Hitchcocks Forum

I've mentioned on previous threads the mystery clatter that will suddenly emerge from my 350 bitsa. I tracked it down to the iron journaled rockers. The spindle was wearing into the oil relief slot on the top shell creating its own index that would make the rocker arm stiff and hence the clatter at the tappet. I fixed it a while back by linishiing off the lump on the spindle but today it came back louder than ever. So this arvo I've purchased Mr H's replacement rocker set for the extremely reasonable cost of £32 pp. I wait with anticipation to be able to tell you that the rocker theory is proven beyond doubt. Watch this space!

Rocker set arrived today and with any luck should be installed this weekend. Looks like I'll have to take the head off too though as I had a thought today that the slightly unreliable idle might not be related to the re-sleeved 389 Amal carb but it might have a slight head gasket leak. Dropped around to a mates place at lunchtime and butchered an old spark plug so it could solder on an aro fitting and thereby pressurise the combustion chamber with a compressor with the the engine nice and still and cool. This worked pretty well although it took two of us to hold the bike at TDC with the valves closed in order to check the head gasket with dish washing liquid and water. Sure enough it was bubbling away from a couple of spots so this weekend will see me remove and re anneal the solid copper gasket and reapply it with some loctite flange sealant or similar to ensure that the leaks are removed. Looking forward to a reliable idle as nothing ruins the cred of an old machine as much as stalling at the lights!