Valiant Effort

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A Valiant Effort.

At the end of last year my Little Velocette Valiant was being very incontinent. Oil was dripping from the clutch housing at the back of the engine. 

There are three oil seals in that space where the clutch is positioned. One on each side of the drive shaft and the other being the kick start shaft. To get to these required an engine out job splitting the engine from the clutch housing and then from the gearbox housing. A great deal of faffing around trying to squeeze the engine from the frame without taking paint with it. 

I had to remove all the securing studs to make the space. Fortunately I only needed to replace the two engine seals. The drive one behind the clutch and the main culprit the kick start shaft seal. This seal was a poor fit in the casting so some loctite was applied to take up the slack. I found a very old paper gaskit (over 20 years at a guess) that had been folded and would not straighten out. It did after I made it damp with water and spread it out to dry to restore its original shape. 

Reassembled with a little gaskit sealant it all went back together quite well until I found the oil pipe that supplies oil to the drive shaft bearing was not in the right place and on bending the pipe to fit it sheared off at the union. I drilled out the remains of the pipe and re-soldered what was left back in position and continued the assembly. A minor hiccup. It is now running fine but I have discovered another drip of oil from the front housing and the oil seal there will need to be replaced before long as does the one on the Greenford Police LE engine. That will be done soon. Sorting through my spares I found another LE silencer box. It looked quite reasonable until I started to repair the obvious small holes. In the end I spent half a day welding them up only to blow more holes in it because the metal was so thin. I think I have filled all of one side with welding rod. It is now painted and ready for fitting. It looks OK. 

I have not progressed much further with the Police LE other than to get a 3BA tap and 3BA countersunk screws that are needed to fit the top leg shield plates that are the platform for the switches and gauges and then refit the screw fixing brackets after the final coat of paint has dried. On-line nut and bolt specialists have been a great asset in this area. I have had some bits from the LE club and got hold of a second hand radiator cap that has taken ages to clean up. For some reason these zinc caps acquire a powdery residue from contact with anti-freeze that is difficult to remove. It just does not rub off and has to be scraped away especially from the screw thread on the inside of the cap. I now have a shiny cap.

I have been contacted my Mortons about the Southern Classic Bike Show at Kempton Park on May 19^th and will having a Velocette LE Club stand at that venue. As usual things need to set in motion now for who will be attending and what bikes will be there. I also have an invite to attend from the BEN Windsor Great Park -Vintage and Classic Vehicle Tour on Saturday 30^th June. I usually take the Valiant on this one. This year it is my intention to get to the Chinnor Byke Dayz event the following weekend. Wall to wall live bands and entertainment all day. 6^th, 7^th and 8^th July Real ales and food too! It was great the last time I was able to go and something not to be missed.