Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Bsa bulletin board A65 Rocker assembly revisited

In my thread on "A65 Forensics", I discovered a difference in rocker assemblies between this engine, my bitsa engine, the factory Spares manual, and comments from... it was either Gavin or Kommando.

The difference involves whether the last flat washer (with a smaller id) goes inboard or outboard of the rightmost stanchion.

As I hope you can see in the photo, with the shoulder of the rocker shaft butted right up against the rightmost stanchion, the oil grooves and holes in the rocker shaft align exactly with the oil holes in the left and center stanchions (which are centered in the stanchions left-to-right). With that small diameter washer on the shaft, inside the rightmost stanchion, the oil grooves and holes in the rocker shaft DO NOT line up exactly with the oil holes in the stanchions.

This tells me that, if there is to be a thrust washer inside the rocker stanchion (which there should be, to keep the thackery washer from gouging the aluminum), it must be of large enough i.d. to slide over the shoulder on the shaft.

This means that: 1. My bitsa is assembled correctly, and 2. I'm missing two thrust washers for this engine. A fourth thrust washer for each shaft is also missing from the picture in the factory Spares manual, and that I cannot explain.

The washer goes inboard, it's to stop you overdoing the nut and pulling the shaft through the alley.
That washer has the thackery up against it. The thin thrusts go on the centre, both sides and on the
inboard side on the left, where they also have a thackary .

So in your picture left to right,,,,, thin thrust, thackery, rocker, thin thrust,thin thrust, rocker, thackery, small dia washer, outer washer , Nut.
The oil holes can stand some misalignment as only a poofteenth is really required.

Ok, it offends my sense of symmetry and shakes my faith in what I've always considered to be a very clever design for routing oil to the rockers, but I see what you mean Nick; that isn't much of a shoulder on the shaft to provide a stop against the aluminum stanchion.

So I will assemble it as you say, and as the Spares manual implies. Pumping oil through the head and watching it ooze out from the exhaust rockers (as I always do anyway) will give me adequate peace of mind.

I may also add another thin flat washer outside the stanchion, as I don't like the idea of having a split washer against the aluminum.