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I am slowly restoring a ’27 J. A couple of days ago I hit a milestone when I finally buttoned up the gear case cover. I have an engine! Couple of photos attached
Whilst I have worked on the engines of my other bikes (‘40’s flatties) this was the first engine of any sort I had completely stripped and rebuilt.
It’s been a slow process. Time and money of course but also on a good few occasions I was totally flummoxed on how to proceed. See my post of 04/28/18 on this site regarding the bottom end bearing race for example. That was close to being a terminal problem for the engine cases. A cracked flywheel was another issue although the replacements just put a hole in the budget rather than being a technical hitch.
The other big expense was the cylinders. The originals had lost a lot of cooling fins. The bores were pretty good. Some threads were ok others not so good. I spent a while chasing down somebody to put them back into serviceable condition (not easy to find in the UK) and the prices I was being quoted made it questionable. In the end I sourced a new set from JD Jugs and will look at restoring the old ones another time.
It’s not back to factory spec cosmetically but that was never the plan. I just want a good solid rider.
I overhauled the gearbox before the engine so both are now ready to go.
The next job is the hubs – the bike came with a very good rear hub but from an earlier model with the ball rather than roller bearings. I am on the look out for a good rear hub that is right for a ’27 bike.
Happy to do a swop or buy outright or whatever works
Once I have the wheels on and the engine and gearbox fitted I will still have a way to go but least I’ll be working on a motorcycle rather than parts on the bench.
Martin
IMG_20190715_114241504.jpgIMG_20190714_133437904.jpg
Whilst I have worked on the engines of my other bikes (‘40’s flatties) this was the first engine of any sort I had completely stripped and rebuilt.
It’s been a slow process. Time and money of course but also on a good few occasions I was totally flummoxed on how to proceed. See my post of 04/28/18 on this site regarding the bottom end bearing race for example. That was close to being a terminal problem for the engine cases. A cracked flywheel was another issue although the replacements just put a hole in the budget rather than being a technical hitch.
The other big expense was the cylinders. The originals had lost a lot of cooling fins. The bores were pretty good. Some threads were ok others not so good. I spent a while chasing down somebody to put them back into serviceable condition (not easy to find in the UK) and the prices I was being quoted made it questionable. In the end I sourced a new set from JD Jugs and will look at restoring the old ones another time.
It’s not back to factory spec cosmetically but that was never the plan. I just want a good solid rider.
I overhauled the gearbox before the engine so both are now ready to go.
The next job is the hubs – the bike came with a very good rear hub but from an earlier model with the ball rather than roller bearings. I am on the look out for a good rear hub that is right for a ’27 bike.
Happy to do a swop or buy outright or whatever works
Once I have the wheels on and the engine and gearbox fitted I will still have a way to go but least I’ll be working on a motorcycle rather than parts on the bench.
Martin
IMG_20190715_114241504.jpgIMG_20190714_133437904.jpg
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