Monoblocs were introduced in '54.
thankfully she came with an owners maual, paul richardson's "the vincent", 1960 printing of motorcycling magazines maintenance series on the B through D range, and a spare parts list for B and C with the 52 and 54 supplements. the clutch doesn't look that daunting and evidently works well if set up right or they'd never have achieved any status in the early days as a superbike. the drum system must have thrown the industry on it's ear when new i expect.
nother brief question or two if i may. when did the concentrics come out across the board as it's got the later flange type inlet manifolds on it and a soon to be evicted pair of wal phillips 1" 3/16 injectors?
and on the points end of the magneto is a cap with a wire draped out of it. i'm assuming this is a kill switch type apparatus but the wire currently runs to nothing. is this to simply be earthed out through a switch dirt bike style as with a lack of valve lifter there'd be no quick "polite" way of otherwise shutting it down.
dumb question i assume but do engine parts come up in a classifieds section of MPH from time to time? a long shot i know but if someone had an irreclaimable bottom end with a salvable valve lifter it'd save me an ankle in years to come. luckily the bulk of the rest of the bike is all there though in varying states of kitsch. quite why anyone would have chromed that much of anything is well beyond my reckoning.
thank you all for your help and comments. theres another one at least in the region but as i don't know the owners i'd rather deal with those who utilise the net the same as i. the other forums i belong to for varied vehicles are generally a font of information and less straining than picking just one persons brain in person plus whatever is written up can be returned to for reference at will.
thanks tom. am hoping to get out to the bike this weekend to play on it for a few hours and sus out quite what else i'm missing in the way of bolts and easily noted parts. may hopefully get it fired and running to some degree if all goes to plan but she's slept this long so another month or two can't hurt. would like to hear that all goes round and round as per how it should, then bite the bullet and pluck off the timing case to see what i'm missing. might try to sort out the earthing wire while i'm at it in case she does run.