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Topics - JFerg

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16
Identify these bikes! / What is this tank from?
« on: February 21, 2011, 10:13:10 PM »
I've had this for years, on the basis that it is the same pressing as used by New Imperial in the late twenties and therefore useful.  I presume that makes it as Birmingham product.  There is a separate oil tank with exit only, which means it was for a total loss lubrication system.  The gear quadrant "mounts" look like blanks, ie; appear never to have been tapped or have had studs on them, so however the gear change was arranged, it wasn't via a gate on the tank.  It looks like original paint, and the logo of the star and banner is quite distinctive.  There is no trace of lettering at all.  What's it from?

JFerg

17
British Bikes / Ever Onward
« on: February 10, 2011, 08:11:03 PM »
Further to Cardan's comment on another thread, a brief explanation of "Ever Onward".

Barr and Stroud made precision optical equipment in Glasgow, binoculars, rangefinders etc, and this business dried up in November 1918.  They cast around for something else to do, and took a license from Argyll Motors, a Glaswegian company building Glaswegian Peter Burt's single sleeve design into multi cylinder car engines.  B&S wanted to break into the proprietary motorcycle engine business of JAP, Sturmey Archer, Blackburne et al.  Their success was decidedly limited.

Ever Onward's engine was despatched complete with carb and magneto.  The original intention is unknown, and was certainly never realised, because the engine was still basically new when Warren obtained it in 1967.

Believing that the engine deserved to be more than a static exhibit, he built a vehicle for it.  It is a Norton frame with Douglas 'guards, but there are contributions from Cov. Eagle, Enfield, Levis, BSA, and sundry others unknown.  It is all early twenties and quite true in that respect.  Ever Onward is the result, emerging in 1968.  The "name" is a statement of fact, not a brand or slogan; it is "Ever Onward", not "the Ever Onward"

Purists are entitled to tut and disparage it as the bitzer that it certainly is.  Whether it is more or less of a bitzer than was produced by any and many of the small "makers" (or subsequent restorers) could be argued at length and does not matter.  To me, what matters is that one of the most technically interesting engines of the Vintage era is being seen and heard by a wide audience because the thing gets used as the various original makers intended.  Unusually for a flat tanker, it has decent brakes, so can and does get ridden in suburban traffic.

Sleeve valve technology has not had a lot of development when compared with poppet valves, but can by no means be dismissed as the work of crackpots.  Harry Ricardo was a great enthusiast, and to this day the most powerful spark ignition engines ever built, the Bristol Centaurus and Napier Lion aero engines, were single sleeve Burt engines.  Also, to this day we're still having trouble with poppet valves, despite the many millions of engineer-hours that have been applied to them over the last century.

JFerg

18
British Bikes / Flat tank BSA oiling
« on: February 05, 2011, 11:08:29 PM »
I have a hand pump and sight feed reputedly ex-BSA on my bike.

It is a total loss system, with a Best and Lloyd pump feeding to the sight glass.

Problem is that the bike is over-oiling quite badly, spraying liquid oil all over the back wheel, and dripping from the pipe.  The oil pump is set at "OFF" already, so can't be cracked back any further, and it's a known phenomenon that B&L pumps pump way too much.

There is a needle valve in the line to the sight glass, as part of the hand pump casting, but it seems not to do anything at all, no matter how tightly it is wound in.  The tapered needle itself is truncated, and does not come to any sort of point.

Question is, what should that needle look like?  Should it taper to a point?

thanks,
JFerg

19
British Bikes / E3L circuit question.
« on: February 03, 2011, 06:21:28 AM »
I have a miscreant E3L dynamo that won't charge.  Motors beautifully, and all obvious things are fine.

It's an early version, 3rd brush type with cutout, and has 3 terminals, marked "+", being +6V supply from the battery, "FD", being the field winding, and "WL", and I don't know what that stands for.  Can anyone enlighten me on that?

I've been through all of my reference stuff; from Radco's book through my (indexed) copies of Classic Bike, Classic Motorcycle, Classic Mechanics, to my original Lucas books, which include "Running Instructions for the Lucas 1930 Dynamo Lighting Sets", and can find nothing which actually shows three terminals on a dynamo.  I cannot find the wiring diagram I wired the bike to, however, and that's a pain.

The internal wiring resistances are so low (although they are not to frame) that I can't deduce anything with confidence.  What I have doesn't work anyway, so is of questionable value.

So can someone in the group tell me what the "WL" terminal does?

thanks,

JFerg

20
Autojumble / BTH Tail Light
« on: January 31, 2011, 06:23:15 AM »
Now I know that this is a tough call, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

I'm chasing a BTH tail light for my 1928 New Imp.  It is the only part missing.  The visible part of it is not unlike a Lucas MT 110, but is smaller in diameter, with a 1" bezel in the end.  Usually chrome plated.

Any body have anything like that lying surplus?

cheers,

JFerg

21
British Bikes / Lucas capacitor value
« on: October 21, 2010, 11:02:19 PM »
Lucas made a coil ignition system using a set of points on the extended shaft of an E3L generator.  These were used on a lot of thirties lightweights, Enfield, New Imp, Panther and others.

The condenser/capacitor is housed inside the bakelite end cover.  It's a paper-wound electolytic.

Does anyone know what value this capacitor is or should be?

Alternatively, what can I use as a replacement?

Thanks,

JFerg

22
Autojumble / 1929 Lucas H52 Headlight
« on: February 04, 2010, 05:34:43 AM »
I've had this thing for years, and it became surplus to requirements when I acquired the correct BTH.

This is the first variant H52, with the ammeter in the apex and a separate switch.  Quiet good nick considering the age of it.

Anyway, I've just posted it on eBay (Australia) if anyone is interested.

cheers,
JFerg

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