Finally Complete!

I have now replaced the steel fuel tank with a lightweight aluminium one.
New exhast was supplied by Barry at Overlander Spares in Warrnambool.

Finally rolling!

Took the bike down off the bench today. Sat on it for the first time.
Seat feels like it needs to be back a bit. Will look at extending the front mounts so I can move the seat back, and a little lower.

Still need to get an exhaust pipe and mount the side number plates.
First race is Historic Winton in May. Need to apply for a log book to enter.
Racing number has been allocated by HMRAV. This bike is #40

January 2011

The front looks finished now, just need to balance the wheel and it's all done.

Tyre is a 19" X 100 Bridgestone Battlax.

Number plate ready for numbers. Bike is now ready to come down off the bench.

Front brake cable goes through fork tube, with adjuster at the top.

A little progress....

We now have rear brakes!
Some old handlebar clamps fitted just nicely as a brake anchor point
I have temporarily fitted a rusty old mudguard support while I make the mounting bracket to fix it to the rear guard.
Once I have finished welding and bending this part it will be stripped back and painted black.

New cables have been made up for throttle, Front brake, decompressor and clutch.

I don't solder these with lead solder because it is not strong enough. I prefer to silver solder the ends using oxy-acetylene. 

Levers are second hand Tommaselli units picked up very cheap at a swap meet.

Oil lines are all now fitted so theoretically the bike could start with fuel and oil added.

we need wheels!

Back wheel has now been laced up to a pre-war six stud hub with new spokes, and a tyre fitted.

Tyre is a MAXIS 19 inch, rim is Indian Royal Enfield 40 spoke item.

Here I am playing around with  rear brake linkage options. Obviously with the rear-set foot-rests the original brake operating rod would be too long.

Found a short link which will do the job but the brake anchor will need to be higher up on the top rear frame member instead of the lower one to get the geometry right. 

Now I will drill the brake pedal for lightness and paint it black along with the brake plate. I still need to sort out some type of brake pedal return spring.

In this picture you can see how close the rear wheel is to the frame and oil tank when in the fully forward position. Yes, I deliberately shaped the footrest bar to accommodate this!

Fitting the light alloy rear mudguard is going to be tight and may inhibit full movement of the rear wheel.

I will have to live with this and am prepared to put up with not quite the full amount of rear wheel adjustment, and the limited options on when to replace the rear  chain.

Next job is to finish sorting out the front wheel alignment and fit a tyre and tube. Then the beast will at least be rolling.

step 3

Engine bits waiting for assembly. (All these bits have been collected at different swap meets etc, over a number of years, as was the rest of the bike being created). Timing side bush is a new undersize one made to fit the re-ground shaft. 

Work was done by Greg at Manx Classic Spares in Ballarat.

Timing side crankcase has been modified to take later type oil pump locating pin and allow for fitting of the better 2-start pump. Lots of fins had to be rewelded onto the cylinder. This cylinder also has a spigot which meant the crankcase mouth had to be machined out to fit. Machining was done by Neville at Motacraft in Bendigo. Thanks Nev.
Standard compression Hepolite piston will be fitted initially. I have gone off putting very hi comp pistons into my AMC motors to give the main bearings an easier and longer life. May bump it up slightly in the future.

Pressing in new crank pin. Flywheels are later type that have been machined down to fit into the early cases.

Truing up the flywheel assembly on my little 'Qualos" lathe. Dial gauge is fixed to cross slide. Finally achieved about 1 thou runout at the shafts. Good enough for me.

New valves and springs. Ports cleaned up for better breathing.

The Matchless is being reborn as an AJS! No room behind the cylinder for the magneto and I didn't feel like hacksawing off the back fins, so it is now going in front. At this stage I will accurately time the ignition using piston height data. Seven sixteenths of an inch before TDC on full advance is my starting point.

Gearbox was built some months ago out of spare parts. New bearings throughout, standard ratios, modified output shaft seal holder now takes a modern oil seal instead of a felt ring.
Notice the new footrest mounting points behind the gearbox instead of in front.

Newly assembled motor fitted into frame. Head and rocker box only loosely fitted at this stage. Next job - measuring the length of pushrods to suit this motor and another search through my spares bin....

Selected the best looking pair of cams I could find in my boxes of bits. Inlet is stamped 'SS' and the exhaust is stamped '22'. First slow rotation to check no valve tangle, no piston hitting and no spring binding. Here I am checking what the valve timing looks like with both cams fitted. Both valves came up with an acceptable figure. FYI Inlet opens 65 degrees before TDC and closes 80 degrees after TDC. Exhaust opens 75 degrees before BDC and closes 38 degrees after TDC, giving 103 degrees of overlap. Good enough.
(Dial gauge is reading valve lift off valve collar, timing disk readings are taken at 5 degree intervals.)

Clutch has been assembled with a mix of new and old parts, and new chain fitted. Chain alignment achieved by putting a spacer behind the engine drive sprocket.

Had no clutch rollers for the centre bearing. Ended up using new 1/4 x 1/4 bigend rollers that I ground down on one end. (These clutches use 1/4 x 1/4 rollers that are made specially, a few thou shorter in length )

Have started to fit the remaining bits to motor. Carb now assembled and bolted on.
New reproduction petrol taps fitted, checked with a little kero in the tank and yes they both leak nicely.
Why can't modern factories make these parts as good as the old ones??
I will pull them apart and try fitting better seals.

Step 2

New front 19 inch 40 spoke rim is from Enfield India. Front hub is correct early type with cooling fins on brake drum. Still need a tyre and tube!

Spokes from Lightfoot engineering, Thanks Phil!