Rocket Gold Flash

[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.

[bsa-bill]

Thanks LJ
One of the minor problems sorted yesterday, Fitted the camshaft, had to file about 20 thou off the shoulder of each of the timing side camshaft bushes, then spent far too much time putting the pinion on ( that damn key that some of you warned me about ) When I removed the original cam I lost the key so ordered two  new ones from a well known dealer ( thinking of the Ebay debate ), these keys seem to have a life of there own and fly out of the keyway at the first sight of the pinion, don't know how I got it on so easy last time?.
Anyway while searching the shed for something to hold the key in while the pinion got started I found the original key ( life is like that, or at least my life is ), I tried this key, it was a bit tighter in the keyway, I squeezed it in with grips and the pinion went straight on.
The camshaft nut is now good and tight, the camshaft turns by hand and has no discernible end float . - result as they say

[bsa-bill]

Timing cases and primary cases back on today,
Decided to use a degree, disc to set the timing  never used one before .
found I could not get anything to work out correct ( was measuring with vernier gauge to check as head was off )
Seemed to vary about 4 degrees , the disc was tight on the crank so it could not move, was baffled for a while.
then I thought of using my dial gauge to measure piston travel, more important was it's use in determining TDC, this was where I was going wrong.
Using eye and finger to judge TDC is in my case wildly inaccurate, I found that I was consistently out ( yes as much as four degrees ) it is probably due to the last 2 degrees and  first two degrees give very little deflection of the piston.
Easy to set up as well , magnetic base sticks nicely the a down tube, the range of mine is 10mm so works just nice for 3/8ths

[bsa-bill]

Working nights for a little while so bike time is limited, however I decided to takle the not starting feature by starting with a check on the carb, this is a new carb that came jetted for a Super Rocket but examination shows a 330 main jet, I've swapped this for a new 400 I had, everything else is as should be.
One other thing I noted was the original jet that the carb had ( it was jetted for a Flash and the shop changed the jets to Rocket and included the original in the package) was stamped incorrectly, the 2 was upside down, Not what you would expect from Amal, makes me wonder about the rest of the jets.

squirted carb cleaner through all the portals, see no reason why it should not fire up, last attempt seemed to indicate no fuel getting to the engine as the plugs were dry even after mega kicking.

OK next I'll swap the maggie for the one on my Flash that definitely works, or at east it did on Tuesday when it passed it's MOT, great day for a bike ride on Monday although wet early on

[bsa-bill]

Still no Joy starting RGF, recond Magneto works on the Flash and the Magneto on the RGF is off the Flash and is 100%
puzzled as why the plugs are not wet so decided to check valve timing, off with the timing case yet again, valve timing OK.
Kicking engine over I hear a metalic click every now and then ( night time session all is quite I can hear better), turn engine to BDC and remove idler gear, turn camshaft to watch valve action - down up, down up, down up, down   ------ click up, this valve seems to stick then fly up.
pushrod seem to rotate in its bit OK, so forum's acquired wisdom please, all valves were free when I put the head on and I don't think I've done anything to bend one but wont discount it, other than a bent valve could anything else cause this ( thinking cam followers )

[muskrat]

G'day Bill,
                yes could be lifter or valve. To check, remove rocker box, with the pushrods still in place turn the motor over. They should rise and fall under their own weight. If so it's the valve.
 Do I remember correctly that you had trouble with the cam pinion and key. This may have caused the timing to be out slightly, and the piston just touched the valve. It doesn't take much to bend one.
 Is it firing on the other cylinder?
Cheers