Thank you all for the warm welcome you have given me and I hope I can be of help to fellow members but as my knowledge of BSA twins is minimal maybe not but time will tell. Last weekend the bike was totally stripped down and frame wise only the brake shoes needed replacing front and back, swinging arm was solid as was the rear suspension, head bearings were taper rollers and okay, fork bushes are fine , wheel bearings okay too. the rims need replacing, the spokes are stainless so will polish up nicely. the wiring harness is a mess and went straight in the bin.
We took gearbox apart and all is fine, there is a 4 spring clutch fitted so I may be asking questions later but it did work well, the primary is in fair condition, couple of helicoils here and there and signs on the outer casing of both the shock absorber and clutch coming loose, both chains are shot but on the whole no big problems (my boss used to say there are no problems only opportunities, yeah).
Now we come to the engine which was running very sweet, no smoke or rattles so good bits first plus twenty on the bore and ring gap is .010" and no lip in the bore so I think that's fine so nothing to do there, the big end are on standard and within limits, I shall replace the shells as the drive side looked a little tarnished, the timing side bush is on minus thirty and feels okay. The bad bits are the valve guides very worn and will be changed, recut the seats and re grind the valves all doable and finally the sludge trap, I failed to remove the either of the plugs using heat and impact driver so I put it up in my CCM and drilled the both out, drilled shade under taping size and gently coaxed what was left out. When the sludge tube was removed it was well full, the photo shows the quantity in the tube but maybe I have moved it all to one side.
Also last weekend began my favourite job........................paint stripping, using paint stripper, wire brush and a Stanley blade, oh what a joy
Last Monday I placed an order with Drags for shells. sludge tube and plugs, guides, seals, locking washers plus all the little bits need to rebuild the box and engine, I ordered a full bike set of gaskets from SRM including solid copper head gasket for just over £61 which I thought was good value, I would like your thoughts on that.
So this post took us up to last Saturday I shall post again on Sunday about our exploits this weekend, please comment good or bad I value your opinions, also are the photos big enough this time.
Kind regards Colin
PS Cheers Bill
