Britbike forum Forums Projects started by Britbike forum members Members bike projects '37 Rudge Ulster

I love seeing this work but it also makes me feel guilty about the lack of progress on my own '37 Special. So many projects, so little time....

Hey, Alex, long time no see.

You still racing at all?

Nope. Other priorities right now but I hope to be back playing in the dirt at least next year.

...I got the mudguards back from getting the powder coating removed. they were chemically stripped then soda blasted. There there is evidence of quite a bit of pitting corrosion and the thickness was reduced by corrosion around some of the bolt holes but they're certainly salvageable.

There were some minor dents that were worked out with a planishing hammer and dolly.

Filling the surplus and damaged holes required a bit of plating and welding. The method I used was to clean up the holes with a round file then using a step drill to open them up until they were round and removing the corroded feather edges. Discs of 1mm mild steel sheet were then punched out to match the hole diameters, then formed to match the curve of the mudguard profile. The discs were adjusted by minor filing and stretching by peening to be a press fit in the holes and supported by a copper backing strip clamped in place. After tacking they were TIG welded in place, this proved to be a bit of a challenge as the old corroded metal was "fizzing" due to the contaminates and wanting to blow through. Not the prettiest of welds as result but they are ground flush anyway.

Also, this was the first time I tried my new true colour welding mask, it's like someone turned the lights on (in a good way), I can highly recommend to anyone who does a bit of welding.

Did you make the dies for punching out the discs?

The newer masks are a blessing. So are cheater lenses. Thinks go a little better when one can actually see what’s going on.

No, it was purchased. Sold as a jewellers disc cutter for use with a hammer, but works well on 1mm ms sheet in a hydraulic press.

...some progress on assembling the rear mudguard, but the fit between the fixed and removable sections needs to be better. I will try a bit more bending and hammering but I may need to make a wooden buck to reform the edge of the fixed section.

I finally received the stainless steel hex bar stock that I order before xmas, so was able to get some more Fasteners made.

I had a look at those disc cutters. By the time shipping costs are added, I’m probably better off to just make one and can probably get away with just 1 or 2 sizes. Definitely makes sense to have something that can punch them out.
Fasteners look good. Wish I could get the British stuff. Needed to make a couple....the drawing calls for .710 and can only get .750 ..... although I likely shouldn’t be admitting that is a problem for me.

Take a sheet of your patch metal to your local metalworker who has a Rotex punch. Ask him to punch some holes in it but to please collect up and save the discs for you. Our local guy looked at me funny until I explained they were to make synchro spring shims for a Jag Moss box. I had 4 different thicknesses that he punched and carefully collected up for me.

Ever heard of a "knockout" punch? Electricians use them.

Yes, your disc will have a hole in the middle, but you can weld that up, too.

...fitted the new tool box that was among the parts that came with the bike. It is very well made and fitted well. I did need to make some minor adjustments to the front bracket and make a new rear bracket - which was missing - out of mild steel flat bar.

The tool box seems to be in the correct location based on dimensions for the mounting holes that I found and period catalogue images, but it does rest on the pillion foot rest boss when open, it's not really a problem and I suppose it's supposed to be like this?

I am not familiar with Rudge but my pre-war Triumph tool box does exactly the same thing so my gut feeling is that yes, that's how it is.

John

...there were two oil tanks that came with the bike, one has a hole where the threaded fixing boss for the spacer bolt connecting to the battery carrier has broken out. The other one has had the same boss and threaded hole soldered up, presumably because it had also been damaged and was leaking.

As the tanks are fabricated using soft soldering, after removing the paint, I decided to desolder (using MAP gas and an airline), clean and re-solder the best of the two tanks

I took the opportunity to knock out some small dents in the tank while it was apart.

When reassembling I made a larger doubler plate to reinforce the threaded boss that was leaking.

Upon inspection of the connection fittings - the filler neck, oil outlet connection and drain plug fitting all looked sound, but the oil inlet connection had a crack in the solder on the inside. So this was removed and cleaned also and refitted with a reinforcement collar.

After tinning, I re-soldered using 40/60 tinmans stick solder and a butane torch.

Seems to have sealed up well but I will leave it sitting for a few days full of white spirit as a leak test, I'll then low pressure air test it and inspect using snoop liquid.

Very nice solder work.

I googled Snoop Liquid and got a surprise. It's an actual product by Swagelok who also does high pressure aerospace hydraulic plumbing. I have installed their plumbing in DC10's. So anyway, it's a high tech type of soapy water bubble test and I have to say, serious overkill for an old British bike oil tank..

Impressive...

...I finally got my other bikes serviced, some minor repairs done and ready to ride when the snow stops; so, I can now focus again on the Rudge project.

The resoldered oil tank has been sitting full of white spirt for the last 2 months with no sign of leakage so I got it fitted.

After reading up on the battery carrier assembly - it seems that I have everything that should be there except for the cover screw, so I made one as I have the original factory drawing for this.

My first thought was
who in their right mind makes a cover screw ? ... and now I want to make one .

Very nice. Only one teeny tiny comment, I think I would have done the knurl right at this point, before completely parting off the cover screw. One less setup, well supported, quick.

That was certainly an option, but I needed to make the set up in the collet chuck anyway after parting to turn the domed end, this operation is not shown in the photographs.

I decided the smaller area to be knurled (always a benefit when knurling stainless on a hobby lathe!) was preferable to the wider knurled area and greater rigidity before parting and doming.

...some minor progress. I straightened the foot rests and supports, they weren't far out and I was able to cold bend them back into the correct position.

I fitted the replacement gearbox foot control ratchet centre and bottom locking plates. I made a CAD drawing from the factory print and sent the file off to a bloke who profile plasma cut the plates. The bolt holes were undersized on the plasma cutting profile drawing so that they could be reamed to final size. The bolt holes on the centre plate were match drilled with the corresponding holes in the top and bottom plates after orientating the control ratchet peardrop assembly into the optimal position, as advised on the original factory drawing. The internal ratchet mechanism components were all found to be in good condition so I only replaced the springs, cleaned, greased and reassembled in the peardrop housing.

The gearbox casing screws were replaced with (what I believe) are the correct ones for the year. However, I was concerned with the limited clearance between the end of the swivel bolt for the foot change link rod and the mechanism cover, so I made up a custom bolt and swivel assembly to provide a bit more clearance.

A job i've been putting off is to straighten the pillion foot rest mounting bosses on the chain stays. As it turned out, it wasn't that difficult and only required a bit of carefully applied force with a lever in the right place with no need for heat, hydraulic jacks or special jigs to be made that I had anticipated might be required.

Checking against the factory drawing I found that the offset and torsional alignment also needed a slight adjustment. This explained the springing apart of the rear dropout plates when the rear axle was slackened. With the correct offset and parallel alignment of the dropout plates with the face of the chain stay that bolts to the fame, the gap between the drop out plates is now just 1mm greater that the assembled wheel, brake and spacer assembly.

I'll recheck the wheel alignment when I refit the rear wheel.

Anyone with the equipment, materials, and skills, that's who!

(that leaves me out, I no longer have access to a lathe, mill, and other specialty equipment; plus, I'm done doing that level of stuff)

@Bry, this stuff you're doing is amazing. Leaves me in the dust, but loving it.

Watch some of this guys videos. Sometimes he uses a piece of (hand held) high speed steel to shape things.... similar to a wood lathe.
It’s actually surprising how gratifying it is to make Fasteners..... or almost anything for that matter. Wouldn’t be unusual to find me asking strangers if they want to see my gear.




4340AFE9-4014-48D5-8C97-38ED108B3740 by First Last, on Flickr

Anything for a laugh.

...the rear wheel spindle groove that the locating journal in the brake plate carrier engages in to turn the LH eccentric cam chain adjuster had quite a bit of wear where it interfaces with the journal. This caused the LH and RH eccentric cams to be out of sync and would not align the rear wheel correctly when adjusting.

Otherwise the spindle and associated components were found to be straight and in good condition.

I built up, by welding, the worn edge of the groove and ground down the weld to the thread OD. Using a small grinding wheel, dressed to match the profile of the groove, I made a new groove, then recut the thread.