I rebuilt one of those a few years back: currently sat in the garage pending a new MOT.

Regards,

James.

Welcome back Wolfie, been a long time, wondered where you went. Sorry about the missus

GL on the project and don't be a stranger

Sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations, Wolfie – but good to have you back.

I remember the BSA Owners club from when I was a teenager. It was about three feet long and made of oak with a big nail through the end..

Neil

Hi Wofie. Sorry to learn of your sad news.

Not quite what you are looking for but Charlie's site http://www.bsaotter.com is worth a visit, also a search for some old Motorcycle Mechanics with C15 content on our favourite internet auction site might be usefull. Haynes do a manual for BSA Unit singles.

A quick google will turn up some useful utube and other sites.

Remember the 'twice' rule will come into play -expense, time, headaches etc x 2 as you thought. And twice the fun when it is one the road. Now if it was Rudge you would have fun x 4!

With many of out 'readers' having an interest in motorcycles, could Neil W or John S start a thread for usones?

Try the Brit bike forum

John , I made some comments about this somewhere, I think there is now a 12volt conversion thread , but yes, Triumph BSA and others all fitted Lucas altenators and so the comments I made about 100w 3 wire and 150 w 2 wire altenators probably apply from Triumph T birds, Ceefers in about 1958/9 250/350/500/650 etc onwards all used identical components. I would always use a silicon rectifier , they cost next to nothing and are 100% reliable. The selenium ones fail when the paint cracks off if I remember. Whilst I love old bikes I have little time for this " Well it's a very nice restoration, but I can't help noticing that the speedometer cable is the wrong colour for the year" type mentality. The first thing people did when they bought a new bike was to take off the bath tub and fit clip ons and rear sets ( and later on maybe apehangers and banana seats), but the idea was to personalise your bike. Show room restorations are great ( if often over done nowadays) , but don't reflect what I saw in our works bike shed………………….

The Lucas rectifier that replaced selenium was made with each diode on its own fin, so that may be what you are remembering, John. No-way should anyone be relying on a selenium version now, as their life is limited even in a dry shed. Not for nothing were they known as rectum-fryers, as the mounting was often just under the seat (with a plywood base, of course).

If you do convert to 12v you can abandon the complex and expensive switch which brings in more windings when you turn the lights on. Just use a 12v zener diode on a heat sink to use up any spare output. And while you are at it, electronic ignition is readily available in 12v (but not in 6v) and should give you steady timing rather than 'somewhere about right' which was the best the auto-advance would manage. And then your bearings will last longer.

Hope this helps – I worked at Small Heath just before the end, but I realised this about a fortnight before they did.

Cheers, Tim

For BSA unit singles Rupert Ratio's books are highly recommended. They give what it should/should not have and all the fixes to make them reliable.

Tim

Probably because it is not in de- ictionary. Sounds like a French surname to me.

Cheers

Bill