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The Luck of the Irish or was it Irish luck?

The AJS and Matchless Owners Club organise several rallies a year, and one of these is the International Rally. Members have travelled far and wide to attend these rallies in places like Norway, Portugal, Italy and even New Zealand.

A few years ago a group of members who live in the Republic of Ireland were persuaded to organiseethe rally in the heart of their country. The site chosen was in a village called Street. The nearest large town was Mullingar that is situated in Ireland’s ‘Lake district’.the rally in the heart of their country. The site chosen was in a village called Street. The nearest large town was Mullingar that is situated in Ireland’s ‘Lake district’.

The International Rally is usually held over a long weekend late May or early June, and Julie and I decided to take our motorhome over for an extended stay that would include a visit to the rally. We would spend around 10 days touring around the southern end of the island and then go to the rally. We would strap our Matchless G15 twin onto the motorcycle carrier at the rear.

The Emerald Isle is indeed a green and pleasant land because it rains a lot, and with this in mind we packed lots of spare waterproofs to allow one set to be drying out as we ventured out on the Matchless to sightsee.

We had a few days in the Wicklow Mountains and then headed further south. We don’t like tourist traps, but the Killarney National Park and the Dingle peninsula in the south west corner was a must visit. We found a campsite near the centre of Killarney town and used this as a base to explore the region. An early weekday start gave us a pretty clear run around the Dingle peninsular. This peripheral road offers great views and the ride is enjoyable if you can avoid the many tour coaches that always appear full of Americans. I would imagine that many of them were over ‘the pond’ to try and trace their ancestor’s footsteps.

The weather so far had been brilliant, but you know the saying “Pride before a fall”, and it started to rain heavily one morning as we ventured out to explore some new vistas. However, it only lasted about an hour and the rest of the day was in sunshine. Will our weather luck hold out?
It was a Sunday and with the prospect of tourists in abundance we decided to head further inland to be in the “middle of nowhere”. I plotted a route using as many small roads as possible and headed for the hills.

In the middle of nowhere

We were having a great ride and climbing a descent hill when “clank” and we had no drive to the rear wheel. The chain was broken, but a quick inspection revealed that it wasn’t the split link that had gone. This was a little worrying, as although I usually carry a spare split link and a few tools this looked a bit more serious. Sure enough, we had broken down “in the middle of nowhere” and we didn’t have a signal on the mobile phone.

We could just see a bungalow at the end of a longish driveway, but his was the only habitation for miles. Just as we were about to walk up towards the bungalow we were met by a car. The gentleman enquired in a lovely Irish accent if we needed help. “We would be very grateful” was our response. “It’s Sunday today. I’m just popping out to get a newspaper. If you can, push your bike up the drive and park outside the garage door. I’ll be back soon”.
The weather was warm and sunny again, so heaving the bike up the hill we got a sweat on. The man returned and told us that he repaired cars as a sideline and we could use his tools if that would be a help. He opened the garage doors to reveal a fully equipped workshop. “Help yourselves to any of the tools”. Was this a dream?

Doors open revealing lots of tools	Working on the bike

We set about repairing the chain. My theory on the snapped chain was a stone had flipped up and damaged the chain as it went round a sprocket. A side plate was broken, but also two rollers were split open. Again I checked the split link and it was perfect. My only option was to shorten the chain by a link and rejoin with my spare split link.

 

Angle grinder was useful	Hammers are great

To get the necessary slack I removed the adjusting screws from the swinging arm and pushed the wheel spindle right up to the ends of the fork slots. There was just enough slack!
The Irishman appeared with his wife and four children half way through my endeavours to fix the problem using an angle grinder etc. “As I said, it is Sunday and I am taking the family to Mass. The Swarfega and towel are next to the sink. Please close the doors before you leave. Have a nice day”. He and his family disappeared down the road leaving Julie and myself in charge of several thousand euros worth of kit; what a nice man! The Swarfega worked well and so had the tools because the bike ran as sweet as a nut the rest of the day. When we arrived back in England I put 10 euros in an envelope and hoped that he would enjoy a Guinness on us.

We left Killarney and had a midway stop for a couple of nights in Askeaton, a nice historical town in County Limerick on the banks of the river Deel. If you telephoned ahead you could camp for free in the swimming pool car park and also use the facilities with no charge. We woke the next morning after a great nights sleep, but as we looked out of the motorhome window we could see lots of horses tethered on every bit of surrounding grass. We mentioned this to the swimming pool manager and he said that they belonged to ‘the travellers’. “They are nuisance and quite often they will come and tether a horse in the middle of your pristine front lawn”. We didn’t have any bother and really enjoyed the town.

One piece of local history was that the town hosted a local ‘Hellfire Club’. The club was one of many in both England and Ireland where rich young rakes indulged in ceremonial drinking, dining, gambling and carousing. A few clubs crossed the line into sex, blasphemy and sheer bloody badness - or so the rumour goes. Our local AJS/Matchless Club section visited one in West Wycombe a few years ago on a Posh Weekend – no we didn’t join in (unfortunately).

Off we set to join the rally a little further north. The weather was still perfect and actually it was a little too hot for many. We had the usual run out in a ‘snake’ of bikes. All the locals were out because the press had published articles in advance of the do. Everyone waved, from tots to grand parents, as circa 200 bikes of the marque wound their way along the country lanes in brilliant sunshine.

Hellfire Club West Wycombe

Packed into the village square	Irish band

The rally was a success despite some problems of under estimating the number of participants and the needs of so many campers in a small village set up, but that is another story about “showers without water” and the infamous “ting”, that I might tell you about some time……. and by the way we only had that one hour of rain in 17 days. Who says it rains in Ireland?  John Grew

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Matchless G11 600cc Twin - Lucas E3L Dynamo 12v Conversion - Part 2

As per John Earp’s comment, I apologise for the lengthy script but, as he found, describing even basic technical stuff results in a fair bit of detail. It is easier to send off components to specialists but for some not so rewarding with that sense of achievement when complete. 

I hope this write up encourages others to have a go themselves, especially when the replacement parts are available.

Four days after placing the order the replacement parts arrived by courier.  After checking the contents against my order and with all correct I could start to dismantle the dynamo, but only after taking a couple of photographs showing the wiring connections.

Upon removal of the two long fasteners, the armature, still with the drive end attached and complete, could be withdrawn from the dynamo body.  With the armature gripped in the vice I started to undo the pinion gear bolt. This bolt is fitted with a tab washer but the locking mechanism was not present.  The head of the bolt is in a recess so either a ring, box spanner or a socket is needed. I found the bolt to be very tight and both my 12 point ring spanner and socket did not have sufficient purchase.  Fortunately I have another metric socket set with hexagon sockets and, much to my relief,  the 15mm socket was a snug fit on the bolt head with a light tap from a copper mallet.  Although tight all the way out the fastener came undone, the bolt had been installed with a coating of Loctite.

Next task was to extract the pinion gear which is a press fit onto the parallel shaft with the drive provided by two woodruff keys.  Easier said than done, as there is minimal clearance behind the pinion therefore no room to use the small extractor I had bought especially for this job.  Behind the pinion bearing is a hardened steel spacer where the lip seal bears.  The seal housing bore is smaller than the pinion OD.  Nothing can be removed from the drive end until the pinion is extracted.

With caution out came a couple of small screwdrivers to gently apply leverage to the pinion, I could not risk damaging the mechanical seal housing.  The pinion, as expected, was very tight. Recalling the retaining bolt was coated with Loctite it was a safe assumption the pinion was also assembled with Loctite.  Out came the blow lamp to gently apply heat to the pinion without overheating the pinion teeth nor burning the mechanical seal as the replacement was still in the post.  At last some slight movement was felt. Now encouraged slightly larger screwdrivers were used until there was a sufficient gap to make use of the extractors.  With the pinion successfully removed the spacer and the seal housing was easily removed.

Now to remove the drive end bearing which has to be extracted, before the bearing housing can be removed.  The housing would push back but not far enough to allow the bearing extractor legs to engage behind the bearing.  With the armature between the slackened jaws of the vice and the bearing housing pulled up against the vice the end of the armature was lightly struck with the copper mallet, the bearing shifted on the shaft sufficiently for the extractors to be used.

At the commutator end of the armature I only required to remove the screw at the end of the shaft.  Now I had removed all the re-useable parts from the unserviceable 6 volt armature.

Next task, which I was a bit apprehensive about, was to remove the 6 volt field coil from the dynamo body.  At the Burton VMCC talk on Dynamos Andrew had warned about the risk of deforming the dynamo body when removing the field coil shoe retaining screws.  Although I had bought new replacement screws rather than drill out the old screws, as Andrew advocates, I decided I would attempt to remove both screws, simply because I still had to adequately support the dynamo body when tightening the new screws.  Taking heed of a tip from Don Sales to make use of a pillar drill and support the dynamo body in the drill vice I decided to give it a go with a simple addition of inserting a shaped piece of wood to provide another load path across the bore of the dynamo body.  I selected a decent bit of wood but not too hard as I had got to shape it to spread the load on the diameter of the bore of the dynamo body and the shape of the coil shoe.  I roughed out the shape on both sides of the wood and frequently tried it into the gap until I could drive it into the gap with a very snug fit with enough length protruding to locate on the pillar of the drill to prevent the body rotating when applying a rotational torque to each screw.  See pic 1a.  Because I had not degreased the internals of the dynamo the blackened grease marked the high areas of the wooden block indicating where to shave more wood to obtain a good fit.  See pic 1b

1a	1b

The dynamo body with the wood inserted and located on the vice was positioned on the pillar drill.  See pics 2a & 2b.  A hexagon drive flat screw bit fastened in the chuck was lowered so it was securely located in the slot of the first screw.  With a vertical load applied the torque to undo the screw was applied via the chuck.  It was solid with no sign of movement.  Out came the centre punch and small hammer.  After a few firm taps with the point of the centre punch suitably angled, the screw started to rotate.  Same with the 2^nd screw. Back into the drill, both screws were still tight but gradually they both unscrewed. Loctite was visible of both the threads.  Both the 6v coil and shoe were removed.  See pics 3a to 3c inc.

2a	2b

3a	3b

3c	4a

After degreasing and cleaning the reusable parts assembly commenced.  I started to install the 12v Field Coil.  I slipped the coil over the shoe and offered the pair into the body of the dynamo but the new screws would not engage with the tapped holes in the shoe.  There was a noticeable gap between the shoe and dynamo body interface.  See pic 4a.  The cause of the problem was the new coil was too wide and was in contact with the dynamo bore.  I had a dilemma, should I proceed and draw up the shoe using longer screws and deform the coil, but risk damaging the coil by breaking the internal wire insulation or halt proceedings to consider my options.  I chose the latter.

The 12v coil appeared larger than the removed 6v coil.  When measured, the overall width was 6mm wider but also the internal width was approximately 3mm wider. So, in theory, there was some room to reduce the width. However I certainly did not want to damage the coil through lack of experience at a financial cost of £45 plus postage together with the hassle and time delay for getting a replacement.  Proceedings were delayed whilst a query with a couple of photos were sent via email to Andrew asking if this was “normal” for a new coil and was it ok for me to proceed.   Andrew replied by return confirming the new coil was typical and prior to fitting he prepared each coil by crimping in a vice to reduce the width.

With some soft wood in place to act as jaw protection against the coil, and the shoe held in place to prevent over crimping, the assembly was positioned in the vice. The vice was gradually tightened whilst checking the freedom of the shoe.  Once the coil gripped the shoe the vice was partially released, the coil naturally opened slightly. With the shoe removed the vice was again tightened slightly beyond the position when the shoe was in place, then relaxed to trial fit the shoe. This was repeated until the coil slipped snuggly over the shoe without pressure applied via the vice jaws.  See pics 4b to 4d inc.  The shoe and coil was then offered up in the dynamo bore, the gap at the joint interface was much reduced and the new screws engaged with the tapped holes.  See pic 4e.  Before tightening each screw I decided to measure the resistance of the coil to check if any damage had occurred.  It measured 11ohms, which is typical for a 12v coil. Phew!

With the two securing screws in place and gradually tightened until the shoe and dynamo body interfaces were in contact I then firmly tapped my piece of wood into the gap between the field coil shoe and dynamo bore.  I then removed each screw, applied a film of Threadlok Loctite and inserted both into their respective holes, gradually tightened each in turn as far as I could with a large screwdriver.  I then positioned the assembly onto the drill vice and under the drill spindle.  Next I lowered the drill spindle to engage the hexagon drive flat screwdriver bit onto each screw and rotated the chuck to fully tighten each screw whilst maintaining sufficient vertical pressure to ensure the bit did not slip from the screw slot.  As when removing each screw it is important not to overload the vertical down force and risk distorting the dynamo body.  With both fasteners tightened, for good measure, and practiced before Loctite was available, I centre popped each screw against the dynamo body.

Part 3 to follow

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You may have heard on the news recently that Sir Stirling Moss has died.  He was of the greats of British motorsport.  He drove all kinds of cars and got the best out of them, to my mind the same as Mike Hailwood in motorcycle racing who raced all kinds of bike and always rode to the best of his ability.  The short video below is a nice tribute:-

 

I am a moderator in the Vincent Owners Club and this morning a member who posts as Vibrac wrote a short post that I think makes a good story.  I asked him if he would mind if I used it here.  He said OK by him and even supplied me with a photograph that ties in well to the story.  Here it is below. Eddy

I only met Stirling Moss once.  My friend owns and rebuilt a rally Sprite that Stirling had competed in.  He offered it to Stirling only a few (5?) years ago to use at Goodwood. We were by the car in full race trim when Stirling came up, looked it over said it looked good.  He got in the car and banged on the horn, "doesn't work" he said, "no good without a horn, how do I tell the other drivers I need to get past!"
I lived on the Chilterns back in the sixties, Stirling lived down in Tring.  He had a sister Pat.  I had the Vincent twin with quite good lights at the time (Amazing!) I remember Pat Moss Carlsson used to come up Chesham Vale on the way to Tring late on Saturday night and a couple of times I "accidentally" met her where the street lights ended and raced her up Chesham Vale. I knew that road like the back of my hand. She had a white Sasb two-stroke car.  I could beat her when the road opened out on the common after the climb but not on the twisty bits. She would toot her horn as I pulled in at home. she passed away about 10 years ago.  Tim

Pat Moss Carlsson drifting her Saab.  Looks like it could somewhere in Africa.

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A write up on event from John Goodall:-

Another fantastic run I took part in was with the Velocette Owners Club Biennial run to Wennings Farm in Leer, Northern Germany during 2010, known as “The Border Raid”. Leer is situated just over the border beyond Enschede towards Munster. This was organised by Mike Ayriss of the East Midlands Section Velocette OC. The British contingent all met up on route to Hull north of Nottingham A52/A46 Services and then rode in convoy. I think there were six of us including Bob Higgs and the late Tom Tunnicliffe from our local area. It rained off and on virtually the whole weekend from Friday to the Monday when we returned home. I was riding a 1957 Viper 350cc, Bob was on his Special 500cc  Venom with many home made features including leading link forks and cast alloy primary drive case and Tom on his Thruxton. We boarded the boat with a large contingent of HD riders going to a camping weekend in Holland and we saw them for many miles after disembarking in Rotterdam, usually when we were overtaking them as we cruised at 70-75MPH most of the way. We arrived at Heinrich Wennings farm late in the afternoon in a dry period. It is officially billed as a camping weekend, but a barn was utilised where campers could place their sleeping bags. I opted to use a local small Hotel along with two or three others. I think wisely as it turned out, less to carry as  well?

After breakfast the next day we all assembled at the farm and met some of the other riders from Holland, Germany and France. There were two riders on Moto Guzzi machines from the UK who had been touring, Nigel Lines was on his honeymoon I think?? Malcolm Smith and his wife who had also been touring were in a Mazda MR2 sports scar all were now present. We then went to visit a “wind  farm” in the Wenning farm grounds which was very interesting as it provided much of the income covering farm overheads, which also had with a large “swine” herd and a Trout Fish farm.  We continued on to an unusual water park where divers in snorkelling gear negotiate an underwater obstacle course and you could view their progress from underwater cameras. It did rain occasionally this day, but did not spoil the enjoyment too much. We had a light lunch there and then rode back to the farm for a Smoked Trout meal in one of the barns provided by our host which was delicious. Drinks could be purchased from a well stocked table.

The Sunday dawned rather wet and a ride to a German sports car manufacturer making a car named “Gecko” was organised which was closed when we arrived, so all we could do was look through the windows. It was a very futuristic building with a costly looking large steelwork animal meant to be a Gecko sculpture on the roof. The running gear of the car was probably Mercedes, but not sure now? The cars were very nicely styled with two or three body variations evident, although I have never seen one since then. The evening meal was again in the Barn with buy your own drinks available again with very much bonhomie and conviviality.

The ride home was again accompanied by rain, torrential in some places, but all six of the Velocettes managed the 70 plus cruising speed again across Germany and Holland to Rotterdam, we all had full luggage on each bike and Mike Ayriss the leader had his wife on their Venom as well as a tank bag , luggage rack and panniers We stopped once to have a drink, light refreshment and refuel at an unmanned services. I was particularly pleased with the way the Viper performed as all the other machines were 500cc with one Thruxton.

I had many problems with the engine in this bike when it was first rebuilt prior to this ride which had a new (but eccentric as I was later to discover), set of cams provided by a well known supplier who was not interested in any redress at all?? It was a particularly difficult thing to discover why the bike would not perform and I had first tried to use it on The Irish Rally running the engine in I thought, would cure it during the event ,wrong it didn’t?? I realised the valve timing was at fault and advanced it by two teeth on the second day of the Rally. It helped but not much and it was only cured with a used set of cams replacing the duff ones after getting home. So this ride in mostly pouring rain at the time very onerous and demanding with full concentration needed continuously, was in hind sight the most satisfying ride I had on that machine. We met up and again passed many bedraggled HD riders riding back to the port. I seem to remember we averaged well over 60 MPH from leaving Germany to arriving  in Rotterdam mostly in pouring sometime torrential rain. Not many bikes of that period will manage this today. The only changes from standard on the Viper were a12volt alternator and one of Bob Higgs electronic Ignition units which made starting much easier and gave smoother running.

We had fish and chips which went down very well at a restaurant Mike knew on the banked River estuary near the port. You can sit and watch the boats, some massive ships with containers stacked amazingly high passing by to dock. Riding back after reaching Hull Mike noticed he was loosing petrol from his fuel tank which it turned out had developed a crack and we stopped at a Truckstop just outside Lincoln for repairs. Bob “The Builder” Higgs had an epoxy repair kit in his extensive tool kit and some metal from a beer can plus a suitable curing time all went back together with no further leak. The tank bag and luggage reapplied and the journey home was completed without further incident.

The Border raid is no longer run today because both Heinrich and his wife suffered health problems and could not continue their generous sponsorship and hosting. A fabulous event lost.  John Goodall

 Heinrich Wennings with arm raised saying Zay are velly beeg,

Looking up a wind generator

Heinrich Wenning describing the control system in a tower

Trout after smoking

 From right, the late Tom Tunnnicliffe, Bob Higgs and myself in Germany

 The Velocettes and riders at the Gecko factory

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Quiz Chat 14:-  This one will test you knowledge and research skills.  What, where and when?  Answers by by email to edgrew@virginmedia.com

In the pipeline for the next few chats:- Part 4 of Trevor Shakespeare's AJS saga, more articles from John Goodall something from Mick Leach and hopefully more from anyone else out there.  It doesn't have to be a long text, we are not all good story tellers and a picture is worth a thousand words.

Easy things you can do:- a photo of and maybe a few words about your first bike, best bike, worst bike, whatever, etc.  Don't worry if your spelling or grammar isn't great as I will do my best to sort that.  If you have a picture or pictures for an article try to type a caption in your text so that I know where best to put them in the text.  Eddy

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