Alton maintenance?

davidd

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Hi Bob,

I've taken the stripped gear into a gear maker today and he is making two, in nylon, for $120.00 Aus. and will take about a week, so not too bad, if the gear was made in steel or bronze then, he said, they would cost more, but can be done. I thought about the material and concluded that the nylon gear will act as a shock absorber and is the sacrificial component between the two steel gears, should there be a problem. So went for that.

Chrish

BSA Owner had them made in steel a few years ago. He has a few Altons. He told me that he has had good luck with them.

David
 

Mark Fisher

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
BSA Owner had them made in steel a few years ago. He has a few Altons. He told me that he has had good luck with them.

David
David is correct, I had 2 bronze and two 4140 gears made, glen has a 4140 gear and I'm running a bronze gear in the alton fitted to my goldie. So far so good as far as the gears go but it does make the friction clutch in the magdyno work very hard! Still running in grease at this time. As far as the gear (nylon) being sacrificial then one would make many sacrifices as they seem to strip everytime you miss a gear. I don't think lubrication is the problem but it won't hurt to try, but it just seems like a sudden change in engine speed is just too much for the nylon to cope with. This could of course mean that the nylon sprocket that is driven by the primary could become sacrificial with a steel internal gear! Probably NOT a good idea to use a steel sprocket with this set up.
 

Monkeypants

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
Now I recall it was BSA owner who provided me with the gear, so correction to my claim that it was in 8620, 4140 is what it is made of.

I am nearly finished assembling the engine and will get on with the test this summer.

Glen
 

Monkeypants

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
Bob, if you remove the three long Allen head cap/screws around the perimeter of the drive end, then it will come apart.

It may take some effort to separate the two halves as there is a/bead of silicone sealant on the joint.
I held one half in the vice with soft jaws and a cloth, then twisted hard with both hands on the other half. It took a minute or two of exerting max effort back and forth, then it broke free.
 

1660bob

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Thanks Glen, good info. I will be running a nylon sprocket in the primary, as I`ve considered this to be a good mechanical "fuse" if something should go awry with the drive elsewhere.Arguably replaceable through the small inspecton cover,as long as you don`t drop the retaining screw down into the primary........Doh! (a few shards of nylon lying in the primary shouldn`t do any harm until the next "cover off" maintenance) And readily obtainable/not too dear. I may look into having some gears made from my new example if indeed they are as suspect as people are reporting- If Altons are sending out S/H ones, may soon be the only route.Bob.
 

Black Flash

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Unfortunately with my old hard disc also went the pics of the Marcus Bowden mods.
From what I remember, he wrote to me that he stoned all the sharp teeth of the steel gears meshing with the plastic one and he filled the box sufficiently to
have the lower most gear in an oil bath and therefore all the gears well splashed all the time. According to his writing the stoning was as important as the change to a gear type oil.
IIRC he only and a 1 mm hole in the filler plug for venting and told me he had done many thousand of miles trouble free with this mod.

Something else regarding never Altons, I forgot to switch my battery / ignition off and after three days my battery so flat that the voltage was insufficient
to create a spark with my electronic ignition. I know about the problem with those regulators, but never thought they would empty a perfect battery at such a pace.

Bernd
 

1660bob

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Hi Bernd. Having read the posts about battery drain w/out an isolator switch, I have purchased one of the newer Podtrontics units that I believe are supplied as standard with new Altons nowadays, four wire rather than five.I read somewhere on this forum I think, that the older five wire regulators are stock items for bikes with an ignition key switch, and hence are isolated at switch off as the key is removed.No such High Tech Wizardry on many Old Brits of course, hence the need for a dedicated switch to prevent battery drain.The trouble being of course that if you forget to switch on before starting the Alton will cook itself in short order.I figured that i would forget in about, er,2 mins or so and fry it, so bought the newer unit . Bob
 

Hugo Myatt

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Hi Bernd. Having read the posts about battery drain w/out an isolator switch, I have purchased one of the newer Podtrontics units that I believe are supplied as standard with new Altons nowadays, four wire rather than five.I read somewhere on this forum I think, that the older five wire regulators are stock items for bikes with an ignition key switch, and hence are isolated at switch off as the key is removed.No such High Tech Wizardry on many Old Brits of course, hence the need for a dedicated switch to prevent battery drain.The trouble being of course that if you forget to switch on before starting the Alton will cook itself in short order.I figured that i would forget in about, er,2 mins or so and fry it, so bought the newer unit . Bob

A O Services, 01953 884681, www.aoservices.co.uk-al, supply a two way key switch. This can be wired so that in one position it isolates the battery and connects the magneto cut out. In the other position it isolates the magneto cut out and connects the battery. This means it is impossible to start the bike with the battery isolated. The key can ony be removed in the battery isolated position. The switch could be mounted in the headlamp shell but on my Comet I did not want to cut holes in the headlamp so my switch is mounted on the frame tie.
 

Hugo Myatt

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
A O Services, 01953 884681, www.aoservices.co.uk-al, supply a two way key switch. This can be wired so that in one position it isolates the battery and connects the magneto cut out. In the other position it isolates the magneto cut out and connects the battery. This means it is impossible to start the bike with the battery isolated. The key can ony be removed in the battery isolated position. The switch could be mounted in the headlamp shell but on my Comet I did not want to cut holes in the headlamp so my switch is mounted on the frame tie.

Missing 'l'
 
Top