13. BSA A10 Blood Sweat & Gears part 2

Stripping all of the gears out of the A10 gearbox box was not too difficult, but I was aware that putting it back together may be a different story. So to be extra careful I took photographs as each piece was removed and laid the gears out in order on the bench and then photographed them as well. I then transferred the photos to my computer for safe keeping.

I was surprised how light and easy to handle the gearbox was once the gears had been removed. Time to polish. This coincided with the arrival of a new linishing/polishing wheel that I had ordered off the Internet. It looked a bit like a red Brillo pad in the shape of a buffing wheel and made of a nylon type material. I was very sceptical about this new wheel and whether it would work so I tried it on a scrap piece of aluminium first. To my surprise it was fantastic. It was a bit like rubbing the aluminium with a fine wet and dry emery paper and a gentle touch removed deep scratches leaving a smooth but dull surface ready for polishing.

I set about the gearbox housing with the new wheel. It was possible to remove not only deep scratches but also casting lines and flaws. I then changed to a normal polishing wheel to bring the box up to a bright finish. It was then onto the bench for the final polish of the tight little areas that you can only get to with a Dremel.

Just to digress for a minute, I was so impressed with the results from the new linishing wheel that I decided to try it on some pit marks that I had been unable to remove on the engine timing side cover. Big mistake!!!. As I started on the pit marks more appeared and the more I tried to remove them, the more I got until suddenly a hole appeared right through the casing. Disaster! It would appear that the casing was a bad casting and contained air bubbles in the aluminium. The timing cover was now scrap. So back on the Internet and the purchase of another one. More on that later. Back to the gearbox:

With the casing brightly polished now was the time to start reassembly. So out with the laptop and bring up the photos. As usual, nothing goes quite how you expect. All of the photos were corrupt and none of my programs could open them. (Which is why there are no fully stripped photos on this blog). Of course I had also removed them from the camera, so it was back to the service sheets and the manual.

You first fit the side selector plate which pivots on the inside of the housing, new stainless steel pivot and nut of course. You then fit the output shaft in place along with new bearing and oil seal, the output chain sprocket and the notched nut. Then the rest of the inner gears along with the selectors carefully fitting the selectors into the side selector plate at the same time. It would help if you could grow a third hand during this process as it is very fiddly, but eventually all the gears went in and working the selector plate with a screwdriver proved that all of the gears were working.


Before fitting the outer cover, it is important that the selector is positioned in neutral. Double check because you will never get it to work if you put the outer cover on when it is in gear. The gear selector plate has to mate with the toothed quadrant that sticks through the inner cover plate and this quadrant must be in the right place (angle) before you push the plate home. To help the manual says that there is a red dot on the quadrant that should line up with the dot on the inner cover. My red dot had all but disappeared but there was an indentation on both so I lined them up. Wrong!. I could only get three gears. I removed the cover realigned the remains of the red dot with the case indention and reassembled. Wrong! Only two gears. After that it was just a case of trial and error until eventually I found the correct position for the quadrant that allowed the selection of all four gears.

Then on with the outer cover with it's new kickstart parts and spring and bolt it all together with new stainless steel studs, nuts and screws.

The next blog: The final gearbox polish and fitting it into the frame.

 I would love to read your comments on this blog. If you would like to make some please click "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" at the bottom of this page. If you would like to be automatically informed when a new episode is posted then please tick the "Join this site" box at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading. Kevin

 Copyright K. Hopcroft  13.10.12 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

12. BSA A10 Blood Sweat & Gears

Time to strip the gearbox and see what secrets lie inside. Having removed the gearbox earlier, it has laid untouched since the original bike strip back in February. Now is the time to do an inspection.

I drained the oil and to my relief there was no metal particles in it and so the strip began. Removing the outer cover revealed the kick-start mechanism and the clutch actuating lever mechanism. Apart from the clutch lever itself, which needed cleaning and chroming, the rest of the clutch mechanism seemed in fairly good condition. Unfortunately, I couldn't say the same for the kick-start parts.

Both the quadrant kick-start gear and the ratchet gear that it mates with were both in pretty poor condition. I decided that, as this would hopefully be the only time I would strip the gearbox, to do it properly.

I got in touch with lightning spares and ordered a new quadrant and ratchet gear along with a new return spring, adjustment plunger housing and nut, side plate, bearings, oil seals and all gaskets.

I then set about polishing the outer cover and inner cover, with the hope that I could polish the main gearbox housing without having to remove all the inner gears.
Once the parts arrived, my idea was to rebuild the outer casing with the new parts, assemble the gearbox and then polish the whole thing. As usual this turned out to be impossible and so the next stage was a complete strip with all gears and gear-selector parts out on the bench.

But first I had to remove the main final drive sprocket. To do this you need a special spanner as the nut holding it on is round with just two side notches in it. I could not find a tool that fitted or find one for sale on the Internet. Having secured the sprocket in a vice by rapping the old chain around it and then clamping the chain in the vice, I tried knocking it around with a hammer and drift. No luck!. So I set about making a suitable spanner out of an old 27mm open-end spanner that I already had. Lots of sawing, filing and grinding later, the spanner fit and with a couple of sharpe knocks on the end with a lump hammer, the spanner did its job and the nut came loose.

More gearbox tales on the next blog

I would love to read your comments on this blog. If you would like to make some please click "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" at the bottom of this page. If you would like to be automatically informed when a new episode is posted then please tick the "Join this site" box at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading. Kevin

 Copyright K. Hopcroft  30.09.12 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

11. BSA A10 Unbreak My Head!!

More on the continuing saga of the creation of a BSA Rocket Gold Star Replica. I should mention that we are getting very close to the present day and the current point of progress with this project. With the engine fixed in the frame and the cylinder head in place, it's time to fit the rockers and cover.

As with other points in this rebuild it's time to make more mistakes. It's at times like this that I am aware of my lack of specific BSA A10 knowledge. Looking at the cylinder head, it looked as though of the four fixed studs in the rocker box, the two rear ones should be longer as I would never get nuts on them as they would be hidden inside the fins of the head. So I put longer stainless steel studs in the back two rocker box fixings. Wrong! If you do this, you can't get the rocker box on at all as it hits the frame before the studs go into the head. Still on the wrong track, I decided to remove the two long studs, drop them in the holes in the fins, fix the rocker box and then feed the remaining long studs back up into the rocker box from underneath. The box went on, using the correct BSA tool (comb) which holds the push rods in the correct position.

Here's the next big mistake. As I didn't have the head-steady bracket yet, I decided to bolt the rocker box down and then remove the four long bolts, that pass through the rocker box into the head, again once I had the bracket. Wrong, wrong, wrong!!!. These long bolts are exactly the right length and, if the head-steady bracket is not in place, then the bolts bottom in the threaded holes in the aluminium cylinder head and when you tighten them you crack your cylinder head. What is worse, you cannot see the damage until you take the rocker box off again.

Whilst going through the original nuts and bolts off the cylinder head, I discovered two special nuts with deep collars, still on two short rocker box studs. All was revealed. All four rocker box studs should be the same length and these two special nuts fit up into the fins at the back of the head to reach the short studs. Unaware of the damage awaiting discovery, I decided to remove the rocker box again and fit the correct studs. O.M.G. With the rocker box removed the damage was immediately apparent . Two of the rocker box threaded bushes in the head were broken away from the head. I can only describe the feeling as how a football fanatic would feel having followed his favourite team to the cup final and then seeing them lose. Total devastation.

I removed the head and inspected the damage. Fortunately no cracks had gone through to the combustion chamber or the inlet or exhaust ports. I took the head to a friend who is a wizard with a welding plant. After long discussions he rigged up a pipe to feed gas between the fins of the head while he welded the head with an extended mig (or is it tig?) welding rod. It took him a whole morning but in the end it was welded, but not very pretty. Several hours of my time followed as I reworked the head with a Dremel until the welds blended into the head and virtually disappeared.

All that was left was to bolt the head back on again, with another new head gasket and refit the rocker box, with spacers on the long bolts, to stop them bottoming again. I should say that even with the right comb tool, fitting the push rods into the rockers is not easy and takes considerable time and patience. But it is all back together, bolted down and when I turned over the engine, the rockers opened and closed the valves beautifully.


I would love to read your comments on this blog. If you would like to make some please click "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" at the bottom of this page. If you would like to be automatically informed when a new episode is posted then please tick the "Join this site" box at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading. Kevin

Copyright K. Hopcroft  08.09.12 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

10. BSA A10 Headline News

Time for some more A10 engine rebuilding including the cylinder head, oil pump and magneto.

It was time to rebuild the cylinder head. Upon inspection the valves and their seats appeared in very good condition and it was becoming obvious that this Super Rocket had had some attention to the top end more recently in its history. There was a marked difference between the top of the engine and anything that was inside the crankcase. So it was just a case of lapping the valves into their seats and, using a valve spring compressor, refitting the double valve springs, collets and caps.

That done, The head could now be offered up to the top of the cylinder block with a new head gasket and 9 new cylinder head bolts. The head tightened down beautifully using a criss-cross order for tightening the bolts to the correct torque. By the way neither the Haynes manual or the BSA service sheets tell you the correct torque setting for the head bolts. But a visit to the SRM web site lists them as 32 ft lbs.

It seems to happen over and over again, when building a classic bike, that just when you think you've made real progress something goes wrong. It happened this time, when I decided to drop the four push rods into place. The idea was to just rotate the crankshaft and feel them going up and down. The two inlet rods moved up and down beautifully, but the two inner (and longer) exhaust rods moved up and then stuck and it needed a tap with a soft faced hammer to make the cam followers drop back down onto the camshaft. There was no choice, the head and the barrel had got to come off again.

After stripping the head off and getting the cylinder block back on the bench it was revealed that the peg that fits between the two exhaust cam followers was not quite seated properly and had trapped the followers slightly twisted in their guides. I took much more care this time to ensure that the cam followers moved easily before clamping the peg in place with the small ball bearing and grub screw. Then it was out with the piston ring clamps again and rebuild the engine again. In with the push rods and this time they moved easily.

Time to set up the valve timing. This is quite easy. The cog on the crank shaft has a small dot punched on one of its teeth. The gear on the end of the camshaft has a line punched on the side of one tooth. The gear in the centre that meshes with the two has both a dot and a line punched on it. It's just a case of lining up the two dots and two lines and the valve timing is done! Easy!!

Time to look at the oil pump. It has been my intention that to make this bike look like a Rocket Gold Star, it must have both a speedo and a tachometer. Upon inspection I found that, whilst my Super Rocket had never had a tacho fitted, the casing did have the tacho drive mounting point. Lucky! Most A10 engines don't have them. The tacho drive is taken off the end of the oil pump shaft where there should be two small tongues that mate with the drive pin. My oil pump shaft had one tongue broken off. After a fair bit of searching around, I found a new oil pump shaft at SRM engineering. It fitted, but I then discovered that I should have fitted the oil pump before fitting the worm gear on the end of the crankshaft. Reluctant to disassemble the crankshaft gearing again, I decided to remove two of the oil pump fixing studs and rotate the pump up on the remaining stud until it meshed with the worm gear and then replace the studs. That worked.

According to the BSA service sheets, the magneto should be fitted next. After spending some time on the buffing wheel, the magneto cleaned up beautifully and fitted to the engine with nice new stainless steel nuts and the special long nut, that fits under it.Don't make the mistake of using an ordinary nut under the magneto. You might get it on while the bike is stripped down, but you will never get at it again once the bike is rebuilt. Magneto in place, things are really begining to look good!

 I would love to read your comments on this blog. If you would like to make some please click "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" at the bottom of this page. If you would like to be automatically informed when a new episode is posted then please tick the "Join this site" box at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading. Kevin


 Copyright K. Hopcroft 19.08.12 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

9. BSA A10 Begin the Big End

It's time to start rebuilding the BSA A10 engine!. Having spent hours and hours on the buffing wheel, on the two crankcase halves and having obtained all new bearings, cam shaft, cam followers and oil seals, I started by assembling the crankshaft. The new big end bearings that had arrived were too small and turned out to be for the "small journal" type crankshaft. I returned them and received the correct ones and they fit the re-ground crank perfectly. The big end nuts were the next problem. The ones that I removed were the "self locking" type, but were so short that they lost half of their height into the recess on the con-rods, making them impossible to get a socket on them. I bought new nuts which had raised collars on them which lifted the hexagon high enough to torque them up properly. I then centre punched the threads above the nuts to prevent them coming loose.

I then pressed the new timing side bearing into the crankcase by heating the case and freezing the bearing and then pressing them together. Once fitted the bearing had pinched a little and it needed a final hone before the crankshaft would turn in it easily.

This done, the crankshaft was offered into the crank case and the second half of the crankcase was fitted. It was then possible to measure the crankshaft end float with a dial gauge. It turned out that the replacement crankshaft had less end float than the original and so needed one less of the shims fitting than the original.

The case could now be split again and the cam shaft fitted and then the two halves were given a liberal coating of blue sealant and then clamped together. The engine would now fit in the engine stand that I had bought, so that I could work on it in an upright position. The original pistons were re-fitted (which were in excellent condition) and then the barrel was next. Or so I thought. Sliding a barrel over one piston while squeezing the rings in carefully is difficult. Doing it with two barrels at the same time is impossible. So I decided to make some ring compressors. Two strips of thin aluminium wide enough to cover all three rings were bent around the pistons leaving two right-angle tabs where they came together. These tabs were drilled and fitted with nuts and bolts to do the squeezing. I slipped them over the pistons and tightened the bolts just enough to squeeze the rings without gripping them tightly and then rested the barrels on top of the clamps and pressed down gently. It worked a treat and the barrels slipped over the rings and into place. I was basking in my success when I realised that I had not fitted the cam followers inside the barrels before fitting it and so had to take them off again and the repeat the procedure.

Now with the crankcase together and the pistons and barrels in place, the engine was getting quite heavy and I felt that this was a good point at which to offer it into the frame. But how to do it without scratching my new, and still quite soft, paintwork. I came up with a plan!.

Having fitted the new chromed front engine mountings, I placed a piece of thick felt on the bottom  frame tubes and a piece of plywood on top of that. I then rested the engine on the plywood and tilted it until the top front engine mounting bolt lined up with the frame. In it went and I now had a pivot. I could lift the back of the engine, pivoted on the bolt and remove the wood and felt and then lower it until the second front mounting bolt went into place. It was in!!


I then added one of the newly chromed rear engine mountings on the left side and the Super Rocket engine was secure.

I would love to read your comments on this blog. If you would like to make some please click "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" at the bottom of this page. If you would like to be automatically informed when a new episode is posted then please tick the "Join this site" box at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading. Kevin


 Copyright K. Hopcroft 18.08.12 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

8. BSA A10 Mud Glorious Mud (guards)

Let's just give a proper mention to my main parts supplier for the BSA A10 Rocket Gold Star replica that I am building. If you are attempting a BSA rebuild I cannot praise high enough this company. Take a look at their web site:  http://www.lightning-spares.co.uk of 170 Cross Street, Sale, Cheshire M33 7AQ. The owner Brian Pollitt is the most knowledgeable and helpful person that I have met when it comes to BSA's and if you are buying your parts from him, he is more than willing to offer advice and technical know how. I have found him so helpful, that I decided to buy all my parts from him (even if they are not the cheapest) in return for the invaluable help that he has given.

Having got the A10 sitting on its own wheels, I decided that it was time to take a look at the mudguards. Having decided not to put the original heavy black super Rocket mudguards back on, I bought a pair of lightweight stainless steel mudguards. The front one looked the easiest to attempt first so having bought a set a chrome stays (no stainless ones available), I offered the front mudguard in place. Unlike the original mudguards, these can be fitted with the wheel in place. The mudguard slid between the forks easily and the two back stays fitted no problem. However the centre and front stays were a different matter. A Gold Star has two lugs, front and back of the bottom of the fork to fasten the front and back stays to. My Super Rocket only has a back lug. Also the Gold Star has a plate sticking off the back of the forks, half way up, with two studs on it, to fasten the centre stay to. My Super Rocket doesn't. Instead it has two studs on the inside of the fork leg itself.

After some time designing and making cardboard templates I decided to make some thick aluminium mounting brackets to replace the missing ones. Because I could see exactly where the front lug needed to be (opposite the back one), I decided to make the front lugs first. Taking some 3mm aluminium plate, I scribed out an "L" shaped bracket and guillotined it into shape. I then bent right angles (one left and one right) into it to form the lug and drilled two mounting holes in it to fit the two bolts holding the axle end cap in place. I bolted the plate in place and then fitted the front stay and tilted it toward the new plate until it was in the right position so that I could mark through it onto the bracket for the lug fixing hole. Once this was done The bracket was removed again and polished before final fixing. Once finally fixed in place, it was obvious that I had made the lug a little too long (see picture) and so I removed it again and shortened it so that the two stay fixing bolts were the same distance from the forks.

I mistakenly thought that my design for the two centre plates would be much easier. After all it was just a flat plate. But my original plan of making a flat square plate with four holes in it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought. The plate needs to have its horizontal edges parallel to the floor to make it look right and the forks are at an angle. Which makes the holes at an angle. I made 5 cardboard templates and two thin aluminium ones before it fit. I then made the proper 3mm ones and bolted them in place. The stays fit perfectly but the plate looked horrible. So, using the first plate as a template I made two more this time with sloping sides to match the angle of the forks. Polished ad fitted, they now look great and the front mudguard is firmly held in place.

Now for the back mudguard. No fixing lugs on the mudguard itself. So support brackets had to be ordered so that I could see where the mudguard is supposed to fit. And it didn't! After have a long conversation with the oracle at Lighting Spares, it turns out that you have to cut the mudguard to length at the front to make it fit the frame. Having offered the mounting brackets into place, it was obvious that they did not fit the mudguard properly or the front of the two mounting points near the top of the rear shock absorbers (on the hockey sticks). So I decided to have custom stainless brackets made (aluminium would not be strong enough). and that is where I am at the moment. At this date the custom brackets have not arrived yet and so the rear mudguard is still awaiting fitting.

On the next blog, the engine rebuild begins.

I would love to read your comments on this blog. If you would like to make some please click "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" at the bottom of this page. If you would like to be automatically informed when a new episode is posted then please tick the "Join this site" box at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading. Kevin


 Copyright K. Hopcroft 10.08.12 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

7. BSA A10 Wheel Meet Again

Leading up to this point, I had sent several parts up to my favourite chroming company, "Quality Chrome" in Hull, and after 6 weeks they had finally come back beautiful. These included the engine mountings and the front fork shrouds and also the rear sprocket

Earlier in this BSA A10 saga I had mentioned the rebuilding of the wheels, however there were a couple of things that I forgot to include. During the rebuilding of the hubs, all new bearings were fitted along with new oil seals and the hubs were cleaned and packed with fresh grease.

Fitting the new front left side hub cap turned out to be more of a challenge. The old hub cap was beyond rescue, as it was hand painted, rusty and dented. I found a new replacement (British Made) chrome plated hub cap on eBay and was very pleased with the quality when it arrived. However fitting it was a different matter. It should press over the left side of the hub and on the inside of the outer edge are three small pips that need forcing over the outer rim of the hub to hold it in place. No matter how I tried I could not press this hub cap on. I even turned a wooden mandrel to press down on the centre and the edge at the same time, but pressing on it just made the dome of the hub cap flex. I tried some gentle knocks on the mandrel with a lump hammer, but it just sprang back each time and I was becoming afraid that I was going to damage the new hub cap. What I needed was continuous pressure on the centre and around the edge at the same time. I needed a press.

So I took the wheel and hub cap back to my friend who has a hydraulic press, but the wheel (now assembled) was too large to fit in it between its two side pillars. True to form, he came up with an idea. He also had a large milling machine in his workshop. By placing the wheel on the bed of the machine and using the milling head vertical adjustment as a press we managed to slowly push the cap into place until the three pips went over the hub rim with a resounding "click". Beautiful, the hub was on and no damage.

Fitting the front wheel to the frame came next. I had noticed , when stripping the A10, that the bolts holding the front axle cups in place were of different lengths and spanner sizes. Upon inspection it was found that two of the threads in the front forks were damaged and shorter metric bolts had been forced in. I needed to tap out the threads in the forks and replace the bolts with the correct stainless new ones. Finding a tap to fit was a different problem. It turned out to be a British Cycle Thread 26 tpi and guess who had one? The man with the press and the milling machine. Once tapped out the wheel was offered into place and the brake plate located onto its lug to stop it turning when you brake. The two, newly painted, cups were then clamped on with the new bolts and " hey presto" the bike was fitted with its front wheel.


The back wheel next. The back wheel set up is actually in two parts, First you must fit the rear axle tensioner adjusters into the ends of the swinging arms. These are used to hold the axle at the correct distance to keep the chain at the right tension and stop the chain pulling the back wheel into the frame. Then the left side of the hub can be bolted to the left swinging arm complete with new bearings and seals and the newly chromed rear sprocket. The wheel is then offered in place between the swinging arms and finally the right side of the axle passes through the right swing arm and the wheel and screws into the left stub axle . This is actually quite clever as it allows you to remove the rear wheel without removing the chain.

At last, my Rocket Gold Star replica was standing on its own wheels!

I would love to read your comments on this blog. If you would like to make some please click "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" at the bottom of this page. If you would like to be automatically informed when a new episode is posted then please tick the "Join this site" box at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading. Kevin

 Copyright K. Hopcroft 03.08.12 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