JIM's 1942 BSA WM20 - Mission Impossible?
Mission accomplished
September 2007
Almost there. Cables and wiring have been done. Awaiting the seat and new exhaust header and silencer. The inside of the petrol tank has been lined with a proprietary tank liner. While the tank was sound it is good insurance to use one of these products although a little tiresome to apply! |
Here we go again! Just like my C11, Jim has struck oil tank problems. The bike was finally assembled and started for the first time. As always we primed the oil lines by kicking the bike over hundreds of times. A little oil oozed out of the top of the return and we started the bike. Nothing. No oil returning. The oil tank, however, was frothy. Something was going on in there.
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After lots of theorizing and many experiments (assisted by bottles of red) we finally decided we needed to have a look at the return line. This meant it would have to be detached from the tank (they are silver soldered originally). Left is what we found. The return line inside the tank was rusted. This means the oil was returning but ....
Solution - fabricate a new line and weld it back.
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December 2008
She's finished. After a run-in period of a couple of months sorting the carby she now starts first kick every time.
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The bike is a stunner! This is my first side-valve experience and Jim kindly let me take her for a run. Plenty of power, huge torque and those refurbished girder forks are just so smooth. Jim has a couple of things to find to finish off the restoration - he has the speedo but doesn't have the correct speedo drive for the front wheel. If you can help, please send me an email.
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