The BSA commited suicide.
 

The BSA's engine is dead, and I suspect it will not be economically feasable to repair. :cry:

On the way home from work it suffered a catastrophic failure. :cry:

While riding along at 55 MPH there was a sudden dull thud followed by silence as I coasted to a stop. :cry:

The primary chain appears to have snapped and tore through the side case AND the left sided engine case. The transmission seems damaged and I can't yet assess to see if the engine itself is damaaged, but based on the sudden stoppage I expect it is. :cry:

Very sad. I don't know where to go from here but I'm considering my options. :cry:

I was grateful to enjoy this ointeresting bike for as long as I did, I really did enjoy it.

As I may have shared with you all in the past I think this is one of the ways God keeps me from focusing too much on things rather than Him.

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Some bailing wire and JB weld, and it will be good as new!!

Sorry to hear about it, but I wouldn't give up on her just yet.

I wish a guy could put an XR 400-650 motor in there...

Dirt Rat II. :wink:

A quick Google search fails to reveal this having been done before. I also can't weld and grind. :cry:

OK I took it apart and have a diagnosis and autopsy result. :cry:

The primary failure was the primary chain. This took out the stator and jammed the motor's crankshaft. It also broke the left hand crankcase in two spots, top and bottom and sheared off the three stator mounting studs. :cry:

The good news though is the motor seems fine. Turning it with a wrench on the crankshaft end demonstrates that it turns smoothly and the compression seems fine. :D

If it's damamged internally, or of the gearbox is damaged I don't know. :roll:

In any event to repair it I think the motor will have to come out of the frame and be completly torn down to remove the left hand crankcase. At that point it would be off to a specialty welder or a replacement case from God knows where. I will also call around to see if anyone can weld it up while it's still together, but I sorta doubt it, I don't know.

I took pictures but %$#@ing Photobucket is giving me fits...

Just got off the phone with a specialty welder my friend Andy, a motorcycle mechanic, use.

I quote:

'Just bring it on by I'm sure we can fix it.'

Praise God!

Yikes! That looks nasty Doc, I have my fingers crossed that you guys can get it fixed. Can't be easy finding parts for an old britbike :(

I'll keep my fingers crossed, Brother Bill! :)

Spud :)

Good luck doc, I hope you can save it. Don't sign the DNR order just yet :P

The good news is I brought the bike to the machinist/welder and he said it can be fixed.

The bad news is the case has to be removed from the engine first.

So I brought the bike to Andy to dismantle the engine, repair the case, and I'll find the parts, somewhere...

I figure I'll have Andy rebuild the engine since it's going to have to come apart anyways.

As much as I like old BSA's and such, I liked you're XR idea better.

90% of the charm of this bike is the sight sound and unique feel of that old pushrod thumper. 8)

With that said if there was a known easy way to put an XR motor in it for the same or less money (there's not) I might have been tempted. :wink:

On the third hand the original engine will keep its monetary resale value, a Honda engine would likely ruin it. Since I don't plan to keep this bike forever that's also important.

Plus I don't want to run the risk of the BritBike.com guys having me assasinated. 8O

Yeah those damned euro-truists will come after you like no one else. It was like being in a cheesy action flick when rennlist found out I had an Apexi N1 on my 944.

I do a lot of those kinds of engine swaps, though...believe me, it's possible to do it without altering the frame. I hate making permanent alterations to a frame for any reason. But, really, the benefits just aren't there unless the money is of no importance to you or you have ALL the parts on hand ready to go. It'd be the kind of thing I would do while the original engine was out and being properly restored.

Any opinions from Andy on the case material? I sure wouldn't want to hit magnesium with a TIG. 8O