Othen

... this is the story of the positive lubrication system that I mentioned above (copied from something I wrote about a year ago):

The bike came with the original bill of sale and the white type log book, but had never been scrapped. The story was it was bought by the first owner in 76, he rode it for 10 years and did 15,000 miles then suddenly stopped using it is 86 (the last tax disc is still on the bike), pushed it to the back of the shed and bought another bike for his commute to the shoe factory.

I thought I might just get it running and riding as a winter project (remember, that was 2 years ago). A bit of welding saved the rusty swing arm, I found a new switch and key (brand new, amazingly exactly the same item is still fitted to some bike or another that is still in manufacture) and re-wired the bike one afternoon. The engine would turn over by hand, but to be safe I thought I'd better strip it down to find out why the bike had stopped working in 1986. As I did I found the right (drive) side main bearing had disintegrated completely...



... the engine/gearbox strip down was not too difficult and all the bits I needed (mainly bearings and gaskets) were surprisingly still available and quite cheap. Having got everything back together the first time, I found the kick starter pawl still in my box of bits - and so had to take most of it apart again to put it back in the right place!

The engine turned over nicely now (and the top end was fine), but I thought I'd better work out why it had suddenly stopped in 1986. I found the answer whilst inspecting the auto-lubrication system. Someone had replaced the check valve that injects oil into the crankcase with an ordinary hydraulic union, as you may see from the nail inserted into it, this item has no one-way valve to stop the crankcase pressure forcing oil back against the pump:



So, that is why it failed. The new check valve was still available (new) and has sorted that problem. The rest was just getting rid of the worst effects of 30 years unused in a shed: most of the chrome had peeled off and so I painted over with some mat black to stop any more corrosion, the frame got a quick rub down and a coat of lacquer and the exhaust was roughly repaired (with plates, rivets and exhaust paste). A new set of points and a plug had the thing running, and to my surprise the cycle parts were more or less okay (with a bit of grease and fettling). I had no intention of a full restoration, but the bike had been saved so I sent off to DVLA and got a new V5.



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