69 BSA bobber project...or...the cure for wintertime madness!

Todays quick project was rebuilding the stock Ewarts push/pull fuel petcocks. The stock cork seals are long gone, not that they were ever worth a shit when new. From what I have read most people that have these gave up on the cork and replaced them with Triumph petcocks.

Well I dont want to do that. I like the push pull petcocks. They are unique. So I did a bit of searching and found some replacement inners that use orings. Sold. They wernt cheep but work very well. Take out one screw, valve slides out. Lube up the new oring valve, slide it in, put the screw back in. Done.



new o-ring valve on top/ old cork valve on bottom


Oh and the barb fittings are also new. The stock fuel lines screwed on. The new ones will slide on.

Those push pulls are cool, glad you took time to get them sorted... way more unique than a set of taps.

All righty. Goodys have arrived by the big brown truckload

new headlight bucket and bulb



new trim for the tank



big pile of electrical



brand new carbs and filters



some rear fender mounting parts

And the motor is going back together.

1st up is get the crank in and end play shimmed correctly. I screwed two 2x6 to my bench for a motor support / stand and bolted the crank in place and checked the end play. Took me like 7x pulling the crank in and out before I finially got the end play where I was happy wiith it


crank going in


cam going in


bolted together on its side with a metal plate I made bolted to it side


Dial indicator w/ magnetic base in place


Crank and cam all cozy back in there home


Oil pump and cam gears back in place and timed


New clutch plates, steel plates, and primary chain.


New wassal 200watt stator and new sparx flywheel


clutch and stator back in place.


Tranny installed. shifter shaft and kickstarter shaft installed and inner timing cover bolted in place

I also bought a new clutch pushrod/adjuster kit from Lowbrow and installed that. Supposed to be better than stock and it was only $30.

Just droped off my cylinder today to get that bored oversize for the new pistons. Should be back latter this week hopefully.

Might have the top end buttoned back up this weekend. Then just need to get a degree wheel so I can setup the ignition. Still need to read up on that a little.

Then the frame gets a little more grinding on then it goes back together and motor goes in so I can finialize the fender mount and chain tensioner location as well as coil and ignition module mounting. Once that is done it all gets striped down once again. Gets sandblasted and p-coated. I have that lined up already. We have powdercoaters that we use thru work so I have connections ie cheep.

Wow! nothing but the best stuff!

we need a icon of a wallet with $ flying out of it.

might be a good logo to paint on it somewhere.

Well I have been thinking this bike needs a name or logo on it or something ....

The motor has cost a lot more to rebuild than I origionaly guestimated it would. Thats cool though. Im not keeping track. But you can see why its taken as long as it has. That last parts order was a doozy.


Question. What does BTDC mean? I know that TDC = Top Dead Center. But whats the Btdc?

The ignition says to put the motor at BTDC and set the timing. Im a little puzzled.

Before TDC. Usually the manual will sat set the ignition to 5 degrees BTDC to set static timing. Should be good enough to get it started. That 5 degrees is just a number I pulled out of thin air by the way.

Ok that helps. I know on some of these motors they have an opening in the front of the inner timing cover that you insert a timing plug/stop into to find this position.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TDC-pin-Ignition-timing-plug-tool-BSA-500-650-A50-A65-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem2eaad4f9c3QQitemZ200434579907QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Mine dosnt have that. There is a pointer behind the inspection cover of the clutch and a timing mark on the flywheel. Could that be it? Ill read up a bit I guess.

Ok I read up. It apears that The timing plug locks into the crank thru the RH case (not the inner timing cover) the 69 uses a diff plug than the eariler models (like the one listed above) so I need another tool. And I have to find that hole in my cases. Time to dig thru the pictures cause I cant wait till I get home to find it ya know.

edit: found it. Its the little hex plug in the RH engine case towards the bottom

https://www.advrider.com/advrider-photobucket-images/images/C/CRF250X_BSA_4-4-09_P4030072.jpg


This might be the tool I need

http://cgi.ebay.com/Triumph-Twin-Top-Dead-Centre-Tool-60-1859-P259D-/190419971963?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item2c55ea2f7b

Dial gauge would probably work too.

My BSA guru said to just line that pointer on the clutch cover up with the line on the flywheel and eyeball that hole in the case with the hole in the crank and that should be close enough. No tools needed. Maybe put a drill bit in that crank hole and center it in the case hole while lining up the flywheel with the pointer. Should get me where I need to be. Worth a shot.

Sounds good to me. It's not the space shuttle after all.

Well while I wait for my cylinder to get bored oversized I attempted to lay some paint on the tank. Im thinking its still too damn humid as the paint just aint laying down correctly. Wet sand and wait till It cools off is my only option I guess. I hate waiting on the weather.

So Ill sit and stare at the rear fender and try and come up with a good way to mount it. I have an idea. Not so sure I like it still. But its better than nothing. Well see how it works out. I want it to look clean. Not sure this is it.

Fender 1" away from tire with some vinyl tubing





So while I am contemplating my fender mounts I machined up some chain adjuster blocks. Just gotta weld them on.

I'm hooked.

I got my cylinder back and ready to install





Pistons with new rings ready to go in




And a new 18" WM3 Akront rear hoop arrived last week to compliment the 19" front I got a few weeks back.






I started mocking up my carbs and air filters trying to get an idea where to mount my coils and ignition modules. And I came across a few issues.

1. The air filters I bought are too deep. They measure 2-3/4 and hit the frame. K&N makes a 2-1/2" deep filter that looks like it will clear. It looks like these filters would of worked with the stock Amal carbs but wont work with the Keihn's I have. The new carbs are deeper than the Amals. Oh well. Only $$.

2. The other thing I found is that the new coils are a smaller diameter than the stock coils and the coil brackets wont work. But a quick search found some sweet aluminum brackets at a online dune buggy shop of all places.

So I think I have the coil and ignition module mounting locations ironed out. Not quite as hidden as I would like but there really isnt anyplace to hide them so I guess it is what it is. Pictures to follow.

My hill climber/welder buddy is in New York this last weekend so no frame welding. Might be able to get something welded up this week though.

Pistons installed. Last time this motor had pistons in it they looked much MUCH worse.



Its not so much fun installing the cylinder on a parallel twin when both pistons go up together. It was a bit of a challange compressing the rings of both pistons at the same time to get the cylinder to drop. But its done.



And I am stuck again. Missing 2 head studs and 2 of my bolts are wrong for this cylinder. Back to my BSA guy I guess. I think the missing studs are in the old 500 cylinder which is now at the city dump. Bummer. Oh well. Its just $$.

And I figured out the paint ussue on my Tank. Got it cleared tonight. Looks pretty good. Ill get some picts up latter once its unmasked and re-assembled. Needs to cure for a few days before I mess with it.

I don't know you guys, but to me this is starting to get pretty exciting.

It's nice to see the engine going back together, keep up the good work!

Ugg gotta pull my cylinder back off and get 2 holes drilled and tapped. The 2 bolts that dont fit the threaded holes in the cylinder need to fit the cylinder. So back off the cylinder goes and off to my BSA guy (he has the correct tap)

Sigh....