the crank in the picture is all Enfield except for the bigend and conrod (bigend bearing is the same that Enfield uses: 35x4219).
this crank was already needle bearing, including the large full diameter 35mm crankpin. not going to change that. bearing running direct in the conrod.
JAWA crank has solid flywheels in various stroke sizes using the same bigend bearing (running on needle bearing mains too!) and the mildest cam make it start to push out 65hp from 5000rpm, depending on the cam you use the feariest cam makes it give 98hp from 6000 to 13000rpm, without balance shafts on crank shafts pressed in without using mills pins of keyways!! for a 500cc 4valve single I find that pretty impressive.
and my next Enfield project will be utilising JAWA flyweels and bigend and bearing in Enfield mainshafts and steel conrod (length 6.875"/175mm)
and attempt to retrofit hydraulic valve lifters from the efi bullet in the old cast iron bullet model. just for the fun of it.
this is the AVL crank, with the large bigend pin and flesh around it being the only difference with the original/other models. you can google JAWA cranks yourself. I go to
this guy and explore possibilities.
this is the AVL engine, developed by the company AVL in Austria, the largest differences being the crankshaft (shorter conrod, metric bigend bigend same as the majority of high(er) performance single engines such as KTM and Yamaha Raptor 700 engines) and the cylinder head. ALL cylinder head features are taken 1:1 in the EFI bullets!
the steel conrod and RE13 (alpha) bigend. small end ¾", H-H distance 6.875" / 174.5mm, crankpin 1" press fit like the Vincent and bearing diameter 1.25" / 31.75mm. and all this just to get the steel conrod!
as for the other enfield (the Bullet 500), short story:
- aluminium conrod has finite "life", steel has almost infinite life when it comes to alternating stress.
- Hitchcock in UK does not sell the steel conrod for floating bush and neither do they publish the dimensions (from what I can gather: its "all British made, no reworked Indian parts and therefore its the best in the world and we won't tell you anything about it").
- they do sell the steel rod with RE13 needle bearing (alpha) and later they offer the RE15 needle bigend; might be mistaken but it appears to be the above 35x42x19.
-I wanted steel conrod so purchased that one with the RE13. when measured it turned out to be an exact replacement for the floating bush! it takes you f*ckin' €500 (shipping, Brexit etc) to get that information. as per ABSAF advice: the needle bearing is fine for road work just don't pull hard below 2500rpm in 3rd and top gear. so RE13 needle bigend goes in.
- the original floating bush bigend I still have, along with a new one but in aluminium conrod (yes with steel pressed bush into the big eye). its fine just not the aluminium conrod.
- in india, with ambient temps and oils far from "European" standards, if a floating bush can survive for many many miles and trips to the Himalayan mountians using elephant snot for grease and monkey piss for oil, together with a minimalistic oil pump, it sounds to me that a Vincent engine with very similar dimensions should eb able to survive for equally many miles on the same config as it does with the proclaimed 3rows per conrod original design.
I still have the original Vincent crank, and found a supplier for babbit, and may well experiment with floating bushes in a Vincent crank running one 2-start oil pump. again, as nobody has ever thought of this concept, or at leat tried it, there is no information available, its cursed and taboo and so will have to find out myself the hard way, again, as usual.