classic motorcycle forum

Well update on the nuts. I could not find the correct sized bar at any of the local steel merchants, so even looking at internet sellers gave no joy. The price of a tap to use once or twice was prohibitive so I just counted up the number I needed and added then to my Hiscocks order. Still not cheap but will be the right size and should fit with no dramas.

Thanks folks.  You have to love the vintage motorcycle community.  No matter how unusual the bike is or how strange the problem, somebody out there has ideas and tips they are willing to share.
I'm off pursuing some of these now.
Thanks.

If you want a really good picture of an original manifold, 'The Vintage Motorcyclists' Workshop" by Radco contains a full double page photo of his restoration of the same model. Pages 180 and 181 to be precise. Its a photo of the timing side so gives you a good view of the manifold.
Radco also wrote a fairly extensive article on restoring the engine for the Vintage Motor Cycle Club Journal. This would be back in the late 70's. early 80's as his book was published in 1986 and was mainly a compendium of all the restoration articles he had written for the Journal over the years.
He wasn't complimentary about the engine but I think anyone trying to beat Villiers at their own game back in the early 30's would have had a tough job. In the end Cov Eagle came back to the Villiers fold. They made a better and cheaper product.
All that aside I think looking at 3D printing is the way to go. I've made one batch of inlet manifolds. Made the patterns, got them cast and then machined the result. It is not as simple as it looks. Making a pattern the foundry was happy with was a learning curve in itself but the big pain was making a range of jigs and fixtures to hold the castings so I could machine them afterwards. Not as simple as it looks. I realised early on that making a batch was no harder nor dearer than making one so a batch it was. No one was interested in my efforts nor wished to help nor put money in until I appeared with the completed batch when desperate owners needing one just appeared out of the woodwork. All the extras went amazingly quickly.
It's 3D printing for me nowadays and that is more involved than you expect.
Have fun.

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Thanks 33d6. I suspect that unless you had one of these bikes you'd know nothing about it! Even if the bike was at a rally, I doubt anyone would notice the double rails under the tank. I'm certain the bike is Excelsior, so time to scrape off the glossy powdercoat on the top left of the head lug to look for an Excelsior-style frame number. It will be there.

There is a reason Excelsior had so many frame variations. In the later teens they were bought out by their long-term lug suppliers R. Walker and Son. As well as making and selling bikes, the company carried on making frame lugs and parts for other makers. These parts were often somewhat different from those used in Excelsiors, but are recognisable none-the-less. In the 269 Villiers era, there are a number of Australian bikes (Elliott, for example) that are almost indistinguishable from the 1919 Excelsior Villiers, even though the Excelsior design went off in other directions - wedge tank - at the same time.

It turns out that the gearbox lug used by big Excelsiors from 1921 is one of the more popular gearbox lugs for Australian bikes using the Sturmey Archer CS, and in Adelaide lots of bikes used so many RW&S parts that their parentage in Excelsior is quite obvious. It wouldn't surprise me if many of the parts we associate with AG Healing & Co in Melbourne in fact came - at least originally - from RW&S. I have a few adverts for R Walker & Son frame sets, but I'd dearly love some commercial catalogues!

Jealous about time spent in the State Library - fond memories of the reading room, and librarians bringing crusty volumes from the stacks... amazing place.

Leon