Another one done

At last, the enfield is MOT'd!

Naturally, it fought me all the way. Putting the engine in got pretty traumatic, you have to do it one specific way to avoid it all fouling round the centre stand/bottom plate. The frame flexes a bit with no engine too, so the holes took some persuading to line up.

I had one stroke of luck however-I found a nice solid bench on the scrap heap at work. I had to saw the legs down to fit in a hapless colleagues estate car, which bought it to the perfect height for shoving bikes on. Getting them on is a bit hairy, using a long plank and an assistant, but it was £250 cheaper than a proper bike lift.

You can see I got the primary drive, gearbox etc refitted by that point. It also sprouted front indicators, as I used various delays to find those rotten little jobs that delay an MOT.
The next puzzler was the head. New valves and guides meant it needed the seats recutting, and the seating faces for the head nuts looked like this:

The upper holes are for the cam tunnel bolts, which some clot has utterly destroyed. The early crusaders didn't have them, so I'm hoping this one will manage without too. The lower two holes are for the main head bolts, after hacking out some bits of old washer.

This work meant going to the workshop of Dave Hodgkinson, a well known name in local car and bike circles. Dave mostly does rebores, having done many thousand since the 60's. One of the loveliest and most interesting people I've met, and with a very nice honda 50...I look forward to having more work for him.
Anyway, after recutting the seats, milling those ugly holes flat and me grinding in the valves whilst sat in bed watching films, I had this:

Which, with some new valves, springs and collars, became this:

Next job was to check Valve clearances. The old piston showed signs of valve collision, so I wanted to be sure it wouldn't happen again. Before putting the piston rings on, I assembled the top end with plasticene as shown in the valve pockets:

With the head and the valvegear assembled, turning over the engine squashes the plasticene between valve and piston. Take the head off, carefully slice the plasticene with a knife and you can see the minimum clearance. Thankfully, it was well clear.
The rings were an utter pain in the arse. When I tried checking the gap in the bore before fitting, I found an overlap. The replacement set had the same problem, so in the end Hitchcocks sent me some genuine hepolite rings at Indian made cost. Much better!
Throw it together, splash of oil, kick until I realise the spark is timed 360 degrees out, and eventually...

It runs!

The last jobs were footrests, genny cover and tank/seat. In a pleasant turn of events Nigel (the owner) came over as I was finishing these off, so lent a hand. We had a few rides each up my yard, before it was MOT'd the next day.

And here it is! It's not quite over yet, the registration is in progress and it will need testing/setting up/running in. But its at least in one piece.
You might be expecting me to say "And the moral is, don't take on unknown projects for other people!", but I'm not. Despite the constant setbacks, cock ups, delays and unpleasant discoveries, it has been very rewarding to put it all right. The lovely old classic has emerged from the grotty old deathtrap, I've learnt a huge amount about a bike I couldn't really afford...well worth while.

Next up, my turn to spend money on my poor old 400/4...

Going back together!

First things first, that head repair worked a treat.
To Recap: I drilled it back to round with milling cutters, then tapped out to a convenient size.
So, next step was turn up the new ally bushy. I could have used steel, which would be less likely to strip the thread. However, heat expansion might work it loose, and without a proper mill it'll be a swine to file flat. The file will chew away the soft ally instead of the steel.
If this had been a straightforward thread strip, I'd have drilled and tapped the bush on the lathe. Then, you use a lock nut and bolt to screw it in. If you look back, you'll see this wasn't. Instead, I machined it up then did NOT part it off-I took it out attached to the billet, applied loctite and screwed it in.

This shows the dog end of billet being chopped off somewhere near. Note the scrap ally plate protecting the casting from the saw, if you hold the saw against it it's much easier than praying you don't damage the preciuous things.

Bush filed flat, 4 dot punches to really lock it then a final flatten over the whole head with a lump of old grinding wheel (please note, NOT an offhand grinder!)

Finally, I used the rocker assembly to mark out the new hole, and drilled/tapped

On saturday, Nigel the owner came round, and we had a day cleaning and fettling the crankcases and head. By fortunate coincidence, a big parcel from hitchcocks came too.
I originally intended photoing every part and stage, both as a guide for whichever lonely crusader-owning soul stumbles across it and to show any future owners it's done properly. Then I got carried away...

Here is my preferred case fettling routine:

Wash in jizer
File off any burrs, damage, or the raised area round stud holes
Run a tap down threads, helicoiling as needed
Ensure oilways are cleaned out, pipe cleaners are handy
Wash on the grass with a hose
Wash with washing up liquid in the bath, using a powerful hot shower to blast out nooks and crannies
Pop in the oven on low heat till dry

If you're fitting bearings, cases need a good half hour until water/spit will fizzle straight off. Make sure all seals/spacers are to hand, and have suitable drifts in case the need some help. Finally, always drive on the outer race or you'll knacker it. I know it's obvious to most folk, but we were all beginners once.

Crank sat in case ready to reassemble

New rod has the later, stronger big end allen bolts. Torque up to 22 lb/ft. Another beginners tip-torque up one a bit (say, 5lb/ft), then the other, then a bity more until you get there.

Two more hints: roller bearings are a twat to put together, you have to sort of jiggle it about to get it right. I also should have checked the stud lengths, they seem to have shrunk! I think they were only in a bit, whereas I've put them in as deep as they'll go. Personally I think that is better as more thread=stronger, so I'll knock up a couple of new ones as needed. Running a die down them revealed a few more BSF to BSW threads (see previous!), so they'll get binned as I reckon they must be a fair way toward snapping.

Finally, one bottom end:

The bog roll tubes stop the rod clattering about and getting damaged.
Tomorrow I might post about my 2 new honda 400/4 projects. Parts that fit just right and bolts available at screwfix? Joy!

Engine in bits

After a week off to prepare myself, I stripped the engine. Bit frustrating taking the gearbox and primary drive out again!
Almost immediately, it was proven worth while. I took off the internal oil lines...

Note the big lump of split pin about to go through the oil pump? I reckon it must have caught in a corner, it fell out as I took the pipe off.

It turns out that the engine holds the centre stand on the bike too, which wasn't too welcome when, 10 minutes before leaving for work, I was left holding the engine whilst sitting on the rolling chassis to stop it falling over. Eventually I extracted myself and left it looking like a slain animal.

Next day I split the cases. Here is the RH side, dripping in shitty silicone:

 And the gunge still in the cases. Remember, this bike was sold as having a newly rebuilt engine. Maybe Barry the Bastard Butcher was too poor to buy rags and jizer?

Here is the big end, showing where the split pins to lock the nut aren't. Nuts were hand tight too.

 Bit more rod damage, it's definately scrap.

Oil pump hole blocked with silicone

The above is a strange one, it shows the feed plunger on the oil pump. Look carefully and you'll see the metal round the eye has splintered off. If you own an oil pump with a similar bike fitted, you might want to check it.

Today, I turned to the cylinder head. I needed to knock the valve guides out to measure them, and take out the studs etc for inspection/cleaning. When I turned one stud, it went like this:

Once removed, I found a hole at a funny angle with the remains of a stud in it

Someone has obviously snapped a stud, tried drilling it out with a hand drill and made a right mess. This is easily done-as soon as the drill gets a sniff of the soft ally, it'll chew through that instead of horrible hard steel. He's then drilled it on the piss anyway, rammed a new stud in with lots of threadlock, then bent it to vertical. The top hole in the pic had a straightforward stripped thread too, so this end of the rocker gear was not far from escaping.
To sort the broken stud abortion, I used a dremel and dentist burr type bit to cut the stud remains in two down the axis. They then fell out. Next, using an ancient hand pillar drill, I carefully cleaned the hole out with end mills. First, I used one only just touching the sides to level off the bottom. Then, I went bigger until the hole became round.

End mills and slot drills (milling cutters) are great for righting wonky holes. The flat end is less likely to follow the previous efforts, and having 3 or 4 flutes makes it much stronger. You have to be very delicate though, and be careful-my hand cranked pillar drill is good. Ideally you want a milling machine, but if you clamp it down well a regular electric pillar drill should be OK. Like I say, be delicate.
Hole is now tapped to a convenient size, in this case 7/16ths Whitworth. You could use whatever came close, metric would be fine. Just don't remove more than you need to, and stick to a coarse thread for ally-Whit, UNCF or Metric standard are good. If, like here, the hole has some of the original thread remaining, make sure it is removed. The next step is to fit a plug of ally, so you don't want the recreated hole to break through the side. Finally, I'll use the rocker block and the three good holes to mark out where this hole should be...pictures to follow, if it works.

Last bit of enfield woes, for now

Took the head apart today. Mr Barry Atkinson of Pembroke has seen fit to assemble valve gear with silicone!

Exhaust

 Inlet:

Both guides and valves are worn enough to rattle, and its uncertain whether all the bits are the right ones-if you mix the wrong valves and collets with the alloy collars, it can fall apart.

...and some more horrors

Following from a comment on the last post...

Damage to a seating face, and a big lump of silicone blocking an oilway to the rocker pivot

Silicone in the sodding valve collets! Seriously! Actually, I have the previous butchers address on some invoices, maybe I should give him abuse? Prick! So, here's a rundown so far:

Ignition timing set to the full advance figure static
Knackered generator stator
Wrong top gear cog
Worn, brazed and badly filed gearbox selector pivot
Awful wiring
Leaky fuel tap
Stripped threads
M6 bolts in 1/4" BSF holes
Missing primary drive spacer
Wonky clutch
Cracked rear brake drum
Wrong thread nut graunched on to rear brake plate torque bolt
Cracked front brake plate
Wrong nut cross threaded to hold the front brake lever on the brake plate
Random bolts holding it all together
Wrong way round piston
Silicone everywhere
Damaged rod
Dirt and filth inside the engine and gearbox

More fun and joy

Still doing battle with the butchered enfield. I managed to track down a new front brake hub from a continental GT (It's got an air scoop! Cor!), and the wiring is pretty much done.

Since everything I've looked at has been a carnival of horrors, I decided I'd best check the only bit I've not touched, the engine top and bottom end. Good job I did too! Here is how the cylinder looked with the head just removed...

You're really not meant to use any silicon there, and certainly not that much. It seems to be a mix of parts too, the manual said there should be 2 extra head bolts either side of the pushrod tunnel. The holes are there in the head, but not the barrel.
I then spotted the state of the piston, and just this once I can't blame the anonymous cretin. Note where the valves have clobbered the crown, due to the clearances being the wrong way round. Note too how the marking for the front of this piston is in the middle. Genius!

Having said that, I'd have fitted it with the writing readable from the seat, if that makes sense. He hadn't, so still minus points there.
The conrod doesn't look great either, bit of damage here:

So, two questions: is the piston likely to be OK if I dress out the damage, or is it definately scrap? And same with the rod, does that look like enough to condemn it? I'll check the valves to see if they are bent. Problem is, I'm not sure if the cause of the damage was spotted and sorted by the previous rebuilder, or if it has been running like that.

And finally, Crich Tramway are having a classic bike and scooter weekend on the 18/19th May: http://www.tramway.co.uk/events/classic-motorbikes-scooters
I'm hoping to get all my bikes up there, and possibly this here enfield too.

Beware of the bodger...

Good job no-one reads this, I only seem to update it every time the Pope changes.
The enfield is still revealing some utter horrors. The rear brake drum had a massive crack, pretty much every stud/threaded hole has had the wrong thread graunched on, and now I find the front brake plate has a crack too. It has a milled slot that locates on a lug on the fork leg, and transfers the braking torque to the rest of the bike. The shoulder that does that is almost off, a combination of a sharp corner (should be a nice big radiius), and a sloppy fit meaning it hammers every application. Plus, it's been owned by at least one complete clusterf*ck of a human determined to kill future owners. Ho hum.
I also made a slight screw up. Remember me struggling to stop the clutch fouling? Whilst trying to sort it, I'd not attached the clutch operating lever thingy on the other side. Turns out this locates the mainshaft. Without it, every time I put the clutch on or took it off, the right hand mainshaft bearing slid to the right, taking the shaft with it...No damage done though, so a quick tap back and all is well. If you're mending an enfield gearbox, don't do this! Or any other Albion gearbox.

Anyway, I might be trying to fit an Indian bullet Twin leading shoe brake. If it works, I'll put details up so you can do it too, even if you don't own one.