5. BSA A10 The rebuild begins

I should at this point in the blog mention that I consider myself very fortunate in having a well equiped and spacious workshop. As well as the usual selection of hand tools, I also have a lathe, Buffing/polishing machine, a compressor, mig welder, a parts washing bath and a hand gilotine. All of which have been very useful during the restoration project. This BSA A10 restoration project is, of course, on going and I am looking forward to the day when the blog catches up with the project so  I can report on events as they happen. But for the time being " more of what has happened so far:

The wheels were now stripped. The tyres and tubes were in really good condition and the alloy rims (which were already on the bike, were also undammaged. I took the wheels to a local specialist to be respoked with new stainless steel spokes. I made an arrangement with him to call me when the original spokes had been removed. I then collected the bare rims and took them back to my workshop for polishing. Once polished they were returned to the specialist for re-spokeing. In the mean time I set about polishing the brake back plates and obtaining a new chrome hub cap for the left side of the front wheel.

New stainless steel front axle along with nuts, brake lever and clamp bolts were ordered along with a new stainless back axle, nuts, brake lever and anchor bar.

The wheels were returned with their new spokes and newly painted black hubs. Unfortunately they had also black painted the inside of the brake drums including the braking surfaces. So my next job was the clean the paint off the brake surfaces with a rotary wire brush, before the wheels could be reassembled. That done the brakes went back in and the tubes and tyres were refitted ready for the bike.

The next stage was to rebuild the front forks, I had purchased a pair of second hand front fork shrouds, off eBay, to hold the new gold star type headlight and had sent them off for chrome plating. In the mean time, I had also purchased a new pair of chrome front fork seal holders, as someone had used a pair of stilsons to grip the old ones and they were beyond re-use.

And so it was reassembly time for the forks. The newly painted bottom sections of the forks were united with the new chrome seal holders fitted with new seals. The internal pistons and springs were fitted and then the newly chromed shrouds were fitted to the yokes. I then slid the new rubber bellows over the seal holders and then offered the forks, one at a time into the yokes.

Thank goodness I decided to buy the correct tool for pulling the forks into the yokes. Bought from Lightning Spares (Who I must say have been brilliant in offering advise as well as supplying most of the spares and all of the stainless steel parts.) The front fork compressor fits on the top yoke and screws into the inside of the piston leg. To get the leg up high enough, in the first place, requires compressing the spring and you can't do it by hand. I used a ratchet strap around the bottom of the fork and the top yoke and tightened the ratchet until the tool's centre bolt could reach the inside of the fork tube. It was then a simple matter of tightening the tool until the fork tube was pulled into the yoke and clamped tight. The process was repeated on the other fork and then the rubber bellows were pushed up and down into place and fitted with new stainless clips

The final touch was to pour in some oil from the top and fit the new stainless caps. A nice successful job and very pretty. Well now the A10 had front suspension, it was time to turn my attention to the back. Having bought two new chrome rear shock absorbers, I decided now was the time to fit them.Not too difficult to fit with just a couple of small spacers needed in the swinging arm brackets to stop them moving from side to side. Fitted with new stainless and polished nuts and bolts, I decided to fit the bolts in the opposite direction  from normal. That is with the bolt on the inside of the frame and the nuts on the outside. This would enable me to use polished stainless dome nuts instead of just seeing the head of the bolt. That done the bike now has front and rear suspension.

I would love to read your comments on this blog. If you would like to make some please click "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" at the bottom of this page. If you would like to be automatically informed when a new episode is posted then please tick the "Join this site" box at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading. Kevin

 Copyright K. Hopcroft 29.07.12 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My Other Blogs:

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

1971 VW Karman Ghia Convertible Car:
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

4. BSA A10 More Stripping

Removing the rear swinging arm assembly on the BSA required first removing the rear brake actuating rod, which passes through the tube that the swinging arm pivots on. This comes out fairly easily and allows access to the swinging arm tube itself.

 Removing the swinging arm pivot tube proved to be more of a task. Once I removed the large nut on the right side of the A10 and the fixing bolt on the left side of the bike, the tube should push out through the frame from right to left. However after 51 years it was  very stuck and simply hitting the end of the tube would have resulted in damaging the threads or even distorting the tube. I decided to get to work on my lathe and make a special drift that would fit down the tube with a shoulder to sit on the outer edge of the tube. This made and placed in the pivot tube I hit the drift and still nothing happened. In the end I had to get a friend to hold the frame on the left side, while I hit the drift with a lump hammer. With each blow the tube moved about 1mm and after about 20 minutes the tube finally parted company with the frame without any damage. Inspection of the swinging arm revealed that the silent block bushes had seen better days and so new ones were ordered . In the mean time I took the swinging arm to a friend who had a large hydraulic press to remove the original bushes.
The next job was to strip the front forks. I removed the old headlight nacelle and fork shrouds along with the front mudguard. None of these were to be used again and I will probably sell them when I can get around to it. I then removed the steering damper and top and bottom yokes. Once the yokes were removed, the headstock bearings could be inspected. These are loose ball races and have to be removed carefully to ensure that you don't loose any of the individual ball bearings. Upon counting the balls, there should have been 20 in each race, however my bike had 18 in one race and 17 in the other, more bodging.


With the frame and engine now completely stripped I made a decision to stop work on the engine and concentrate on the frame, so that when the engine was finally rebuilt the frame would be ready to receive it.

I took the frame and all other black painted items to a shot blaster to have them returned to bare metal and from there they went to a local paint shop, that specialises in bike paintwork. It took 6 weeks before, in February 2012, the frame finally came home with it's new coat of "two-pack" black paint.

The new headstock bearings and silent block bushes arrived and this allowed the reassembly of the top and bottom yokes and, after my friend had pressed in the new bushes, the refitting of the rear swinging arm. I had, by this point, decided to replace all fixings with stainless steel and that included the swinging arm pivot tube, which I had spent so much time carefully removing.

I would love to read your comments on this blog. If you would like to make some please click "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" at the bottom of this page. If you would like to be automatically informed when a new episode is posted then please tick the "Join this site" box at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading. Kevin

 Copyright K. Hopcroft 23.07.12 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My Other Blogs:

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

1971 VW Karman Ghia Convertible Car:
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

3. BSA A10 Dissasters are revealed

 Having removed the saddle and petrol tank from the Super Rocket, the first few signs of bodging started to appear. Old inner tube being used as a tank buffer. Wiring mixed between original and none standard and of course the usual signs of frame and component rust. Many of the nuts and bolts used were found to be of various types and threads including some metric threads, which must have been added much later in the bike's life.

I also had a minor disaster when trying to remove the magneto. Having already paid for a magneto overhaul, thinking that this was the reason that I could never get the bike running properly,  I removed the timing cover and the fibre timing gear nut and then released the magneto fixing bolts. The theory was that I should then be able to pull the magneto out from the left side of the bike. But no, it's centre shaft was firmly stuck in the timing gear. As it was a fibre gear, I was reluctant to try using a puller on the gear for fear of damaging it. So I made the decision to try hitting the centre shaft with a soft hammer. One firm strike should do it I thought. Having already removed the ring and cover, exposing the points etc. I struck the shaft! The magneto parted from the timing gear and shot off the bike completely hitting the floor 1m below and damaging the magneto outer casing. The end of the casing was now oval, instead of round, and the advance and retard ring inside would no longer turn. I then spent the next four hours trying to return the magneto to a usable condition. Although it seems to work now, I won't know until I come to trying to use it which is still some months away.

 The next disaster on the A10, although not of my making, came when I uncovered the final drive side of the engine. I noticed that the notched nut, holding the cush-drive in place was badly damaged on its notches. This should have rung warning bells as this meant that whoever had tightened it did not have the right tool and must have used a hammer and drift to tighten it. It became apparent, when the cush drive was removed that they had not tightened it enough and the cush drive had been left loose on the crankshaft splines. The result of this can be seen in the next picture. The splines had virtually worn through leaving only half a millimetre of metal left to provide the drive for the bike.  This meant searching around for a replacement crankshaft. I managed to buy one but it needed a big end regrind, the threads repairing and the timing side journal regrinding. Once reground the available bushes for the timing side main journal were all too large and a special extra thick bush had to be made to fit the new journal size. 30thou undersized shells then had to be found for the new big end journals. While the crankshaft was out, this was also a good opportunity to take a look at and clean the sludge trap in the crankshaft. I carefully read on the Internet various methods for removing the sludge trap plugs and then attempted it myself. Take my word for it, nothing works! You just need to keep trying with a combination of drilling, chiseling, sawing, punching and swearing until finally they give in and all of this has to be done without damaging the threads in the crankshaft. However I would recommend doing this as, when I finally got into the sludge trap, it was completely full of age old dirt and grit and oil would have been lucky to find its way to the big ends.

More disasters followed as I discovered that the camshaft and cam followers were also badly worn and beyond use.

I would love to read your comments on this blog. If you would like to make some please click "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" at the bottom of this page. If you would like to be automatically informed when a new episode is posted then please tick the "Join this site" box at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading. Kevin

 Copyright K. Hopcroft 22.07.12 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My Other Blogs:

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

1971 VW Karman Ghia Convertible Car:
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

2. BSA A10 My Background

The initial Strip started.

  I should say at this point that I have had no previous experience of working on a BSA A10. But my background is that I became an apprentice motor mechanic when I left school in 1965 and spent 7 years in the motor trade working for VW, Mercedes, Fiat plus working on lots of British cars in the 60's. 

I have also had a long interest in Lambretta scooters and have completely renovated one that cost me £5 scrap to its present condition which is now valued at £10,000 and regularly wins prizes at vintage shows,

The two pictures show the scooter before and after. So with the scooter project completed, I was looking for a new challenge.

I was very surprised at the radical differences between engineering approaches comparing the 1960 Italian scooter with the 1961 BSA A10 British motorcycle. Where the scooter seemed to have all of what were considered the latest innovations in 1960. The BSA seemed to be more inclined to stick to well proven methods and somewhat older engineering principles. However the BSA was very sturdy to the point of being extremely heavy and there seemed to be no real attention paid to weight saving. This was going to be a real challenge, to bring the BSA up to the same standard and finish as had been achieved with the scooter.

I would love to read your comments on this blog. If you would like to make some please click "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" at the bottom of this page. If you would like to be automatically informed when a new episode is posted then please tick the "Join this site" box at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading. Kevin

 Copyright K. Hopcroft 21.07.12 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My Other Blogs:

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

1971 VW Karman Ghia Convertible Car:
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html

1. BSA A10 Before......

This is how the BSA A10 Super Rocket looked when I first bought it back in October 2008. It arrived with a sidecar already fitted, but part of the deal was to sell the side car and give the money to the original owner.

It looked ok, but by no means perfect.But further examination showed its 51 years and needed restoration. The original idea was to get it running and then work out what needed doing, but getting it running properly turned out to be an impossible task. So I decided to completely strip the bike and start a total renovation. The eventual target is to make it look like the famous Rocket Gold Star.

I would love to read your comments on this blog. If you would like to make some please click "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)" at the bottom of this page. If you would like to be automatically informed when a new episode is posted then please tick the "Join this site" box at the bottom of the page. Thanks for reading. Kevin

Copyright K. Hopcroft 01.07.12 All rights reserved
 You can contact me on: hopcroftscoot@gmail.com

My Other Blogs:

1961 Ariel Arrow Super Sport Motorcycle :
http://60sclassicmotorbikes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/1961-aerial-golden-arrow-restoration.html

Miniature Land Rover Defender:
http://miniaturelandrover.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/1-miniature-land-rover-defender-idea.html?view=timeslide

1971 VW Karman Ghia Convertible Car:
http://karmannghiarestoration.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/1-karmann-ghia-retoration-project.html

Motorcycle Trailers / Caravans:
http://motorcycletrailersandcaravans.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/1-motorcycle-trailers-problem.html