Having removed the saddle and petrol tank from the Super Rocket, the first few signs of bodging started to appear. Old inner tube being used as a tank buffer. Wiring mixed between original and none standard and of course the usual signs of frame and component rust. Many of the nuts and bolts used were found to be of various types and threads including some metric threads, which must have been added much later in the bike's life.
I also had a minor disaster when trying to remove the magneto. Having already paid for a magneto overhaul, thinking that this was the reason that I could never get the bike running properly, I removed the timing cover and the fibre timing gear nut and then released the magneto fixing bolts. The theory was that I should then be able to pull the magneto out from the left side of the bike. But no, it's centre shaft was firmly stuck in the timing gear. As it was a fibre gear, I was reluctant to try using a puller on the gear for fear of damaging it. So I made the decision to try hitting the centre shaft with a soft hammer. One firm strike should do it I thought. Having already removed the ring and cover, exposing the points etc. I struck the shaft! The magneto parted from the timing gear and shot off the bike completely hitting the floor 1m below and damaging the magneto outer casing. The end of the casing was now oval, instead of round, and the advance and retard ring inside would no longer turn. I then spent the next four hours trying to return the magneto to a usable condition. Although it seems to work now, I won't know until I come to trying to use it which is still some months away.
The next disaster on the A10, although not of my making, came when I uncovered the final drive side of the engine. I noticed that the notched nut, holding the cush-drive in place was badly damaged on its notches. This should have rung warning bells as this meant that whoever had tightened it did not have the right tool and must have used a hammer and drift to tighten it. It became apparent, when the cush drive was removed that they had not tightened it enough and the cush drive had been left loose on the crankshaft splines. The result of this can be seen in the next picture. The splines had virtually worn through leaving only half a millimetre of metal left to provide the drive for the bike. This meant searching around for a replacement crankshaft. I managed to buy one but it needed a big end regrind, the threads repairing and the timing side journal regrinding. Once reground the available bushes for the timing side main journal were all too large and a special extra thick bush had to be made to fit the new journal size. 30thou undersized shells then had to be found for the new big end journals. While the crankshaft was out, this was also a good opportunity to take a look at and clean the sludge trap in the crankshaft. I carefully read on the Internet various methods for removing the sludge trap plugs and then attempted it myself. Take my word for it, nothing works! You just need to keep trying with a combination of drilling, chiseling, sawing, punching and swearing until finally they give in and all of this has to be done without damaging the threads in the crankshaft. However I would recommend doing this as, when I finally got into the sludge trap, it was completely full of age old dirt and grit and oil would have been lucky to find its way to the big ends.
More disasters followed as I discovered that the camshaft and cam followers were also badly worn and beyond use.
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Copyright K. Hopcroft 22.07.12 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
