Isn't there some brazing in the vicinity? If there is it might be tricky heating to red without disturbing it. I've got no metallurgical expertise but my gut feeling is that if it's malleable enough to have bent without any creasing/cracking - and I'd imagine under a relatively light force as the br...

Umm - looks like you might have the lever on the brake plate pointing downwards, it needs to point upwards or you'll get the brake locking itself on when you hit a pothole. (My plunger frame 350 moved on a long time ago but I'm pretty sure I had to bend the brake rod in a couple of places to get it ...

A 40-tooth clutch sprocket would still only drop it to equivalent of about 21-tooth engine sprocket (assuming it doesn't already have a 40-tooth on it anyway) and that's still sidecar gearing - I think factory spec was at least a 24-tooth engine sprocket for solo use. I expect the club spares guys w...

Paul - have you got the wick feed from the oil tank (which replaces the drip from the primary chaincase on FERC bikes) set up correctly?
(Although if you don't have the right oil tank that question will be irrelevant )

The 'reverse dome' piston would be the low-compression (5.6:1) trials one. If the brazed sleeve you mention was the cylinder liner brazed in at the base of the barrel, this is sometimes done to retain the strength in the barrel above the cylinder base flange (after the wall thickness has been reduce...

That bike looks a real beaut - I was almost tempted myself.
Push-rod seals is a head-off job, not too difficult.
Electrics are the one area where age will cause the problems rather than mileage - might just need a proper clean up though.
A great buy!

SG

Ian: You must be right about the plain plate. Regarding the friction plate, it might be necessary to take the tangs off the outside - they wouldn't be needed as it would drive directly against the back of the basket. Another thing might be that some of the modern friction plates might be quite thin,...

I think the cast-in spectacle is on the 1954/55 heads only (ie VH with exhaust pipe stub)
My '56-on head (push-in pipe) has the more usual separate inlet/exhaust seat inserts

SG

Can I see these in the log book?
engine PR1377
frame KS22100

In the photos, same engine number, can't make out the frame number, it does seem to have 7 digits but looks a bit more like PR than KS

SG

With the Ariel rocker box can't you take the central plug out (above the rocker cups) and fiddle the push rods in with a thin screwdriver? The BSA rocker box doesn't have the central plug and is a real b****r to get the pushrods properly seated. (It's been a long time since I played with a Huntmaste...