21. BSA A10 Ain't that a kick in the head!

Today should be the day that my1961  BSA A10 Super Rocket comes to life. All I have to do is fit the carburetor, the fuel tank and the fuel pipes and the engine should run!

I stripped the carburetor and polished the casing then blew out all of the airways  with compressed air, fitted all new jets and gaskets and reassembled it. 


I then fitted it onto the inlet manifold with a new stainless steel drip plate and  a nice new long bell mouth.

The fuel tank dropped on and secured in place with the central nut and rubber bung cover and the securing strap underneath and on went the new braided stainless steel fuel pipes.

With fuel in the tank it is time for the first kick. I kicked - nothing!, I kicked again - nothing! I kicked and kicked and kicked but apart from a very occasional backfire, it showed no signs of life at all. What a huge disappointment.

I took out the plugs and fitted new plugs and new HT leads, I checked the spark and there was one, if a little weak. I checked the fuel was getting through. My thought was that I must have got the timing wrong, although I was very careful when I set it. So I stripped the timing side down again and re-timed the ignition. Reassemble the engine and tried again. NOTHING.

There only one thing for it, I needed an expert. I have learnt over the years that the secret of good D.I.Y. was to know when to stop and I had reached that point. After scouring the Internet there seemed to be only one good choice. A company called SRM Engineering in Aberystwyth, Wales. I spoke to them over the phone and they were very helpful, so I arranged to take the bike the 170 miles and have it with them first thing in the morning so that they could have a full day on it.

So I left home at 05:00am and got the bike to them by the time they opened. I then had to occupy myself in Aberystwyth for the day (Not easy). However at 400pm I got a call to say that it was running, and rushed back to see for my self. Sure enough it was running and sounded great. So what was the problem? If you remember earlier in my blog, when I was stripping the bike, I had a problem removing the magneto and eventually I knocked it out and it hit the floor. Well it is possible that this was the cause because the problem was a bent armature in the magneto. So slight that with the plugs out, you got a spark. But with them in the magneto could not work as the armature was just touching the windings. I am not certain that the drop I gave it caused this, as the reason I stripped it in the first place was because I could never get it to run correctly. But anyway it now runs.

Geoff, the mechanic, said "Oh by the way, you've got a bit of an oil leak"   I thought "never mind I can fix that when I get back". So back home I went another 170 miles but feeling good.

Back in the workshop, I proceeded to do the wiring on the bike with a new loom and fit the speedo and tacho. It was obvious when I started the bike that it wasn't charging and the tacho wasn't working.

I took the tacho and speedo to a local expert called Russel Smalley, who took one look at the tacho and said "what bike have you got?" I told him "A10 Super Rocket". "and where are you driving it from?" I said "The oil pump drive". He said "It will never work!" It turns out the the tacho I bought was off a BSA 500 Gold Star. That engine turns the tacho clockwise. The A10 turns the tacho anti-clockwise. He proved it by putting it on a machine and turning it the right way and sure enough it worked. I asked could he do anything with it and he informed me that he could machine the mechanism and add another gear to make it turn in the right direction. Great.

Now the speedo. "What bike is this off?" he said. Again I answered "my A10, I took that one off the bike my self". "No it isn't, it's off a Triumph".  OMG again he proved it by showing me that the gearing was wrong for the BSA and that it did not show the correct speed. Someone must have swapped it at some point in the bikes 50 year life. He told me that he would have to fit a complete new mechanism and I said OK and left them both with him. A week later I had them back and they looked brand new and worked perfect.

 Back to the electrics. The problem turned out to be the old regulator, so I bought a new electronic one and hid it inside the old mechanical regulator housing, inside the tool box. Hey presto! it now charges.


With the electrics working and the clocks, time for my first ride up and down the car park outside my factory unit.

WOW! it is fast and sounds magnificent. But just when I was feeling really good, I looked at the ground and saw a huge oil trail following my path up and down the car park.

Close inspection showed that all of the oil in the oil tank had gone in four short trips.

More on this in the next blog


"Under Pressure"

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 Copyright K. Hopcroft  11.05.13 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My Other Blogs:

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

1971 VW Karman Ghia Convertible Car:
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html