Small part deliveries (part 1)

The last post was a bit wordy and not very popular (I do occasionally look at the reader numbers for this thing!) so this one is going to be pics with a few words to balance things up. Whilst the ignition saga has been going on I've had searches set up for various parts, but also been checking every site I've looked at for ignition parts to see if they have anything else I need and I've come up trumps

First up, the oil can that sits behind the engine. I never thought I'd find one of these and I think this might be from a Peugeot and a little bit smaller but it's going to look better than the blank space I had before

Safi SSY Ignition; the bane of my life

I really should have learnt by now with this bike not to make statements like:

" I'm really hopeful for an update this side of Christmas"

As that was clearly never going to happen. To cut a long story short, staff changes at RCK have meant that the custom made electronic ignition idea was shelved and an attempt was made to get the old points ignition working on the basis that it's simple and should be fairly reliable and easy to deal with. At this point, the ignition coil was believed to be dead (more on this later) so a separate coil was set up running from a battery, the points were adjusted and the bike was rolled outside to try to start it. Unfortunately I wasn't there when this all happened but I'm told the bike did start, but stopped after a few seconds. A minor victory that at least proves the engine can run

Problems, problems, problems

It's been a long time since I wrote a post (just looked and it's another case of over a year!) for various reasons, but the main one is not a lot has happened with the bike, particularly with regard to getting it running. The last post had a failed attempt to get the bike running with a 'new' carb, after that failed I gave in and took the bike to RCK Motorcycles in Sheffield after a recommendation from a friend.

This was way back in October 2016 and the 'deadline' was set for Eroica 2017 to have the bike running. For various reasons this didn't happen* and the bike is still with them but so far they have:

• obtained parts to rebuild the 'new' carb and adjusted it
• cleaned and tested the original ignition components
• set everything up and attempted to start it which gave good compression, a good ignition but also sent the spark plug into the bottom of the tank. Luckily there was no damage
• Helicoiled the head
• Designed, built and bench tested an electronic ignition system to hide behind the flywheel

We're getting much closer now and the plan is for me to make a small collar to hold the magnets for the ignition then we should be good to go. I'm just waiting for a sketch then I'll be on the lathe

*This post is in no way a complaint about RCK, the delays were not their fault and could not have been foreseen and I am continuing to use them for work on this bike and my Pan European

Over a year without a post.....

I'm amazed it's been over a year since my last post but I guess life got in the way. I have been doing little bits and pieces on the bike and today I ticked a few more off so this post is meant as a catch up and progress report. I'll be totally honest and admit that I can't remember exactly when I did what so some of this will probably be out of sequence, you may be able to spot it in the photos

The last post had the bike back together on it's wheels again although the chain wasn't back on and it still wasn't running. The main issue with that has been the carburetor as I didn't know what it was so didn't know where to start with setting it up. I recently purchased a couple of books and some original sales info that have really helped, I'll do a post on all the literature I have to go with the bike at some point. One is a general Villiers engine manual, it covers several models of engine but explains full disassembly, reassembly and adjustment in much more detail than the user manual I already had. The other one is the original French manual for the bike which gives a full spec of the engine (since it's a Villiers made under license in France it has some subtle differences). This one has been the key to making some small steps towards getting it running as I now know the timing and points gaps are different for my engine than a British made 10D. These are now set correctly although I didn't take any pictures of the setup which involved a dial indicator to measure TDC and then position the piston 6mm before TDC then boting the flywheel on whilst aligning the timing marks. Finally everything was checked by sneaking up on 6mm BTDC and trying to squeeze a 2 thou feeler gauge into the points to check they were opening at the right point. In theory this is all correct now.

So that should be the spark covered, which leaves the other important part of combustion, the fuel. The carb that came with the bike (below) isn't what Villiers would have spec'd (their own 3/4 single lever) but it also isn't what Automoto would have spec'd (a Gurtner M20) and the only markings I can find (Aluvac?) haven't helped in identifying it.

 As luck would have it, this week a Villiers carb popped up on eBay which I won for 99p plus a fiver postage. I *think* it's the correct one and I was fairly sure there were some bits missing but it was worth a try. That arrived today and I was right, the main return spring is missing along with a couple of other bits but I still tried it on the bike after a quick strip and clean and, unsurprisingly, it didn't work. I'll keep hunting....

Back rubber side down (for now)

After finally getting the suspension bushes sorted I got them refitted and I think they look pretty good (ok this photo only shows one fitted but you'll have to trust that I fitted both, or scroll down)

Before I could get the wheel back in, I needed to refit the mudguard but before I could do that I needed to address the cracks in the guard at one of the rack mounting points. I didn't want to mess with the paint, so I decided to drill the ends of the cracks with a 1.5mm drill to stop them spreading and then a template was made for a piece of stainless. 

Rear suspension top out bushes

As I have mentioned before, the rear suspension top out bushes have been causing quite a lot of pain. Obviously there are no spares available for this bike and sourcing something appropriate was proving quite difficult. The bushes are made of rubber and are 50mm OD, 32mm ID and 25mm tall (some of you may recognise those numbers as metric conversions of 2", 1 1/4" and 1"). I managed to find some large bushes that are 50mm OD, 23mm ID and 50mm tall. Plenty of material for me to make mistakes and I also had to order 5 so I've got plenty to make replacements in the future. 

Here's one compared to the better of the originals

Rear mudguard repair

The back section of the rear mudguard hinges open to allow you to remove the rear wheel, well that's what's meant to happen but the hinge was basically non existent when I got the bike. The rear section is a different colour so I'd always thought it wasn't original to the bike (although I had assumed it was the correct one) but on closer inspection the profile is completely different (look at the beading in these two pictures - top one is the main guard, bottom one is the removable section) and the 'new' bit is also a lot rustier on the inside. I don't think I'll find the correct one that easily so I'll work with what I've got.