Spares Co G1 Kickstart Cover Question

[youngjohn]

I'm fitting a new Spares Co G1 cover, and the internal screw bosses sit over the outer lip of the G51 sprocket cover which sits slightly proud on my bike. This prevents the cover (ever so slightly) from sitting flat against the plate G50. Is this a clever way of keeping the G51 in place, or am I safe to take a bit of metal away from the inside of the bosses and get things sitting dead flat?

The new G1 cover is good in the sense that it is quite a lot meatier and therefore stronger than the old one but I have had to trim a fair bit of metal away around the top right hand corner to allow it to fit in against the timing chest, also some from the inside to clear the gear lever stop bolts.

 

[1660bob]

Hi John, I`m in the same position,observations similar.I think the covers are good,but need a little work.The "meatiness" makes the original look very flimsy and its re-assuring to have so much extra round the kickstart stop-which was punched clean off my old one hence the purchase.Mine was rough cast, and took a lot of flatting and profiling with emery to make it look like the original. I too found that I had to take off a lot of excess at the top R/H corner to clear the timing case,(my original one was factory "fettled" here anyway) and some at the bottom right to help clear the exhaust pipe.No probs re the gear lever stop bolts though.If I really HAVE to moan, the gear position numbers are a tiny bit vague and not as nicely detailed as the original,(different casting process?) and when all screws are in, the bottom right screwhead binds on the counterbore a tad - that could be my G50 in any case,hardly a big deal. I do think the internal bosses are there to hold G51 in place, but I had no problems with the cover going up flush, is your G51 sat right down in the G50 ?
All in all I think the cases are pretty good, well machined and substantial: 9.5/10! Bob.

 

[bmetcalf]

YJ, can you post photos with a pencil pointing to where you are talking about? It sounds as if you have plenty of metal to cut away, but you could get the standard wide range of conflicting opinions if you had pix for us to see.;-);-)

 

[len.c]

Most of the vincent parts are pretty good but some parts need fettling to make them fit, As a hobby I have restored quite a few cars and bikes over the years and in my experience a lot of the parts we pay a lot of money for are absolute crap,some of the electrical fittings especially ,for this reason I always fit reliable fuses as a matter of course. HAPPY NEW YEAR. len.c

 

[roy the mechanic]

What we are dealing with are known in the trade as "pattern parts" Where the hell they got the patterns from is another story. I get the impression that the guys at the factory spent longer making the cases+ covers fit together than actually erecting the power unit- hence all those matching numbers. There lies the root of the problem, when you have to do the matching-up for the first time it goes something like-"help mum" My best advice would be BE BOLD ,if its only a pattern part you can always buy another, you will not be wrecking anything of any historical importance!

 

[youngjohn]

I'll try to post some pics soon. I really don't mind 'fettling' parts, and I fully understand that we are dealing with hand made 60 year old bikes, but this @*@@** cover has taken a solid days work to get anywhere near fitting. All screw holes had to be reamed out by about 10 thou, the kickstart and gear lever bushes needed reaming out to stop the shafts binding (not that they were too tight - just slightly out of line when screwed up), the bracing post on the inside of the cover fouled the kickstart pinion, internal bosses fouled the gear lever stop bolts, and the top left corner needed material off both the inside and the outside of the cover. I've had to turn down the diameter of the washers on the nuts that fix the G50, and the nut at the top r/h nut on G50 nearest the timing case has had to have one of the corners ground away to allow clearance. I think that efforts to make the cover stronger have ended up making it a bit too thick almost everywhere.

I'm looking on the bright side though. It should make the bike go faster as it weighs about half as much as it did when it arrived. Maybe I got a 'Friday afternoon' job, I hope they aren't all like this.

 

[bmetcalf]

A lump of aluminum, suitable for making a Vincent part from.

 

[roy the mechanic]

Try to imagine what all this faffing around would have cost you if you gave it to a proffesional restorer ! Personally I would have returned it "from whence it came" with a strongly worded letter AND a pot of vaseline!

 

[dagriise@online.no]

Bruce Metcalf hit the nail spot on!!! "A lump of aluminium, suitable to make a Vincent part from." I have (almost) buildt a new engine from parts, and trust me NONE of the cast parts fitted togheter, or against adjacent mechanics with out serious reworking! (I wont go into details, as the list is long!) This has ment grinding, milling, reaming and turning.... I find it very anoying that every time the you think you are done, something else pops up! In my book one should be able to buy a part, and fit it, with out all this "redoing" beeing nescesary! (i upgraded to a new Commando crank case some years back, and everything fitted perfect...) All in al i think the Vincent community has to do some "cleaning up", when it comes to manufacture of new parts. (knowing these kind of problems have been adressed before...)

Regards Dag Riise
(soon finishing my Egli!)

 

[youngjohn]

UPDATE - I've now discovered that the holes on the outside of the cover that the screw heads sit in are too deep, causing the screws that tighten into the elongated nuts to bottom out, so these will need shortening. It just keeps getting better....