A10 electric start

[a101960]

Does anyone have a valid phone contact number or email address for Steve Macfarlane? I want to purchase an A10 electric start kit, but all the online contact information is way out of date. I'm just going round in circles chasing my own tail. There must be one surely?

[Catz]

The number for him in The Star is 02920 645045 and it says his website is www.startyourbsa.com
Is that what you've got?

[Catz]

Website address is wrong, but i've just been on the phone to him with that number i posted and he is still trading. He says you can call him. HTH.
PS: Don't put a 1 between the 0 and 2, it's a Cardiff number.

[a101960]

Thank you for that information. I will Phone in the morning. The phone number I found on the web was invalid. All the online contacts are very old and out of date.

[Triton Thrasher]

This link works for me, but might still be out of date.


http://web.archive.org/web/20160313131307/http://startyourbsa.co.uk/

[a101960]

Yes, that is way out of date.

[chaterlea25]

Hi A10,
To fit the electric starter kit yourself you need access to a milling machine and some other skills too.
It is vitally important to get the shaft that comes through the inner primary from the chain drive to the gear reduction perfectly square and parallel to the crankshaft / crankcase. the shaft and its bearings must slide easily through the reduction gear plates to be sure it is all lined up correctly
Steve recommends milling the rear surfac of the primary case flat, There will be high spots due to the bolts to the crankcase distorting the inner case. Carefully pressing these high points back down reduces the amount of metal that need machining. Any machining moves the inner primary inwards and puts more pressure on the donut seal
I found that the rubber donut seal between the chain drive and inner primary pushed the chain drive out of line when the inner primary was bolted up, I made a spacer/ shim to add the the top rear engine bolt to hold the chain drive from being pushed inwards. to my mind the chain drive case should extend up and also bolt to the top rear engine bolt.
Having a good sliding plate seal is essential as the gear drive needs to be lubed by the primary oil, I have a home made sliding plate with a seal and have replaced the big felt seal with a cork one, no leaks meant adding a breather to the primary
All said and done it works great.

John

[a101960]

All far beyond my capabilities John. Looks like I'm going to have to opt for it to be fitted.

[chaterlea25]

Hi A10,
I believe Steve will fit the kit ?
It looks like you will be taking a trip to Cardiff
?

John

[a101960]

John, it looks like it

[sean]

could you not just ship the inner primary and have the machine work and fitting done by them ?

[chaterlea25]

Hi Sean,.
Not really,
The starter and chain drive are mounted to the engine / gearbox  plates
The drive gear has to be fitted to the engine sprocket by Steve.
A 6 to 12 volt conversion maybe needed and the battery tray modified.
Then the extra wiring added.

I also added a hidden security switch so the starter is isolated while I am away from the bike

John

[Sav]

Has any of the members had the electric starter fitted please? Opinions please

My current malaise may well mean that I'll have to have one fitted to my SR if I want to keep riding it.

Mine would need the full works as 6v and manual adv/ret

I've read that one backfire on starting can wreck the thing??

[Bsareg]

I've heard that it's best to fit only to mags with auto advance so no chance of a manual mag being advanced accidentally.

[chaterlea25]

Hi All,
An auto advance has to be used with the electric starter.
I had to go and buy one as an additional  cost to the starter. I retained the manual advance lever as well.
I have the starter fitted since 2021 and have not had any issues so far.
Some health issues has meant that I have not been able to do the milage of previous years, but a fair amount of shorter journeys.
I do not abuse the starter, so if the bike has been sitting for a while I bump start it down the drive or down the road outside my house.
Cold starts away from home have not been an issue.

The electric starter will not fix a hard to start or badly tuned bike
Mag and carb etc need to be at their best
A backfire could damage the one way (sprag) bearings . I do not believe this is " wrecking" the system.
It takes skill and patience  to fit the system so that there is no unnecessary drag on the drive from the motor to the engine.

Without having the starter fitted i doubt I would get much use from the SR as is, I would probably have to lower the compression  and so on

John