1930 LF

[JohnLay]

Spent a little more time on the carburettor and found another small hole that not been completely cleaned.

It was in the brass jet block that is normally pressed into the carburettor body. Started up and ran but still reluctant to "tick over"
By the way, does anyone know what the fuel tank and rear mudguard transfers should look like, also where to get them from?

[nevhunter]

It's definitely a Lucas pick up from the Late 20's period. Usually at least one of the projecting prongs that locate the CORK gasket in place are broken off
Around that period the Magneto's are only held on by 2 hard to reach bolts on Ariel (Same as if a TT BTH is fitted to later "competition' Bikes). There is a racing Lucas mag available in that period . I have one somewthere or other and will list the number for reference. Nev

[nevhunter]

John, clean out ALL the idle system holes carefully and check the float height and it think she will run sweetly. Looks like your jet block is a good fit. Brass (and Diamonds)are forever.. Nev

[JohnLay]

Today fitted a replacement (longer) rear brake rod.

The idea being to reposition the rear brake peddle as I felt the original position to be somewhat awkward, too high, as it involved taking the foot of the rest and raising it several inches to operate the brake.

[JohnLay]

Decided to make a start looking into the lack of charge from the dynamo, which meant removing the offside exhaust pipe and it's drive sprocket. This led to a number of discoveries.

The cable from the dynamo seemed to be joined to the rest of machine's wiring via a ball of old style black insulating tape, which when unwound showed that the wires were just twisted together.

Nuts at both ends of the dynamo anchor strap were missing.

Also that the dynamo drive sprocket ( which I am informed is the wrong one anyway ) seem to be a home-made item by welding a dished sprocket onto a tapered centre.

[JohnLay]

With the dynamo off of the machine and on the bench it was possible to have a better look at it. It was found that the third brush was still present although it was disconnected from it's terminal post. As I understand it a resistor would have been switched in or out of the field windings to give a crude form of regulation. There was no wiring associated with this terminal so there had been some attempt at modifying the wiring in the past, oddly although disconnected from it's terminal it had instead been connected directly to the "earth" commutator brush. I my opinion not the right place for it, if the idea is to convert to a two-brush system in does not need to be there at all. Connecting the field windings directly to the brushes and applying a battery caused the dynamo to "motor" in the correct direction, so hopefully getting somewhere. Connecting a voltmeter and driving the dynamo with an electric drill even produced some voltage, not much it has to be said, but some. My drill possibly not spinning quickly enough.

Removing the head light revealed the "cut-out" and the now to be redundant field resistor. will be looking to replacing all of this with something more modern

[JohnLay]

I am beginning to wonder how any of the electrics ever worked.

Looking at the the cut-out (bottom left), some past "electrician" had " butchered" the cut-out in order to keep it's contacts permanently closed.

The dynamo brush gear, terminals e.t.c. Note the (now) redundant third brush terminal.