I've made some progress on my rebuild. A friend of mine managed to grind down standard circlips to the proper thickness so they would fit. Against my expectations it did work without ruining the hardness nor the springiness. They did not get soft in the process. So The solution Bob Cottam suggested ...

Hi there, Is there a trick to assemble the tappets into the blocks with the small wire circlip? I can't seem to find a way to slide the circlips into the tappet block along with the tappets, and I'm afraid of breaking the circlips. I set the circlips into the groove on the tappet, but when I slide t...

So I checked the bearing contact with blue. It's all good. There's good contact on both cranks, so I went ahead and closed up the cases. I had marked the position of the bearings and after warming the cases in the oven and bearings in the freezer, they went in easily in the same position. It seems I...

Thank you Paul.
I just got worried because the workshop manual states that care should be taken to ensure the oil holes of the bearings should be lined up with the oil holes in the cases. Am I just misunderstanding the manual?

Hello chaps, I need some expert advice before I botch my engine rebuild from the beginning. I had the cases over at Drags for new plain bearings and in line bore. After almost a year they finally sent the cases back with the work done. To my horror they pressed the plain bearings in without lining u...

I remeasured the grooves using different washers and a thickness of 0,05" will fit after all, so I think I'll give those circlips found by Simes a try. And Chris is absolutely right. The crankshaft circlips should be 2,5". I somehow measured them wrong! I will let you know how it goes in t...

Simes, thanks! I do have the larger studs and inserts in the plugs. The stop should be easy enough to make myself. Those pins from Dags look right, although they have another part nr., but will work I'm sure. And those circlips are almost right - still they are too thick. The groove is really only 1...

Before I forget, here for future reference the dimensions of the circlips according to my measurements (I measured the bore and groove in the cases): Crankshaft circlips 1443-37: Dia: ~63,5mm or 2.5" , Thickness: as posted above 0,03" or ~0,8mm Camshaft circlip 1464-37: Dia: ~47,5mm or 1.9...

Many thanks for the quick responses! To Simon: I'm very relieved to hear about the helicoils. BTW your blog on Amelia is brilliant and I probably look into it once a day :) With the circlips, it is indeed a problem. All modern standard circlips I have found are much thicker - about 2mm. There must b...

Hello there, I've been restoring a '51 MkI from a basket case, and just about to start reassembling the engine. However, I'm missing a few bits which Draganfly doesn't have on stock, so I'm hopping for some sugestions. - I'm missing the circlips for the crankshaft ball bearings 1443-37 and the one f...