Ebay Albion

Albert here - It may be Christmas but what the **** ! I've been down 'The Old Sidevalve Bar' anyway !

At the moment I've a few 'balls' in the air, I'm waiting for my order of Silver Solder to arrive. I only ordered it a couple of days before the Christmas break so I'm assuming it will be despatched after the holi's. The solder is for fixing the joints on the Brass Intake Manifold. The 2 flanges are rough cut, and the tubing between is also cut to size.

Also on order are a quantity of Nickel Plating Salts. I've already purchased 3 Nickel Anodes. Watch this space...........anything could happen......even a huge explosion !!!!!! If I master the necessary plating skills then I shall dip the flywheel thus adding even more vintageblingness to our trusty 'Briggs and Stratton'

A wallet bursting £32 was bid on ebay for an Albion Gearbox. Type EJ2. At the moment the original application of this type of box is still a mystery to me. It isn't as big as I expected, but it was complete with clutch and change lever so what ho ! It will do !

Plenty of rust around the sprocket clutch area, but the bolts and nuts are in perfect order so hopefully it's had a peaceful life (up till now.)

I couldn't help but remove the side cover, the red hermite indicating previous owner interference. It was at that point I noticed the indent/selector plunger was badly chipped. Drat !

(see second pic...sorry about quality....)

So what's better than spending Boxing Day facing the plunger up with a grindstone. The pictures don't do the job justice. I'm pretty pleased with the result. It has ended up a couple of mm shorter but I can pack with a spacer if needed. It's at this point I decided to strip the whole box for a thorough clean and health check.

At the moment the components are soaking in De-greaser, no other life threatening wear found.

So that's all the news for this week, Time to celebrate with a turkey sandwich and a glass of cider.

Onward.....

It's a cold Albert here - Yes it's cold and wet here in Blighty, condensation is dropping from the roof of 'The Old Sidevalve Bar' so not what one would call ideal conditions for creating a masterpiece. (In fact thats why I'm sat here in the warm, I've abandonded play for today and waiting the kettle to boil)

But what ya done this week Alb..? Well...

First off - I've got the flywheel back from 'Govi Engineering' (again) I mentioned previous of the need to rework the centre boss. Thats now done and just needs a final polishing before coating. What's the verdict on the skimming ? Does it now look like an old Moto Guzzi Falcone or 1920's Speedway Douglas flywheel ? Hope so ! Top marks to 'Kev the Lathe' for all his efforts.

Secondly - A rummage in the cellars at 'Crackleport Towers' turned up some 28mm brass tubing and some brass plate offcuts that will do nicely for an inlet manifold. I've marked out the cutting requirements but, I'll turn the centre to accept the pipe on the lathe first. Hopefully starting that tomorrow.

Thirdly - Last but not least 'The Picklington Motorsickle Co' have made a purchase. Yes we spotted on ebay what appears to be original vintage L.A. exhaust mega'. Be amazed at our bid price....99p. I still can't believe it ! AN ORIGINAL L.A. for 99p !!!!!! Splut has requested he be there for the ceremonial unwrapping (any excuse for a pickle evening) so this much under estimated tuning mod will have to wait a little longer before seeing the light.

Right..I'm off......mi cuppa's ready and I've a couple of biccies to dunk too !

Japan meets Italy

Albert here.....Despite the snow that seems to have ground Blighty to a standstill over the last couple of days things have been moving apace on the Picklington Precision project. It was many moons ago that I told of finding the old SWM headstock and the Yamaha YDS7 front end. In fact I think it was one of the first entries on this blog. It's taken until now to join the 2 together.

It turned out more of a task than first envisaged. No bearings were available to match the external and internal sizes that these unlikely bits of old motorbike needed to become 1..

So once again the services of 'Govi Engineering' were required....

A local bearing supplier also turned up trumps with 2 taper roller bearings with 43mm external and 25mm internal. These matched the headstock perfectly but work was required on the fork stem.

Digging deep into the old crackleport pocket produced enough pennies to purchase said bearings in a cash deal.....thus avoiding the dreaded V.A.T....(hahahahha) That's 'cause I know the guys at the bearing company also....Contacts you see, how does one get by without mates....

'Kev the Lathe' suggested taking the old stem out of the bottom cast fork holder and turning a new one to match our 25mm bearings. Hum..! What a piece of Yamatastical production. No amount of heat would loosen the stem, despite it looking like a seperate shaft. Only answer was to clamp in the 4-jaw and turn it off with a cutting tool. The top 60mm of the stem needed to be salvaged to attach to the new stem due to the special threads and top clamping boss.

As you can see from the pictures, old top welded to new bottom and then inserted into casting, welded then from underside and all turned true.....

Once again...problems overcome....and all for the price of a couple of beers and a jar of Crackleports famous pickled onions straight from the pickling vat...

(I know how to keep the guys at 'Govi Engineering' sweet

Tally Ho.....forever forward and upward....