So here is one of the engines that I ended up getting.
It all started with a 200cc J.A.P. side-valve I bought for the fun of it and something to occupy myself with. If only I realised what I was getting myself in to. I have restored many a vintage bike in my time, a lot for me and a few for others and have had a thirsty stretch behind me without any opportunities or availability of something to ‘play’ with, so when I saw this engine going cheap, I fell for it. I should have known, that like a boat, there’s no such thing as a cheap J.A.P.
When I was a young lad still at school, I bought a Triumph Tiger Cub (it was just 9 years old) for a ‘tenner’ off a fellow ‘student’ at school. He had stripped the teeth in the gearbox and managed to bend the frame as well! Well, I eventually answered an ad in the “Motorcycle News” of the time and went with a friend to London on the train to pick up a replacement frame from a second-hand dealer (Ted Pratt’s Vintage Motorcycle Company) and saw this wonderful engine in the back room on the floor… it was a J.A.P. 750cc side-valve twin – which I picked up for fifty quid (it was not light for two 14-year-olds!) and we transported it with the frame back to the (boarding-)school with great effort. I can’t even remember whereI got the money for that from! My first J.A.P., which sadly was soon sold on – for more money, of course, to finance the cub, which still needed a new gearbox… But not before I fell in love with the marque!
To cut a long story short, the 200cc engine arrived at my workplace, where it was promptly dropped off the workbench and broke the Magneto mount off the inner timing cover. The Exhaust valve was broken and seized in the guide, the exhaust valve spring and fittings were missing, as was the exhaust ‘tappet’ and there was no carb, or mag nor oil-pump. And a broken inner timing cover. Ah well, it turns out that some parts are at least available – at a premium price. A pair of valves and springs/collets will set me back €300 and 2 tappets and guides another €200. How times have changed! I managed to source an oil pump (on a different forward-facing timing-cover outer), shown below, which will need a refurb.
Other parts have still to be ordered and bought to complete it… And the inner casing still has to be welded or replaced. I’ll give a go with TIG myself, or we are getting a laser-welding setup in the next few months, maybe that would be worth the wait?? Let’s wait and see!
As can be seen, someone already ‘had a go’ at a different place with MIG, so it’s not as if it was perfect 🙂