Camshaft availability.

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Graham Smith

Guest
The correct way to contact Club Officials…

Yes, there is a Club Official who is in charge of the Drawings Project. That person is of course Arthur Farrow, the Club's Drawings Manager.

However, most elected and appointed Officials of the VOC don't monitor this forum 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (unlike many companies who have the luxury of a number of paid staff who monitor this sort of website, and can answer such questions), all VOC Officials are unpaid volunteers who have huge demands on their time (like most other people these days).

This forum, isn't the place to ask official type questions about such things. The correct way of asking such a question would be to write a 'conventional' letter to Arthur Farrow (not a two line e-mail). The address for all VOC officials is printed on the inside front cover of MPH

Now, I'm not suggesting this is the case in this instance, but the problem with the internet, e-mail and this forum, is that it's far too easy for someone to write a 30 second, two line e-mail to a Club official, demanding the answer to a question that will potentially take that particular Club Official hours and hours of work to answer. Because of this, I know at least one Club Official who refuses to answer questions of this type that are received via e-mail.

I hope this helps.
 
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Graham Smith

Guest
I spoke (via an old fashioned telephone conversation) to Arthur Farrow earlier on, and he informed me of the following:

Mk 1s - These are not currently available through the VOC Spares Company Ltd., but they placed an order some time ago, and are still waiting for an anticipated delivery date (don't hold your breath).

Mk 2s - Gary Robinson (who advertises in MPH) sells these BRAND NEW.

MK 3s - Patrick Godet has a limited supply of these, but they are very expensive, and Patrick doesn't normally sell spare parts to 'Joe Public'.

This unfortunately is all I am able to tell you.

Should anyone have any further questions about anticipated delivery date for the Mk 1 cams, then I suggest David Meadowcroft at the VOC Spares Company Ltd. is the person to speak to.
 

BlackLightning998

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Len - It appears Arthur Farrow is the man to enquire of for your RFM?

Len,
I deduce from Graham's posting that it would suggest that Arthur Farrow is your man to enquire of by letter to identify the whereabouts of your RFM.
Cheers
Stuart

Yes, there is a Club Official who is in charge of the Drawings Project. That person is of course Arthur Farrow, the Club's Drawings Manager.

However, most elected and appointed Officials of the VOC don't monitor this forum 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (unlike many companies who have the luxury of a number of paid staff who monitor this sort of website, and can answer such questions), all VOC Officials are unpaid volunteers who have huge demands on their time (like most other people these days).

This forum, isn't the place to ask official type questions about such things. The correct way of asking such a question would be to write a 'conventional' letter to Arthur Farrow (not a two line e-mail). The address for all VOC officials is printed on the inside front cover of MPH

Now, I'm not suggesting this is the case in this instance, but the problem with the internet, e-mail and this forum, is that it's far too easy for someone to write a 30 second, two line e-mail to a Club official, demanding the answer to a question that will potentially take that particular Club Official hours and hours of work to answer. Because of this, I know at least one Club Official who refuses to answer questions of this type that are received via e-mail.

I hope this helps.
 

Vic Youel

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
Drawings project

Graham,

Did the Drawings Manager give any information on the status of cam drawings and will the VOCSC cams (when they are availble) be made in accordance with club drawings?

Also did he know which cams, and from what source, the club shadow uses?

As you know I am very interested in the findings and flow of information to members from the drawings project.

Vic
 
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Graham Smith

Guest
Hi Vic

No, I didn't go into any great detail with Arthur about Cams, as it was quite a short conversation while he was on his mobile walking round the auto-jumble at Kempton. The reason I spoke with him, was so I could put some sort of a reply on here, albeit basic.

I'm sure if you speak to Arthur (phone number on the inside of MPH), he'll give you all the information you require.
 

Tom Gaynor

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
Cam design

This time I checked the book instead of relying on my recollection......

PEI explains in his autobiography how he "designed" the cams (pages 345-6 and 374).
The cams for the B Shadow were blue-printed Rapide cams, similar but not identical to the pre-war Comet. The Comet cams were modified by PEI (in the light of the series B's different follower geometry) to get the same valve timing.
"Meantime", PCV had undertaken to prepare a Shadow for John Edgar for a record attempt at Bonneville in September 1948. It was now May 1948. The bike would have to be shipped in August.
PEI thought it would need a bit more oomph, and "hotter" cams were an obvious step. The cam master was made by PEI himself by cutting a narrow slot in a set of Shadow cams, soldering a piece of steel plate into the slot, and modifying that until he got the figures (timing, overlap, lift) he thought were going to be needed to break the existing record (136 mph). He was helped by an apprentice, one John Surtees. I wonder whatever happened to him?
Executive summary: PEI made a master to produce the timing he thought was needed, hardened and ground several sets of cams from the master, checked the timing of those, made a large scale template from the new cams, then made a drawing from the template. Those were obviously "Mark II", so the earlier ones must be "Mark I": history written backwards, as is most history.
That raises the intriguing possibility that since the drawing could only be an approximation to the cam profile, limited as drawings were then to circular arcs and straight lines, then "new", "official VOC" Mark II cams, made to a drawing, wouldn't be the same as cams made from the master. Oh, dear. Arthur'll be bending that mobile 'phone again.......
 
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