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eebtr7

Okay, I'm back with a fresh bowl of porridge. Minetymenace, Yes, we do have opposite types of weather here in South Central Texas compared to your Salisbury Plain. The seals I refer to are the slave cylinders in the brake drum where heat and exposure to water are boiling the fluid and condensating m...

eebtr7

I hate to be the one to 'piss in the porridge' here. I see the rubber seals deteriorating in a few years, the brake fluid soaking up moisture, thus requiring frequent brake overhauls, just like I used to do on a 1957 Plymouth back in the 1960's. Meanwhile, the front brake cable on my September 1971 ...

eebtr7

There is nothing more soothing to my soul than the 'thudding' of a BSA engine chugging down the road or over the trails.

eebtr7

Ahhh, yes. Those mounting tabs were notorious for breaking from vibration at speeds over 50mph. Mine broke off while on the expressway going to college classes in 1972. Since it is made of the rare earth element, Unobtainium, your best bet is to have it rewelded with a reinforcement piece. Your work...

eebtr7

Oh, Geez!, Here I go.. Answers: 1. Stay with the points & condenser. Given you will be riding around as a punk kid senior citizen, the fancy electronic ignitions out there will have little to no real benefit. The best thing you can do is to replace the oil seal on the end of the cam shaft in the poi...

eebtr7

I suspect our Pal resides on the outskirts of Grand Sinkhole, Florida for the present. Which is to say, should a new sinkhole develop under his garage, he and his dismantled 1972 Gold Star could disappear at any minute.

eebtr7

As one of the resident registered curmudgeons around here, ( And, I do not wish to offend your delicate sensibilities.), may it be respectfully suggested you get the machine back up on it's four hooves in stock condition and chugging up & down the yellow brick road. Get the bugs sorted out of the va...

eebtr7

Well...yes there are options. To me, the best color scheme was the brand new, right out of the box, 1971 B50SS with the metal flake red and the black stripe with white pin stripes along with the BSA decal centrally located. Then, the bike was pushed out into the Texas sun and the red paint nearly in...

eebtr7

Back in the good-ol-days when Christ was a PFC and I was 100 pounds lighter, say about 1973, I would place a two jaw gear puller at the 12:30 and 6:30 positions with a 5/16" socket over the end of the mainshaft. Applying gentle torque to the puller would result in the chain basket easing off the spl...

eebtr7

Continuing on with the Spanish Inquisition, have you thought about trying a clay bar on the painted surfaces? I became a true believer when my vehicles suddenly lacked any friction on the paint. My B50 paint is so slick, dust just falls off the gas tank. It could save you one whole bunch of money si...

eebtr7

We have a few questions for you first: 1. What state are you now located? 2. Are you staying there in that house for a long time? 3. Do you prefer BBQ and beer from Texas? 1. If you are in a warm/hot climate state, you will be able to spend more time in the garage tinkering with this beast. 2. Since...

eebtr7

HEY!!! We Colonials STILL maintain that if it ain't three barley corns in a row, it ain't an inch!

eebtr7

Ain't this agonna be a verbose can-o-worms. A BSA operating hotter than designed is usually due to being operated on a very hot Texas afternoon, going up steep hills, and toting an overweight rider with lower than needed octane gasoline. All of these conditions describe me last summer. The spark plu...

eebtr7

Champion N-4...or if the engine is hotted up...a Champion N-3.

eebtr7

Then there are those blasphemous heretics who contend attaching a hose to the breather spigot and routing the other end into the carburetor mouth would create a sort of Positive Crankcase Ventilation system, just like on most every car engine for the past 60 years. The intended effect is to reduce c...

eebtr7

This muffler dates back to about 1965-1966. It is constructed of Unobtanium and is now quite valuable. If you rechrome it and fix the significant boo-boo's, it will be worth even more. Consider this to be your retirement fund. Don't tell the taxing authorities you have it.

eebtr7

When you say, "Suck", does this mean like we did when we were 18 years old to syphon some gas from Daddies car to run our BSA's on a Saturday night?

Oh!, for the nights when our girlfriends would loudly complain about our 100 octane breath.

eebtr7

Well...Here's where it gets a little controversial. Yes, the factory says 8 &10 for the inlet and exhaust. But then, Rupert Ratio says to close that gap a good ways. Even down to close to zero. For the first time in nearly 50 years I closed my valve gaps to 4 & 6. The result is a quieter valve actio...

eebtr7

Yes...I did this back in 1973, when vim & vigor spilled from the bucket of Life in an endless torrent. With the two rear studs out of the way, the rocker box easily came out with a few twists and turns. The engine stayed firmly in it's mounts with no further dismantling. Naturally, two old U.S. Air ...

eebtr7

Uhhhh...Sugar-Booger...Granted my bi-focals are smudged, but, I seem to think you didn't get the chain all the way over onto the inner row of sprocket teeth. May I respectfully suggest you re-read the shop manual to confirm your chain installation?

eebtr7

I anneal head gaskets in a way to both control the heat level !!!AND!!! irritate the wife. When she is not looking, I turn on the electric burner on the stove to evenly roast the gasket to the preferred cherry red color, then dunk the metal in the iced water. When cooled to the touch, the metal is c...

eebtr7

Okay, you foreigners...if you keep this up I'ma agonna start talking Texan on ya. And, that won't be a very pretty sight!

eebtr7

Not to be an excessive nag, (I learned how from my wife), were I you, I would pull the valves and hand finish them into the valve seats. Then double check they don't leak any thin fluid. Oh, another thing, when you roasted the head gasket. Did you dunk the cherry red metal in a bucket of ice water t...

eebtr7

It's all in the basics. Please pull it all apart to check the following. 1. Are the ring gaps spaced about 60 degrees apart? 2. Is the ring gap within the factory amount? 3. Are the cylinder and head surfaces clean and smooth and parallel? 4. Are valves lapped in and holding tight? 5. Is the spark p...

eebtr7

Maybe if you borrowed Scootin Newton's electric starter, that might get it going. Of course that would mean pushing your BSA over the ocean waves to the surly heights of Montana. But, that is something we have all done at one time or the other over the last 50 years or so.

eebtr7

Sooo... This is what a right & proper factory B50 electric starter is. Funny, but I've never seen one in the official factory accessory catalogs. One question, where do you strap it on when chugging down the road to the store for bread, beer, and toilet paper? Does it store in your backpack or is it...

eebtr7

If the tailpipe curves over to the side, it's from a 1972 model. If the tailpipe is straight, it's from a 1971 model. On my Sept 1972 B50SS, the tailpipe is somewhat smaller than the header pipe. Would this be an effort to quiet the bark? I recall in a road test for the Tri & BSA 650's the 1972 mode...

eebtr7

Whoa! This just went WAY beyond my mental capacity. Just a thought...wouldn't it be a bit easier to re-engineer the frame to add rubber engine mounts, like Plymouth did back in 1928? Or, Norton in 1967? Even a perfectly balanced lower end will still vibrate in the solid mounts, won't it?

eebtr7

No, my friend, Cocker Cox. The ring gaps were set in a line by the boys on the engine line at BSA during the initial assembly. Had I taken it back to the dealer prior to the 6000 mile and/or 6 month period, repairs would have been for free under warranty. Or, so I like to fantasize.

eebtr7

Once apon a time, in a land far away and over the hill, this innocent young soul went out with cash in hand and brought home a brand new, bright & shiny, 1971 BSA 25SS from the local dealer. Being it was a four stroke engine, it was expected the spark plug would burn clean. No, instead it burned oil...

eebtr7

Also, let us not forget when the engine has set for several months, the wet sumping fills the 'plenum' allowing the engine oil to drip out thru the shift shaft onto your concrete floor. Apon draining the sump in June, (after it setting for about 7 months), an honest 1 1/3 quarts of fresh engine oil ...

eebtr7

Can we get a BIG AMEN from the congregation? Here's mine...AAAAAAAAMEN!

eebtr7

YES! What Jeff just said! And...if you do decide to tinker with the spring tension on the advance unit, do not get them too tight, or else the advance won't advance leaving you with a top speed of about 48 mph. I did that back in 1979. Then after a whole bunch of readjusting the tension prongs back ...

eebtr7

UMMMM...Anything that makes life more complicated is something I don't want. As for BSA wiring looms, the boffins in Birmingham did a pretty good job with the exception of the corrosion prone, and the easy to pull the bullet off the wires, connectors that have been on the machine since Christ was a ...

eebtr7

Would some good soul please explain to this antiquated, more or less demented brain why BSA and Triumph used different part numbers on the B25 and TR25 when the same machines were built in the same building, on the same assembly line track, with 98% of the same parts? In the above illustration, the ...

eebtr7

Well, Winsur44, as you are the owner of several B50's, you well know all about the starting idiosyncrasies of these machines. After 49 years, I do, too. May I politely and respectfully suggest you return the B44 to the stock point ignition to get a baseline for subsequent modifications. This shouldn...

eebtr7

About your Lightning, I recall a story of where the BSA factory shipped a load of A65's aboard a ship. A storm was encountered and the cargo was salt water soaked. They then shipped the bikes back to the factory for renovations. That was the last of the story I heard. Your info puts an end to it.

eebtr7

Why not polish the hub to a high gloss, like the factory did in 1973?

eebtr7

Hokey smoke, Bullwinkle's! Now if we're talking about the folding lever on the kick starter arm, the approved method back in the 'good-ol'-days' was to remove the lever from the arm, then grind away on the corner to allow the lever to fold farther inward. Thus the lever does not touch the inside of ...

eebtr7

I, wholeheartedly, agree with Koncretekid! For nearly the past half century my B50 frame has been a pillar of strength and stability keeping me upright over all kinds of paved and unpaved terrain. That swingarm design is brilliant in keeping the rear wheel aligned and the chain quickly adjusted. If ...

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