52 Plunger twin frame with WNG engine and tank

[john.nash]

A nice man called John Connelly has just sold (and delivered) me a pile of bits.
Anstey frame, 350 engine, strange ariel tank (with long dents down both sides of the front) and most of the other bits.

va va voom ...

bugger.. frame may be 500 twin

engine is wng - but with chunk out ?

I want to build it up into something to try and convince my wife to ride these old things.
Her main arguments against are brakes and kick start (the kickstart we can overcome with practice).

As I'm not precious about originality, then it would make sense to think about a decent front brake now
While I don't think my ariel brakes are that bad; they are practically non-existant by the modern standards she is used to.

What can I do for reasonable money ?

[john.nash]

The rear brake plate looks like this:

I have the front and rear guards with the supports.
The front engine plates look to be home manufacturered but as the case, gearbox and primary were in the frame (now taken out) and were lining up then I think I'm good.

Tank has seen better days

[john.nash]

Work went a bit mental in November in December; which meant nothing happened

January saw me paint the frame and other bits.
I also collected things that were missing.

February saw the reconstructed mudguards return (from a mate who is a genius at such things) - I have filled and primered them before their final coat of black out in the garden (as it's getting warm enough now)

prior to painting

The bike looks like this as of the end of February
Wheels respoked with stainless AND skimmed. all repainted and bearings sorted. Brakes re-assembled. Tyres put on.
Bottom end checked and inserted along with the gearbox. Some faffing with spacers and we're good.

[ben.mitchell]

Hi John
If you want better brakes for the lady in your life why not fit a QD rear wheel from a square four which has a bigger drum because, I suppose, it was designed to stop a heavier bike, I am just condsidering doing the same on my wife's 1949 Ansty link VCH project.
Ben

[Vincent.vanGinneke]

and a 8" BSA half witdh front hub up front, early Gold Star/Flash item.

Vincent

[nevhunter]

John, the twin frames have thinner thickness tubing than the singles. It should not matter for the 350 engine. Also the twin gearbox has a different offset machined in the mount pads (top and bottom), so the clutch sprocket is further out, to have the sprocket align with the twin engine sprocket and chaincase. For the 350 engine the CP box would be adequate as it was even offered as an option for the 500cc VCH. The early twins had a CP box too. Nev

[john.nash]

Updated for April 2012

Thanks to work; things still remain slow.

I have made up the wiring loom from scratch and it all works.
I changed the armature and field coil, in the dynamo
Mudguards t-cut back and mounted.The wheel man got the offset wrong on the front wheel; so waiting for that to come back (again)
Engine all in and timed. Gearbox in, chains in, clutch in. Soldered all the cables up this weekend and got all the control gear in.
second hand exhaust pipe rubbed down and sprayed black.
It's not in the picture but the tank is also done and has it's transfers.

Just waiting for bits now:

Silencer(2nd hand from EBAY) needs a better clip.
Oil pipe is missing one of it's fittings.
waiting for the rest of battery carrier, the seat posts and tank mounting rubbers
I managed to get a late war timing cover off EBAY (still in transit ...)

Big thanks to Bryan Peck for an original seat (and an original NEW cover in a bag) AND the oil/rocker pipe.

The finish is in sight .....

(by the way the bike is actually up on a jack, underneath, not on the front stand)

[john.nash]

..and we're done ...

it went FIRST kick (no really)
Unfortunately, I had to strip the oil pump to get it to return.
The gearbox is not driving the speedometer cable and the electronic regulator ain't working (wiring and dynamo are good)

[PeterW]

Nice work :¬)

[nevhunter]

That didn't take too long. Are you still using the "twin" oil tank? Nev