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

[YZman]

Originally Posted by Brian y

Nice thread man.... didn't expect to see you over here in the vintage stuff. Good work.

Brian

Ive been wanting a vintage project for a loong time. This one kinda just fell in my lap and I kinda fell for it.

Got an email from my BSA guru ED at EV Engineering. He said that the oil pump pickup tube is just pressed in the case. A little heat on the case and it will slide right out. he has a used one around there that I can have/buy.

He also has a cast aluminum finned oil sump cover with a magnetic drain plug for sale...Hmmmm that sounds nice!

Going to see him this weekend for the 1st time. Well see how bad a beating my Visa takes when I get back.

[BringSparesAlong]

The bike looks neat. I have a 67 441 single that I'm doing as a cafe racer.
You might want to check out www.britgaskets.ca. The fellows name is Steve Dales and his only transportation is a 69 441.

[YZman]

So today I took the day of from work (mental health day)

I loaded up the Vstrom with BSA parts and hit the back roads. My destination, EV Engineering, an hour away. Never been there before but have contacted them a few times.

THIS PLACE IS COOL.

Its a pole barn. Inside is decades of history. Parts and pieces and fenders and tanks and this and that and and and... Piles of history laying everywhere. Paths thru the rubble leading to his various machines and work benches. Has that old motorcycle funk to it. Way cool place.

ED the owner is exactly what I expected. Maybe in his 50's. Big gray bushy beard.

We wandered out to my bike to see what I had to work with. Without even looking at a book he measured my cylinder, crank and knew exactly what they were supposed to measure at. That was impressive.


So the verdict so far.

Needs a new lh main bearing $80
New rod bearings $50
Crank may need to to be turned for the rod bearings but that remains to be seen.
Crank ballanced for 650 pistons $100
New .060 over pistons $100
New oil pump pickup tube
New oil sump cover plate $10
used 650 cam $30
Pushrods $15

So it looks like under $500 will button the bottom back up. Said it might be done some time around July Seriously! Hes pretty busy and a one man show.


Hey Blood. Did you measure your rh crank bushing and crank end? Ed said that if its not tight enough you wont get any oil pressure to the rods. Said mine had about 2 and a half thousands clearance I think, and that is on the loose side. 2 thou would of been better but he thinks I will be fine. He said that bushing is responsible for the oil pressure to the rods. If thats loose oil will leak out from around the bushing and you wont get oil to the rods.


Also Blood where did you get your crank shims? ED dosn't sell a kit per say. It sounds like it should be easy enough to shim the crank. But I need the shims to do it. I could just by a random selection of shims from ED but at an hour away thats a bit of a treck for a shim should I need a diff size that I dont have.

So thats about it for now.

I did get the valves out of the head last night. Everything looks pretty good. Hopefully I can get the head and cylinder in to get them blasted soon. Im thinking the valve guides should come out also before I get it blasted. How do they come out? just tap them out?

[YZman]

Spent the morning reading about Boyer ignition systems, coils, and wireing diagrams...I think my brain is turning to mush

To be honest the wireing (or lack of) on this bike scares the crap out of me. I would rather pull 10 sludge traps out than tackle the ignition system on this bastard

[YZman]

Progress. A little anyways.

While I am waiting for my crank to come back

I spent a few hours getting friendly with the gas tank.

You remember that tank.





Well I picked up some supplies and dove into it today.



Masked off the shiny parts



And attacked it with the paint stripper



The end result turned out pretty good I think








Oh and Ive been meaning to post up some picts of the clutch basket once I got thru with that.

Before



And after









Thats about it for now. I do have he head tore apart and soaking. Ill try and get some picts of that next time out.

Till then.

[YZman]

Next question would be. What should I do about the tunnel of the tank. It has a little surface rust on it where the rubber cushons sit.

Im thinking just some rust preventing primer and paint the tunnel black. Id like to just leave it as is as I kinda like the chrome tunnel but I have to do something about that rust. Maybe just sand down those 2 spots. Mask it all off and just pant those 2 areas.

[GARider]

You could always just remove the rust and spray it with clear.

Roger

[Neil Claydon]

Or do it properly and strip and re-chrome
I spent ages, years ago trying to save a BSA C15 tank with the chrome panels.
Ended up doing it properly, cost at the time was very reasonable as I remember.
It's not like it's hard work, just choose a plater who you trust to do the work well.

Neil.

[YZman]

Quick update:

I just emailed my BSA mechanic guy that is working on my crank. He has had my crank and cases all summer. While he is very good he is a one man show and aparently very slow. But I rattled his cage and he is going to start on mine next. Basicaly told him to shit or get off the pot... Im tired of waiting.

So hopefully in the next few weeks the updates should start to flow again as I re-assemble the lower end and press on from there.

[Pigford]

What a great thread - only just found it and read it right thru Top stuff.

I run a 1970 Triumph - got it as a pile of bitz - went the Street Tracker route:



The Boyer ignition & Power Box is the way to go...

http://www.boyerbransden.com/PBdynamo.html

http://www.boyerbransden.com/pdf/KIT..._BOX00023_.pdf

Its dead easy....... My bike also runs a single Amal 930 carb & starts first kick

Keep up the good work YZman.....

[YZman]

Originally Posted by Pigford

What a great thread - only just found it and read it right thru Top stuff.

I run a 1970 Triumph - got it as a pile of bitz - went the Street Tracker route:



The Boyer ignition & Power Box is the way to go...

http://www.boyerbransden.com/PBdynamo.html

http://www.boyerbransden.com/pdf/KIT..._BOX00023_.pdf

Its dead easy....... My bike also runs a single Amal 930 carb & starts first kick

Keep up the good work YZman.....

That is one dead sexy machine you got there. Me likes a lot.

Yep Boyer is what I will be doing. To hell with Lucas electronics, the prince of darkness


Picked up some fork tubes over the summer so Ill be tearing into the forks sometime this winter to rebuild them. That should be fun seeing as they are locked solid right now.

Piece by piece... Ill get there.

[YZman]

Well I dove back into the BSA today.

Ive been working on clearing out a spare room in the house and converting it to my man cave. Made a bike table outta some 2x6's, 4x4's, and some plywood. Works great. 24"h x 24"w x 8' long.

So I spent the evening stripping off.... everything. Its amazing when I get into it how little of this bike is actually going to get used again. Ebay is going to be seeing a lot of BSA parts real soon.





Looking sexy aint it

[hoggjaww]

I'm enjoying the project YZman. I had a 650 Lightning with some prior outlaw history, sold it in 1975 for $45 you are really jogging my grey matter. Keep it coming.


Harry

[YZman]

Quesion for all you BSA guru's out there. How does the rear axle come out? I took the nut off but it aint budgin. The other end of the axle just had a hole thru it (to slide a screwdriver thru for tightening purposes I asume). No hex head. Does the axle unthread from the wheel or is it just slid in there?

Right now it wont slide out or spin in place. Its just plain stuck. Im thinking that I am going to remove the wheel and swingarm in one piece and just sit it in the corner and occasionaly soak it with PB Blaster to see if it will break loose in a month or so. I really dont want to wack on the threaded end of the axle to get it out.

Update: This is what the manual says for removing the axle. Sounds like its threaded in to me

remove the spindle. It has a normal right-hand thread and therefore unscrews in an anti-clockwise direction. The distance bush falls clear when the spindle is removed and the wheel can then be pulled away from the brake drum and withdrawn from the machine

Speaking of PB baster and time. Last X-mas when I got this bike I went about soaking every fastner with PB. I left the can set on the bike and every time I walked past it I would give it another soaking. Fast forward to this last weekend. Every fastner I removed came out easy. Gotta love that.


Edit...

Never mind. I figured it out. It was threaded. What a strange rear wheel/ brake configuration. And what a mess it all is. Nothing that a little TLC wont fix though

[rockjohn]

Pigford has a bad-ass Triumph