Series A starting procedure

Clay

Clay

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Hi,

I've superficially stripped and put back together my Series A comet and now repainted the tank in Ford Imperial maroon. I haven't done anything to the engine but I drained the oil, stripped and cleaned the carb and cleaned out the fuel & oil tanks and everything was pretty much spotless inside so I'm thinking it was refilled with clean oil after it was last used and the petrol drained. The plug seems brand new and generally it all looks good.

Next job is to get it started and I'm sure I saw an article somewhere on the step by step process of recommissioning an engine that hasn't been started for a while including making sure that oil is present everywhere before it's started, tappets set up etc.

Does anyone know where I saw this article or can anyone advise of the correct process? I found a process for a Series C engine but not a Series A.
 
greg brillus

greg brillus

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I don't think there is anything special to look at other than get busy with a decent oil can. Remove some of the inspection covers and perhaps some of the feed pipes and prime them using the oil can with some short pieces of flexible fuel line of different sizes to force oil into these fittings. Make sure there is about a half a cup of clean oil on the bottom of the crankcase so the scavenge pump can start returning oil quickly. It would be nice to get some oil flow over the cams/ followers if you can but that might mean sliding the pushrod tubes down so you can squirt some in from the top of each tube. Put some fresh oil into the oil tank so it can bleed its way down to the pump, so the pump is not running/turning dry. Remove the small 3/16 BSW screw in the center of the brass oil quill towards the bottom of the pump and force some oil into the crank mainshaft which will feed the big end rollers. I would also remove the spark plug, put the bike in top gear and get someone to slowly spin the back wheel as you pump oil into this quill, as this will spread oil through the big end more evenly. I believe the tappets are set in a similar way to the post war engines, where the pushrods should spin freely with perhaps the tiniest amount of upward/downward movement. There is no benefit to having tight tappets at all, and a slightly loose tappet never did any harm. Cheers and good luck..............Greg.
 
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Clay

Clay

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Non-VOC Member
I started following Bob Stafford's article. The tank is filled to just above the filter with clean oil. I removed the rocker feed pipes and adjusters and then turned the engine in top gear with the plug out but no oil is coming out of the rocker feeds. I've turned it maybe 50 times, If I put oil down the rocker feed holes from an oil can and turn the engine, the oil slowly flows down, it doesn't pump out.

Can anyone suggest what to do now? The oil tank feed pipe is clear and oil is flowing freely when I disconnect it. The quill is also clean and oilway is clear. The ball bearings seem correct ( although it is dificult to know if the rear one is seated correctly as it rolls out under gravity). If I undo the four cover screws the cover seems to be well fixed to the pump body. Is this just going to be sealant ? I don't want to force it off if not. WhenI do get it off is anything likely to drop out that I need to be aware of?

If anyone can advise the correct dismantly steps and process to check it would be really useful as I can't seem to find anything on the forum.
 
Albervin

Albervin

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Clay said:
I started following Bob Stafford's article. The tank is filled to just above the filter with clean oil. I removed the rocker feed pipes and adjusters and then turned the engine in top gear with the plug out but no oil is coming out of the rocker feeds. I've turned it maybe 50 times, If I put oil down the rocker feed holes from an oil can and turn the engine, the oil slowly flows down, it doesn't pump out.

Can anyone suggest what to do now? The oil tank feed pipe is clear and oil is flowing freely when I disconnect it. The quill is also clean and oilway is clear. The ball bearings seem correct ( although it is dificult to know if the rear one is seated correctly as it rolls out under gravity). If I undo the four cover screws the cover seems to be well fixed to the pump body. Is this just going to be sealant ? I don't want to force it off if not. WhenI do get it off is anything likely to drop out that I need to be aware of?

If anyone can advise the correct dismantly steps and process to check it would be really useful as I can't seem to find anything on the forum.
Click to expand...
72 rotations required to push oil through the system. A member actually did this to test the efficiency of the pump.
 
Clay

Clay

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Non-VOC Member
I discovered the source of the issue. I removed the pump cover and the lower gear wasn't meshing with the upper one. I fixed that, replaced the cover, primed everything again with the oil can and after quite a few rotations the oil started coming up the pipes so success.

The problem now is that I have no spark but I didn't have much time to investigate today.
 
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