Britbike forum Forums British Motorcycle specific Brands Bsa bulletin board Hornet, Wasp, Spitfire Hornet, Cyclone (Restored)

Leon,
Will you be putting it together for him?

Hornet pipes on Ebay


http://r.ebay.com/cGOvds

They look to be after-market pipes. They've got the famous Snuff-or-Nots.

Here are some photos of the Indian Steel Hornet Spitfire tank. It sat about a 1/2 forward. The filler cap mounting also need some finessing front and rear so the cap would fully open and lock. The petcocks were tapped for Triumph lever type so the fuel lines have to be modified.
Not a bad tank, but attention to details is lacking.

Jon Healy,

Here are the photos of the adjustment to the steel Hornet Spit tank. Sorry I am not sure which supplier I bought it from but it cost was $180.00 plus $80 for shipping.

Tank looks good Richard and ingenious mounting stud set-up !

KILL SWITCH

NOS kill switch, holder, and clamps, in the correct position on the handlebars (according to the factory).

Off at a bit of a tangent here, Cyclone on eBay

It looks the part by and large, but has matching A50C engine and frame numbers where I would have expected non-matching A50B

Looks to be a '66 Hornet. Frame number, which is A50C, is consistent with '66, and engine number is a restamping. Not sure how the seller came up with "Scrambler Cyclone Hornet". Nothing Cyclone about it.

That had me confused for a minute. So somebody just stamped crankcase to match an A50 frame number?

Sure looks to be the case of case restamping. The stamping fonts are all wrong.

Well, I've cleared enough internal combustion projects out of the way so I'm now able to spend some time working on my '67 Hornet. Most everything is currently in boxes so I'll be starting from the frame up.

I disassembled the forks as much as possible to prepare for a rebuild. What is confusing me now is that my forks each have 2 internal springs that surround the fork damper rod (1 short and 1 long (sort of a progressive set up). The 1967 parts manual (pg. 52) does not show these springs. Am I missing something?

I've looked for detailed description of a fork rebuild, but haven't had any luck. I'll probably be replacing the fork tubes, seals and all misc. parts. Before I rebuild, do the lowers need any special treatment internally before reassembly? The damper tubes look good, are they typically re-usable? Finally, will I need any special tools to complete this fork rebuild?
Thanks for the advice!
Tom

Tom,
Can't visualize the 2 springs in there, but doesn't seem correct. You've looked at the spares manual page, so you know how it should be. To add to the page 52 diagram, there are 2 retaining washers (item #37) that sandwich the sealing washer (item #36). And Item #21 goes in the top of the damper tube (#8). It is confusing showing it at the bottom of the damper rod on the page. Also the oil drain screw (#11) aligns with a groove in the side (at the bottom) of the damper tube during installation. That keeps the damper tube from turning while tighning the bottom cap screw.

Fork seals are about all that needs tending to unless the 2 sets of bushings are worn to a point they need replacing. Not usually though. Make sure the bushing nut is tight when re-assembling. I've had to deal with a nut that was undone by a previous owner. Also insure that all of the parts to the damper valve are there and installed in the correct order and orientation. The fork tubes, as long as they are straight, are usually reusable. When re-assembling, good luck with the cap screw (item #15), that bolts the damper tube to the bottom of the sliders. They are oil leakers even with the aluminum sealing washer. So, apply some silicone seal to the cap screw before installing and hope you get lucky with no oil leaks.

The only special tool needed will be to tighten the oil seal holder. There are two notches down in it that a special tool is used to lock in place in the notches to tighten it. The tool can be purchased or make one. I made one from black plumbing pipe using a hack saw and file to make the notch pins, then welded a couple of big bolts to the top "T" style for handles. I use twine as a sealer of the fork seal holder and slide tubes as per the service maual, but some use silicone or similar.

All I could add is that sometimes that thin nut at bottom of tube can be a bitch to get off. I discovered one of my 6 point impact sockets fits on really snug, now never a problem. Gary mentions the special tool to re-install seal holder........you might need it a LOT more to get the seal holder off.

Edit: I guess you already got em apart

Thanks for the details Gary and leon bee. I'll let you know how things go. I'm going to try to post a photo of the springs.

There was a set inside each of the fork tubes! The smaller spring was at the top. Am I even dealing with the correct pair of '67 forks to begin with?

Thats that one pretty much done!
Please dont mention the back arse wards transfer on the RHS tank. That fair slipped through to the keeper!
Otherwise fairly accurate me thinks.






I must admit this took me much longer than I thought. I had it roughly cobbled together for my bike show so I had to srtip it full down and start again from scratch. A 3 month job me thinks!!!Wrong, make that 12 months!
Sid

Very nice west coast model!

I see you opted to utilize the pipe heat sink collars. I like the way they look. They give the pipes a finished apperance.

There is a clip that attaches to the bottom yoke fork tube clamp bolt that holds the front brake cable up along the front fork assembly, so it isn't flopping around. Spares manual gage 50, item 13 (40-5090). You probably already know about it.

Thanks Gary, I have it and I was waiting to find out what side it went:) You can see Ihad it on the other side to hold the clutch cable. Its bloody long and hanging there without anything to secure it!

Yes, the NOS clutch cables are longer than they need to be. I attached it to the opposite side front frame down tube with a John Bull rubber. The cable runs up between the front of the fuel tank and the frame to the left side yoke cable guide. I also run my throttle cables up thru the right side yoke cable guide to keep them "at bay".

I noticed you opted to mount the ET coils facing downward. Any particular reason?

Tom,
Never seen springs like that in '67 forks. Post images of the rest of the fork parts, so we can identify whether they are correct for '67.

No, I thought this was the way they were supposed to be? I had saved a number of images over the years showing them this way, possibly they were all wrong? Have you got any OEM images that can be trusted? Certainly now I check the parts book they indicate them pointing backwards.

This is an image from the original factory flyer of the west coast Hornet. The condensor and points wires can be seen at the bottom of the coils. I have never seen unmolested Hornets with the coils mounted other than this direction. The Spares manual I have (00-5129) show them in the same orientation with the HT lead out of the top..

This is a great thread on these bikes. Just a quick question, I was digging through some of my old cases and parts and ran across a case marked A65EC 14**. I am assuming 1965 Spitfire Hornet because of the A65E. If this is a 1965 what does the C stand for?

C = close ratio. Not the first engine S/N from that vintage to pop up with the C suffix. Is it just cases or complete trans? If complete, count gear teeth to verify if the CR trans is still intact. Nice find if it is.

Quick and dirty way to verify is tooth count on the sliding gears. If they match it is std, if not matching, then at least 2nd or 3rd is CR.

Early CR was 1st & 2nd only. Later changed 3rd also.

Following is a photo of the internals from one of the forks I tore apart. Both are identical (I added the double nut to remove the stud!). They're not very pretty!

I don't remember if the smaller spring was on top or bottom.

My "treasure" boxes did include parts from what is titled as a '67 Hornet (A65HA9445 frame and A65HA9445-Y engine) and some misc. Lightning parts (perhaps a '66) (A65L14820 frame). I only have a '67 parts manual. Could these possibly be the forks for the Lightning since I have two spacers with the headlight ears? I couldn't find any other spacers without the ears.