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Messages - geoff.godwin

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British Bikes / Re: royal enfield 355 1929
« on: March 12, 2024, 08:21:12 AM »
Thanks John, I now have a pdf of MDY stuff and it did point me in the right direction. If I am quick enough with the air lever I can catch in one or two kicks. At the moment I am re learning how to ride ,made more difficult by excessive clutch drag. I had to put the bike into a hedge to avoid a homicidal van driver [only at crawling pace mind]. All good fun. Geoff

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British Bikes / Re: royal enfield 355 1929
« on: March 03, 2024, 02:44:40 PM »
At last ,a dry day and off we go. The gearbox is described as close ratio, wow they were not kidding. No real idea of speed as no speedo or rev counter. All was going really well untill the rather dodgy thread on the gear change connector rod pulled out !! back home in 1st gear. Some smoke but not worth chasing a sub for. Geoff  PS 84 years off the road for the bike  55 years for me on two wheels!!

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British Bikes / Re: royal enfield 355 1929
« on: February 10, 2024, 09:55:59 AM »
Thanks Leon, in the end I worked out a way of doing it. I removed the pump and pipes and connected a flex pipe between the tank and pump , with a short length of copper pipe flattened at one end mounted in a drill I spun the pump . Almost zilch ,so I looked at the adjuster shaft [dial missing] it was fully shut. I assume that the adjustment is on the inlet . So I undid the shaft a couple of turns and now have a reasonable output. On the basis that oil is cheap compared to bearings I will up the output till the smoke brings complaints .I have bitten the bullet and bought a helmet and inured the bike from 1st march . fingers crossed Geoff

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British Bikes / Re: royal enfield 355 1929
« on: February 08, 2024, 08:35:42 AM »
That is the 500cc version of my 350cc, the huge long inlet pipe maybe one part of my problem ,being so long it will take a long time to reach a stable temperature ,with the fuel mixture condensing out on the walls of the pipe [its bloody cold here at the moment].. Yesterday I ran the bike for a good while started to get a better feel for the many control levers. After it had warmed up i tried again to get it to ldle against all that I know from vintage cars I left it at fullish advance 30/35deg  it seemed to work better like that . Still not stable at low revs hunting a lot and in the end it just died ,but a definite improvement. One other niggle is oil system ,its total loss  and after running for a while dribbles oily mess into its dirt tray  .I would like to check the output of the pump but cant run the engine with it disconnected ? Geoff

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British Bikes / Re: royal enfield 355 1929
« on: February 06, 2024, 09:34:02 AM »
I have not ridden it yet as I cant keep it running for long enough to feel confident . I have not ridden any bike for more than 50 years ,the thought of pushing it any distance at 75 is no fun at all . Tickling does not seem to change anything apart from a puddle on the floor. The problem I am finding is the balance of the two levers against mag advance. On my old car static advance is 0 increasing to about 35 at 2k+ if I try to get the car to idle with full advance it wont. So I try to get the bike to ilde with starting advance say 10/15 btdc . I have looked into an induction leak ,but will try again ,the inlet duct is about 6in long to clear the dynamo. Geoff

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British Bikes / Re: royal enfield 355 1929
« on: February 05, 2024, 04:13:55 PM »
Thanks for the sound advice fellas, The engine is in reasonable nick, the piston/rings are fairly worn ,but from memory it is out at +40 .I toyed with the idea of a rebore or resleeve BUT ive heard horror stories of old cast iron pots cracking as a result . Looking around there are not a lot of 1929  355 barrels about . The reason for the one month delay on this update was a buggered calf muscle from when I forgot to retard the mag on starting ,boy that hurt!! Cardan I just picked up on your earlier post about the main jet  .038  is 1mm as near as the main jet  fitted is unmarked  but I think less than 38thou  Geoff

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British Bikes / Re: royal enfield 355 1929
« on: February 05, 2024, 08:23:59 AM »
The carb is a 15mdy  the jet needle is unmarked but set to mid groove . The mag is non original mo1 but gives a good 5mm spark spun by hand or drill. After the earlier advice I started to use about half range on advance,about 10/15deg . The other slightly odd symptom is that I have good compression with throttle closed but less with it cracked open?  Geoff

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British Bikes / Re: royal enfield 355 1929
« on: February 04, 2024, 09:02:29 PM »
The fuel level in the carb is fixed [the valve stem has only one circlip position] I have checked the fuel level is at the top of the main jet ,which is as Amac paperwork .I have cleaned the carb several times and checked the pilot jet ways . Geoff

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British Bikes / Re: royal enfield 355 1929
« on: February 04, 2024, 05:17:26 PM »
Bit of an update, I can now get it to run for longer periods But only at very fast idle or more . Any attempt to reduce and it dies ,I have tried the pilot jet screw [recommended 1/2---3/4 turn open] it affects the idle speed but not a lot, the engine runs fine at the higher speeds but as the speed reduces it hunts all over the place. I am now wondering if my valve overlap  set equidistant from tdc is correct. The only possible cam settings are about  15btdc inlet/15atdc ex     5btc inlet/ 25atdc ex      or25btc  inlet/5atdc ex   With quite a gentle cam I would expect the idle to be much slower and consistant . The other thing I find a bit odd is the size of the  AMAC  ita a !inch bore on a 350cc single  which seems big to me . I am starting to get better at starting but still have bother trying to catch it when it fires  . Geoff

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British Bikes / Re: 1920s/30s carbs
« on: December 21, 2023, 08:44:55 AM »
The reason I first asked about horizontal carbs was conflicting information about mounting the amac on my 29 Enfield . The old copy sales stuff shows a normal mount , but most of the images on the net show horizontal mount. I think now that if a bike was ordered with lights a longer inlet tract was used [to clear the magdyno] .My bike has the longer tract so room is not an issue. I am still having aggro trying to get it to start and run for more than a short while , the little sod seems to need to be flooded in order to keep running . I am starting to appreciate how easy electric starters are !! With a sore leg  Geoff

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British Bikes / 1920s/30s carbs
« on: December 19, 2023, 08:28:02 PM »
Back in the 20s and 30s  some bikes had the amal or amac mounted with the body and throttle slide horizontal . was this just to save height ? and were the carbs specials or just the usual with different float bowls .Geoff

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British Bikes / Re: royal enfield 355 1929
« on: December 02, 2023, 06:48:24 PM »
Many thanks for the replies, The oil system seems to be total loss with an adjustable output pump mounted on the magneto chain case. It sounds as if I may be on the right track anyway. I should just mention that its not just the bike thats been off the road for a long time , I sold my velo mac when I went to uni in 1966!! and yes I know the roads are busy and yes MUM I will be careful .Geoff

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British Bikes / royal enfield 355 1929
« on: November 30, 2023, 05:13:49 PM »
I have owned the bike for 40 years and have finally  tried to get it on the road [last used in 1940] It is the twin port ohv model .with AMAC carb and Sturmy archer gbox. I have set the cam timing such that the valve overlap is equidistant either side of tdc. Set the mag to spark at about  tdc. I get it to fire but not for more than about 5 seconds. The carb is 2 lever [big lever goes to big slide .little lever to little slide. I have not had a bike with two slides and am not sure of basic setting for starting .If I ever get it running properly riding will be a challenge with lever throttle and hand change! Is there any body on this forum with knowledge of model 355 or some basic settings to get it to run properly. cheers Geoff

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