'67 BSA A65 Lightning

Great thread GPZ, thanks for posting :D I luv the red and chrome BSAs as well ... just looks right. :)
 
Got the new lump in the frame Saturday, but had ALL my family home and many other priorities, so that's as far as I got.
 
Lower lump in place loosely-

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


Clutch cable was a bugger, seems the cast-in abutment in this set of cases has a taller shoulder. I need to work on the spacer length.

Points wires were a pain to re-pull.

Head gasket cleaned up, need to anneal it-

'67 BSA A65 Lightning
 
Picking the better of these two is not that hard, the one on the right you can't see the crack below the shifter, and they sealed it with some good stuff.

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


I'll probably pasted some JB weld in here just to make look smoother-

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


Not gonna mess with this one-

'67 BSA A65 Lightning
 
Glad I stayed with the stuff I had decided on right at the start. I wasted a couple of hours verifying I made the right choices.

Got the head installed, for the most part. It turns out the '66 cylinders take slightly smaller diameter headbolts on the rear two. NO WONDER those suckers didn't want to go in! Had to pull the head off with the sticky copper-coat all over the head gasket. I'll be asking the guy I got the head from, and a few other folks, if they might have a spare pair, cheap.

The engine has good (not great) compression. I believe it will be better after it gets a little running time. Either way, it'll be fine for what the bike is destined to be until the time it ever makes it to the total restoration stage (probably not in my lifetime).

Lots of stuff still to do, but we're heading downhill and picking up speed.

(sorry, no pix tonight)
 
Finally got 3 straight hours in the shop uninterrupted.

First, pulled the "new" lower end primary cover, not too bad (but had spiderwebs)...

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


Note the clutch spring adjusters in place of alternator stator nuts...

'67 BSA A65 Lightning
 
Contrast the seized lower end cover, horrible oil condition, and note blue RTV silicone seal...

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


'67 BSA A65 Lightning


I used all the best parts for the runner, leftovers for the old lump.
 
Left footpeg had been welded in place, my guess is they lost the LH nut & special splined spacer with one flat side.

I cut the welds as carefully as possible, dressed the threads and installed a freshly cad-plated spacer that I remembered having (funny, it was right where I remembered seeing it months ago)

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


LH nut will have to be sourced.

Installed the newer primary cover with timing window-

'67 BSA A65 Lightning
 
Thankfully, I'm getting in a fair amount of time in the shop these days; did 2-1/2 hours this evening.

Received the 2 headbolts from Freddie and promptly installed them.

Next was the oil lines. It was somewhat of a "leg bone connected to the neck bone" thing, had to remove the rear fender, tool kit, then oil tank (to flush it out). Broke the original Lucas "beehive" tailight lens when the dang fender went walkabout on the last nut. It was already cracked, but in good shape otherwise; now it's smashed

Here's what was in the bottom before flushing the oil tank, nearly an ounce of solidified crud-

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


Oil tank installed, with new oil lines-

'67 BSA A65 Lightning
 
Also took the opportunity of a clear work area and installed proper hardware to hold the chainguard on, it had only one rusty old screw with a loose acorn nut on it. (no photo)

All 4 rear engine mount bolts & nuts in place, and you can just make out the galvanized sleeve to hold the clutch cable abutment in place on the cast-in shoulder of the timing side inner cover-

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


I wonder if the original abutment sleeve must have had a thinner shoulder that slipped into the cast-in shoulder?

It will be a bit tidier under the seat, there was a strapped on hunk of aluminum plate with the zener diode on it, I don't think that was original. I need to have a look at the parts book soon.

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


I don't think there were the minimum number of wires on the bike for it to have been running since the last time the wrong color wires were messed with...
 
looking at that oil tank of your it reminds me of one I have out in the garage somewhere, I always wondered what type of bike it went on, i'll have to dig it out and have another look at it when I get back. :)
 
Easy to spot, it's got two lumps on the bottom, and one on the top; they sit in rubber cups.
 
grandpaul said:
Thankfully, I'm getting in a fair amount of time in the shop these days; did 2-1/2 hours this evening.

Received the 2 headbolts from Freddie and promptly installed them.

Next was the oil lines. It was somewhat of a "leg bone connected to the neck bone" thing, had to remove the rear fender, tool kit, then oil tank (to flush it out). Broke the original Lucas "beehive" tailight lens when the dang fender went walkabout on the last nut. It was already cracked, but in good shape otherwise; now it's smashed

Here's what was in the bottom before flushing the oil tank, nearly an ounce of solidified crud-

'67 BSA A65 Lightning



If you have a centrifugal oil trap in your crankshaft, imagine what it is like in there :!: :shock:
Click to expand...
 
On an engine like this, it's easy to pull the sump plate, set a large pan under it, fill the oil tank and start it up at idle.

If it has a good amount of oil sloshing out the sump into the pan, it should be okay as long as it's not making any rattling sounds or especially knocking in the rods.

If the oil sumping is only a dribble, the sludge trap is plugged and it will need a bottom end overhaul.

The person who sold me the lower end (it was not with this bike / oil tank) assured me it was a decent running engine). The old / stuck engine was the one that was associated with the incorrectly routed oil lines and the sludge in the oil tank.
 
Here are the headlight ears-
'67 BSA A65 Lightning


Springs are quite rotten at the bottom, that's the price of BSAs wonderfully tall dust cups run with no gaiters-
'67 BSA A65 Lightning


Running a WTB ad in the Garage Sale section on BritBike.Com, for a set of springs...
 
The alignment of the planets must be optimal, I got another 3-1/2 hours in the shop today (well, with a few interruptions).

Install a good used Sparx system I had previously installed on my Triton before I got a good used Tri-Spark for it.

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


Had to sharpen up a piece of steel rod and JB-Weld it in place to set the static timing-

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


Wired temporarily to test everything, it sparks.

'67 BSA A65 Lightning
 
While digging for the spare Sparx ignition unit, I found a brand new single-phase Sparx regulator/rectifier. NOW I remember I bought two when I was setting up my Triton.

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


Installed the mufflers with some brackets I dug out of my miscellaneous brackets box, the patina is just right...

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


A bit goofy, though, as the header pipes slip OVER the muffler spigots. I'll seal them with high-temp RTV silicone.
 
A couple of shots of WD-40 and the carb slides came out. They are ROUGH, but I have lots of spares thanx to Washington Bob!

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


Typical of both float bowls, dry white scale and debris-

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


One of the two mains had some serious crud in the sediment cap-

'67 BSA A65 Lightning


Carb bodies and all metallic bits will get a nice half-hour soak in gallon cans of Berryman's Chem-Dip tomorrow. I'll leave the cans in the sun all day, then drop them in as soon as I get home from work.
 
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