse me for saying... great topic!

[Greybeard]

Did I write up how I drove from Scotch Corner to London with one piston removed from the engine of my Ford Consul?

Seems I did:
https://www.a7a10.net/forum/index.php?topic=8199.0

[Minto]

Did I write up how I drove from Scotch Corner to London with one piston removed from the engine of my Ford Consul?

Seems I did:
https://www.a7a10.net/forum/index.php?topic=8199.0

Yes, but a great story worth re reading