Magneto woes

nkt267

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Has anyone out there ever tried to reclaim a very worn drive end bearing housing on a K1F?
The mag that was restored about 3 years ago let go of the drive end bearing, another trip home in the recovery van.
It appears that the drive end must have been worn when it went to the restorers as there were 2 insulating washers in that end.
The problem about doing this again is that 2 will not do the job, also it is my view that fitting 2 insulators moves the oil seal up the taper. Yes the mag was full of oil as well.
I was told by one guy to epoxy the bearing in,complete with insulator of course, but I'm not sure about this( or what would be the best epoxy.
I'm thinking of machining the recess out and shrinking an alloy ring in and machining back to size.
Anyone any better ideas, and yes I know I can buy a BTH for nearly £600..John
 

vibrac

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I think the machining out seems the correct thing to do now to find a sympathetic competent machinist....


keep us informed
 

nkt267

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Well I'm very sympathetic,or is that just pathetic? How good at machining is to be seen.
 

Howard

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Machining, and sleeving back to original is probably the best option. The other is to find a bearing with the same i/d and a slightly larger o/d and just bore out the body to suit - not having the sleeve is one less thing to come loose/get wrong. http://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/ This site will tell you the bearings and seals available, if there's one to fit - sometimes sleeving is the only option.
Good Luck

H
 

aldeburgh

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Non-VOC Member
Is it contagious John? I have just been for a gallop on the comet , all seemed well until on the way home after having covered approx 40miles she started to miss and f@rt until finally coming to a halt. The Gods must have been looking out for me as it finally gave up on the A140 but within the village boundary and only required a short but embarassing push home, after suitable refreshment I proceeded with the post-mortem ,no spark, oiled earthing brush and a fair bit of up & down play on the drive end.........B£gg£r it!:(
 

greg brillus

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The easiest fix would be to find a replacement housing......I have the same problem to fix on a K2-F off of a 54 BSA Road Rocket with a flogged out drive end bearing housing, so will just find another housing and rebuild per normal........Greg.
 

Ken Tidswell

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you should get it bushed back to the original size ,or get another endplate the right size . Tony Cooper in Halesowen hold parts, Ken
 

nkt267

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I have another 2 bodies but only 1 possibly might be ok.
I am going to experiment with some alloy plate and fit rings into them and see what happens when heat is applied, just to make sure that the inserts wont come loose.I had thought of heating and loctiting the insert in place but I tried that once and found that the loctite appeared to set almost instantaneously
Shame your not local greg I have a few K2F bodies. John
 

Magnetoman

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Has anyone out there ever tried to reclaim a very worn drive end bearing housing on a K1F?
Restored three years ago, two insulators fitted, bearing came loose, full of oil -- you definitely need to find a different rebuilder.

If I were faced with this problem I would machine the housing to take a ring that I would press fit and then machine to properly fit the bearing. This is a fairly straightforward job, although the deep recess makes it more difficult than otherwise would be the case. If I'm not able to see what I'm doing I'm sure I go quite a bit slower than a professional machinist would but, as a guess, it probably would take me less than two hours to have the housing completely reclaimed. If I'm not too far off on this guess, that means you should be able to find a professional machinist to do this for around $100.
 

Bill Thomas

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VOC Member
Hello John, Are you sure the bearing was at fault, If you have too many shims under the cam housing it would give you the same problem, It might be worth fitting a big engine breather, Cheers Bill.
 
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