Timing is set. Rode bike for the first time in 5 months!!

It still leaks like a sieve, but I'll address that later. Just need the new levers and I can pull those big switches off the handlebars for a minimalist look. There will be a small switch to kill the motor and switch from low to high beam. when I wire that up, I'll also pull the rocker cover off and try to seal it up better, then mount the gas tank with new rubber and mounting bolt. Hopefully that will be the end of the major overhauls for this bike - for now.

BSA wired to run!

After a short somewhere in the old harness melted the wires together, I decided to start from scratch using mini sealed 6v batteries wired in series to eliminate the bulky 12v battery. This allowed me to tuck everything neatly under the seat on a wiring platform ala cafe racer style. I rerouted all the wires to run behind the frame so they're out of sight. The bike runs now, but I haven't wired the headlight or stop light yet, that's next. First I need to sort out the timing.

I picked up a couple of shop chotchkies at a local garage sale for a buck. Old Americana eagle painting, and a beat up framed Marlon Brando poster from the Wild One. Nice, my garage is gaining soul!

I also took the Triumph for a fall race through the back roads of west Chester with my buddy Justin (who just finished up his 1974 CB450f cafe racer. More on that bike soon.

I hit a few bugs along the way. Always a good sign of a fast ride...

under the seat wiring board

I cut out this 1/4" pice of plywood to fit directly under the seat of the BSA. The metal brackets will bolt directly to where the battery box used to go. The slim, sealed battery will sit on top along with the Boyer ignition box. The coils will be mounted horizontally to the bottom along with the Boyer power box allowing them to be air cooled. The whole thing will eliminate the need for the ugly OIF side covers that came with this bike. I will have this done in the next day or so. Check back soon!

BSA has new wiring and runs again!

I mocked up a new wiring system that eliminates all the unnecessary features I don't use (blinkers etc...) which will allow me to tuck everything under the seat cafe racer style. The timing needs adjustment, but she starts right up! I just need to make a platform to fit where the battery box used to hang to mount everything.



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BSA ready to reassemble

I bead blasted the rust and what little paint was left on the triple trees. I then hit them with two coats of diamond clear satin finish. They are hanging in the shop overnight to cure. I rebuild the front forks with new seals. The timing cover is all sorted out and ready to go back together. Just need to spend an hour to put it all together, and maybe another half hour of adjusting/timing and I'm all set.



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Location:West Chester,United States

BSA fork rebuild part 1

Pulled the forks apart and I wasn't surprised to see water oil and mud along with the obvious bad seals. I put new rubber on everything that needed it and it's going back together when I get a chance to sneak out to the garage next.

BSA is getting the attention she deserves

As of right now I'm waiting on a new inner timing cover seal after replacing the gear shift selector. I drained all the oil while I was at it and cleaned out the selvedge trap.

Since I can't do much until the gasket comes, I decided to pull the font forks since they were leaking gunk from the fork boots when compressed. I opened up the fork oil drain plugs and found that one was empty while the other contained just a small amount of sludgy oil and water. Rebuilding forks is not my favorite task, but I well sorted front end is key for performance. Believe me, the bike rattled and bottomed out so badly before I was scared to go over 50 mph. I am hoping to have the bike back on the road before the season is over. Cosmetics will come later on. Mechanics first!

Despite the beezas oil leak....

It feels good to be wrenching on good old Brit iron again. Let the challenges begin.

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Back to the beeza

A while back my 71 thunderbolt dumped a ton of oil from a hole in the outer timing case while blowing white smoke from the pipes. Well it looks like it's coming from the ignition plate which probably means a cam seal. Not good as far as I know.

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White Smoke, Oil Leak and a broken down Beeza....

Well bad news for the Bleeding Beeza. I fired her up this morning and as I rode down the street I noticed a massive cloud of white smoke trailing behind me. I made it to my other garage (just a block and a half away) and this is what I saw:

Yuck, look at that sludge....

Looks like a hole in the inner timing case. I just can't wait to open her up and see what did that little number.... Oh well, I've been meaning to overhaul this motor from the bottom up anyway. I just hope I can get the Bonnie finished VERY soon.

Drizzly mild morning, great for a bimble on the beeza

Took a nice ride around town this morning, through the rain and fog. Belstaff kept me dry and stopping by my sisters filled my belly. Time to start sorting out the Bonnie...

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Lots of spacers correct pipe balance

As you can see I put a bunch of washers to (almost) correct the misaligned pipe stays. They need a few more spacers which I'll eventually replace with solid spacers and the right size bolt. Kind of a bummer that I spent so much on these pipes and they're crooked.

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Pipes still don't line up at cross section

The first set of headers I ordered wouldn't fit at the cross section. I thought it was the left header being welded wrong. I exchanged it and the new ones are the same deal. My original left header was cracked at the cross fitting. Is it my exhaust ports?

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Pulling Dents from my 4 gal. tank

Last Saturday I decided that, while Bondo works ok, pulling dents from tanks is probably better - so I went out and purchased a stud welder from a local auto-body supply.

$200 later, I was the proud owner of a 110V stud welder. This little baby welds studs right onto the tank, and with the help of a slide hammer, pulls the dents right out. Once they're pulled, you simply grind off the suds and smooth out the metal. Sounds simple right?

My first victim, I nice sized dent across the top of the tank.

Simply insert stud into gun, press down and pull the trigger.

One second is all it took.

Slide hammer ready for action, I wonder how much force it will take to pull the dent? I'll go with a TON OF FORCE and see how that works....

One hard yank and the stud pulled the metal right out of the tank leaving a tiny hole. Oops. I guess less force is probably still more than enough.

A few experiments later and I started to get the hang of it. Several studs in a row in the dent. Start from the center and work my way out...

This crease used to be pretty deep.

Maybe I'll leave the studs on and make a Mad Max style chopper....

Installed the Boyer Electronic Ignition

After messing with the points and unsuccessfully trying to time each side , I decided to take the advice of many, MANY other vintage bike owners and ditch the archaic Lucas ignition and go with an updated electronic ignition. This means easier timing, more accurate firing, easier starting, more reliable bike etc....

Step one was to study the wiring diagram. No condensers needed, and the 12 volt parallel-wired coils need to be 2 6 volt coils wired in series.

Condensors will go in the box of stuff I'll keep for who knows what reason.

Next, find the timing position of the cam with this little tool that fits through an aperture through the front of the engine casing. Basically I pushed that pin lightly into the engine, up against the cam inside and turned the motor with the kickstart until the pin finds the timing notch. This locks the engine in the right firing place, so that when installing the ignition, you install it where the ingition actually needs to come on.

The doomed lucas points system.

this comes off with two screws.

Underneath are the governor weights and the auto advance mechanism. This is the old way the engine "corrected" timing issues when the engine goes from idle to full throttle. These also are getting yanked. At this point I realized that I was missing a special tool needed for extraction. Its similar to a flywheel extractor. I decided I could come up with something that would work...

...and I did. I cut a small, thiner length of screw to insert into the spot where the idler pinion was.

Than I screwed a bolt in on top of it. This pushed the smaller loose bolt up against the inner timing cover

Like this.

Voila!

Next I inserted the new fly wheel and loosely bolted it in place.

The ignition plate goes over the flywheel. Then the magnet on the flywheel gets moved to line up with the timing hole in the ignition plate.

In place, tightened up and wired.

I still need to clean up the wiring here, but I kick started the bike, and my conversion works! VRRROOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!!!!