23
« on: February 20, 2017, 04:01:14 PM »
Whats the most bodged old bike you ever came across that still ran?
Mine's an Ariel Huntmaster,back in 1977 I was asked to overhaul the engine in one, which attached to its sidecar was used to transport an old chap's wife and himself to visit their son in a care home.
Bike started and chuffed away quite happily, I could start it by just gently depressing the kickstart ;easy peasy, cushty little job.
famous last words
took the head off, inlet tract almost clogged with coke,exhaust nearly as bad, valves recessed back to last year, guides so slack you could get two valve stems down.Carb so slack you could hear the slide rattle.
Bores of course knackered, so down to the crankshaft, a bit of wear in the bigends, TS bush well fekked, so off to the regrinders, noticing, that the TS side was abit off centre.
Should have been a warning...
camshaft so worn that the followers ran between little ears the lobes had worn down so far, and the magneto was running in oil yet had a big fat blue spark.
Meanwhile back from the grinder came the crankshaft, "we had a bit of a job to centre it" said the man.
Oh dear, so, it goes into the cases, but one side won't go fully home, each side fits the bearings fine, yet together the cases won't meet, driving me nuts by now well over estimate of time and money.
Scuriny of the now chemically cleaned crankshaft shows faint vice marks on the webs, with sinking heart I measure the distances, the damn thing had been gripped so hard in a vice it was bent.
"Was the last bloke to work on this a mechanic?" I asked
"no its my neighbour, he's a dustman."
every word is true, I found another crankshaft and what the so called engineering shop did to that is another story, just as bad, if anyone out there has an A10 crank with the sludge trap welded, I can tell them why.
Its tribute I think to that old BSA/Ariel engine that it could keep going that worn out.
Show Posts
