Britbike forum Forums Thread Like Summary - rocker oil pipe dbd34

Hi

i have allegedly a DBD34 1957 goldstar, i say this because the engine no is not correct! but it has all the identifying parts of a CB32 engine
may question is the rocker oil pipes go directly to the oil tank, am i correct in believing that the oil from these pipes is a drain and this is ok ?

any advice and or suggestion's or anyone in and around the NG16 area i can talk too


thanks


Shaun'

Hi Shaun,

Your primary case has 3 larger 5/16-BSW case screws at the very front and 1/4-BSW case screws the rest of the way around. Look close at the screw heads and you will see the difference.

Now, the two front lower 1/4"BSW (British Standard Whitworth) primary case screws (on the earlier aluminum primaries) are used for draining and for determining proper oil level. Removing the front-most 1/4" screw allows excess oil to drain out down to the correct level.

It is common for these bikes to "wet sump", meaning that the engine slowly fills up with oil from the oil tank when left unused for a long time. That oil often ends up filling the primary case as well leading to a sticky clutch and oil leaks from behind the clutch and elsewhere.

The routine when my '53 Gold star has been sitting for a year is to drain the crankcase drain plug and the primary case level screw, top up the oil tank and then try to start the thing.

Best of luck. Let us know how it works out.

Stuart Kirk

Hi Shaun,
I sounds like there is too much oil in the primary case, but there can be other causes too??
Down load the service sheets here.. https://www.bsa-oc.com/service-sheets/

Two types of primary case were fitted and as your bike is somewhat unknown setting the level depends on which case is fitted
the older case uses two of the retaining screws as drain and level, the later case has a combined drain and level plug
Do not use an oil designed for car engines, I use 10/30 motorcycle oil, other people use ATF type F

John

Agree with Gordo - it seems the big threaded hole was still in the later engines - perhaps production was set up for that and it was cheaper to keep it that way, or perhaps the later cases were considered as potential replacements for the CN engines, if the need arose.

Shaun: My reading of the development was the fifth long bolt was introduced in 1954 for both CB 32 and 34 engines and then back to the four short bolts in 1955 for both CB engines. That said it seems that the subsequent cases still had the hole for the fifth bolt even when not using it.

For posting photos you need to move up to the higher forum membership status or to use a hosting site for posting your photos.

Gordo

Shaun What parts lead you to think it is a CB32 engine? On the front of the engine near where the front mounting bolts go through there should be two sets of numbers that can at least identify the specs of the engine cases and confirm the two halves are a matching pair.

Can you post photos of your bike?

Gordo

I'll leave it to someone in the UK to point you to local sources for the parts you need for this conversion. I made the same conversion of my Special Competition a couple of years ago to prepare for the future while I'm still young enough to work on the bike, since removing the clip-ons entails rebuilding the forks.

The top of the composite shows its present, still-sporty, configuration with low bars.



Having removed the clip-ons, it now will be easy to swap to ever-higher bars as I age. The bottom of the composite shows the configuration it will have when I make my final ride on the bike, to check myself in at the old folks home.

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