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Messages - JFerg

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1
British Bikes / Re: Troubleshooting a JAP Special
« on: August 08, 2023, 04:52:01 AM »
I'm with Leon.

Although I no longer have a JAP engine, I'm sure that there is no actual function from a bolt there between the pushrods.  I suspect that it is a breather someone has added at some point, and that brass "bolt" is actually a plug.  As Leon suggests, try lifting and un-doing it; it will probably screw out to reveal an ill-fitting plug.

2
British Bikes / Re: Troubleshooting a JAP Special
« on: April 11, 2023, 10:57:22 PM »
That it runs fine when it goes vindicates the carb set up.  That it plays up hot suggests the magneto.  An open circuit within the mag windings  arcs to form a carbon track.  This is of low resistance when cold, but high resistance once it warms up, reducing magneto output.

3
British Bikes / Panther M100 head issues
« on: December 03, 2022, 02:32:48 AM »
Pretty amazing coincidence that as I go to pose a question here, the latest query is also Panther related.

Today I went to go out on my Panther.  It wouldn't start, no compression, exhaust valve stuck open.  So I pulled the head off (a pig of a job with the chair on) to discover that what was holding the exhaust open was the valve seat that had dropped out.  I'd had the hardened seats fitted many years and many thousands of miles ago.

What's the group wisdom on getting this fixed?

4
British Bikes / Re: Not an oil thread
« on: October 04, 2021, 09:51:21 PM »
All fine, Leon, but the question remains.  Oil will flow down an essentially vertical pipe freely, can be sometimes persuaded through a pipe with two drawn out turns (and 10" greater length), point blank refuses all coercion to pass through a pipe with four turns in it, yet belches from half a thou on the pump end plate.  Admittedly that is under pressure, but you see my point.

The pipe has a 180 thou ID, oil has no surface tension, is low viscosity in this case.  A restricted flow I could understand, but none at all needs an explanation.

5
British Bikes / Re: Not an oil thread
« on: October 03, 2021, 11:12:10 PM »
It's in 1/4" because I have plenty of it, but what is the physics behind this?

6
British Bikes / Not an oil thread
« on: October 03, 2021, 06:35:42 AM »
I am wrestling with a perplexing problem.  In a total loss machine, I can't get the oil to flow, by gravity, through a perfectly clear, newly made, copper line.

Connect to the tank, turn on oil, wait, and nothing comes out at the pump.  Can't even draw some through by sucking on the line.  The initial line had four horizontal turns in it.  Take it off, blow through it with ease, clearing only a small slug of oil.  Turn oil tap on, oil flows freely.  Blow through pipe very easily.  Either way.  Put line back on, no oil flows.

So I remake the line replacing the four horizontal turns with two sweeping turns, ie; pulled out so there's always a clear downward path.  This worked, initially.  Today, however, I could not get any oil to flow.   I cut the sweeping turns out and replaced them with a length of clear plastic hose, and guess what?  Oil flows sweetly.  I forgot to turn the oil off and the pump filled, which has never happened before.

Not sure what the oil grade is; I use "smokeless two stroke oil", the cheapest I can get.  It's a light grade and will leak out of anywhere it can escape through, but it won't go down a copper pipe that I want to to go through.  Also, the "smokeless" bit is a lie.  The oil tank cap is vented.  It's 1/4" OD copper tube, which is 4.7mm ID.

What is going on here?  Plainly there's some kind of drag, but I'd have thought that would only affect the contacting molecules.  The flow rate I need is only modest, but I can't get a cracker.  Any ideas as to why this is so?

7
British Bikes / Re: Little Latrobe Street, Melbourne
« on: August 12, 2021, 02:45:21 AM »
Yes, Neil Mann.

And it was the North side, sorry, but that's where I thought your photo was.  It was a similar looking building, from the fog of my distant memory.

8
British Bikes / Re: Little Latrobe Street, Melbourne
« on: August 12, 2021, 12:01:56 AM »
I remember that building, Leon.
The Scout Shop was on the Elizabeth St SE corner for years, with Bulley's Next door in Elizabeth St.  I worked in Lonsdale St  from around 1981 - 86.  At that time your building was an auto electrician who did a lot of motorcycle work and was recommended for same, which is why I went there.  Only went the once, can't remember why.  Ron someone?  The name will come to me.

9
Identify these bikes! / Re: Cast aluminium toolbox
« on: June 29, 2021, 07:45:07 AM »
Looking at it again, Leon, yes, of course.  The paint and the pin stripes are a remarkable illusion, hard to see through.
JFerg

10
Identify these bikes! / Re: Cast aluminium toolbox
« on: June 28, 2021, 03:58:00 AM »
Some more photos. It's quite distinctive, and could well be for an Endeavour.  Only snag is that every photo I've ever seen of an Endeavour shows the shaft driven right side rather than the boring left where the toolbox rests.

11
Identify these bikes! / Re: Cast aluminium toolbox
« on: June 27, 2021, 11:15:10 PM »
Thanks again, Leon.

It's clearly of the same family as the OW item, yet different.

The top photo is upside down.  The bottom section is scalloped to fit behind the frame member, and the lid opens at a joint line above that, leaving a tub that would collect water and old washers.  I'll post some clearer pictures later.

JFerg.

12
Identify these bikes! / Re: Cast aluminium toolbox
« on: June 26, 2021, 11:58:31 PM »
Thanks, leon.
I'll head down the Douglas rabbit hole.  No wish to sell it, it's a nice thing to look at and touch.
cheers,
JFerg

13
Identify these bikes! / Cast aluminium toolbox
« on: June 26, 2021, 05:40:24 AM »
Can anyone identify this beauty?  It's a cast aluminium toolbox, with a cast lid, obviously designed for a mid-late thirties rigid framed bike, but which one?

14
Identify these bikes! / Re: Barr and Stroud mystery bike
« on: May 23, 2021, 02:14:43 AM »
The two Maplestone V twins were definitely exported, with the payment having been received on 15th October 1924.  Given Maplestone's profile, we'd expect that had he done anything with them, or even canvassed a plan, it would have been reported in the Melbourne press.

The engines would have arrived in Melbourne early in 1925.  Mapletone's workshop at that stage was the ground floor of a three-storey building in LaTrobe street, the whole lot destroyed by fire in July.  There was a plater's shop above, and the report is that the whole of the machinery and stock was destroyed.  You'd assume those engines went with it, yet one turns up in Surrey Hills....

There's an explanation for the sales of B&S in WA.  Motorities, in Wolverhampton, offered the "DeLuxe" range, which was built from whatever they could gather up from liquidation sales of true manufacturers.  The father of AE Bradford, the principal,  had been to Perth at some stage, saw a market opportunity, and Motorities sought to exploit it.  Certainly they introduced the B&S engine to the WA Railways, and I suspect that the machines registered just as "B&S" were from Motorities.  Perhaps there was some issue with "DeLuxe" as a brand in this market.
JFerg

15
Identify these bikes! / Re: Barr and Stroud mystery bike
« on: May 04, 2021, 08:39:03 AM »
I have that Harry Beanham photo of the 350 GCS, too.  It's the only photo I have of a B&S engined bike in Oz, other than Ever Onward, of course.  And New Onward.

Two 350cc B&S came to Melbourne.  One went to Mairs, ironmongers who became the McEwan hardware empire, the other went with two 500's and a V twin 1,000cc to consignee unknown, but Stillwells must be a good chance.  Norm Maplestone bought two V twins, but there's no record of him building a bike out of them.  If he had done, it would have been reported.  A B&S V twin cycle car emerged in Surrey Hills (Melb) in 1928, then vanished, but that would have to be one of Maplestone's engines.  Norm McCubbin reportedly had a V twin B&S as a mantel-piece ornament, which one I don't know.  His wife finally protested, and it went to Moorabbin tip in 1965.  Despite extensive excavations by Warren, it's probably still there.

In Sydney, P&R Williams bought a 350 and a V twin 1,000cc, but there are no reports that I have found of a B&S Waratah....  A second Sydney shipment was a 500 and a V twin 1,000cc.  The 500 found it's way to Wilcannia, and thence Ever Onward.  No record of the twin.

A load of 350's went to Perth.  All the loose engines went to the WARailways.  Stotts in Fremantle moved a number of 350 B&S engined Coventry Bicycles machines, but they were imported as complete machines.  Registration records suggest at least a dozen were on the roads over there.  They were registered as "B&S", or "Coventry B&S".

All jigsaw pieces gratefully accepted......

JFerg

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