Hitchcocks Forum

When I tighten up the auto advance unit on the 500 Bullet, it fouls the three screw heads that hold the SR1 magneto in place so everything locks up. I can't see what I'm doing wrong as it's exactly as it was before it came apart. Beginning to feel like pushing this bike in the canal! :-/

Not these days, anyway. Dumping it outside my garage with the V5C in a plastic wallet taped to the seat will be perfectly acceptable.



Send me your SR1 magneto and AA unit and I shall replace it with a good Indian Bullet contact breaker drive unit (bearing type, not plain bush) fitted with a Pazon Surefire ingition unit! All good low-mileage kit, the only reason it was removed was that the finance committee approved the purchase of a BT-H electronic magneto (which does the auto advance thing internally).



OK, I can see your lack of enthusiasm for this swap. Can you carefully slim down the screw heads, maybe cutting the screwdriver slots a little deeper to compensate? By how much does the back of the AA unit foul the screws?



If you haven't been in and changed anything, has something happened to the mag bearings so that the armature has been pushed back into the mag?



One for Bullet Whisperer, perhaps.



A.

Hi Chris, is the taper in the ATU ok, perhaps this could be the cause of the problem, assuming the three screws holding the mag in place are the correct type? Regards, Paul.

Thanks Paul, sure why it locked up before but it's seems ok now and has finally started!! I even seem to have got the timing right after about half a dozen goes with the timing casing on, off, on, off...... By using 00 grease in the gearbox it's completely eliminated the gearbox oil leak so I'm finally getting somewhere with this abomination that the previous owner threw together. Adrian, I am actually tempted to convert to Indian distributer. If I find any other horrors and bodges on this bike Adrian then I'll let you know where you can find it. It will be somewhere between Brighouse and Elland at the bottom of the Calder and Hebble navigation

Papasmurf,



forget your Parisien mopeds, one of the classic mags a few years ago featured a Velocette that had been salvaged after two or three decades, maybe more, in the mud at the bottom of the Thames, having been chucked off a bridge in SW London that had been a popular site for dumping stolen bikes, but said dumping was "back in the day". This bike was recovered legally and fully restored to the delight of its new owner. There were reckoned to be a good few more still down there...

Chris,



don't give up on that Bullet, Redditch ain't making any more. Put it up for sale here when you do finally part company, it needs to stay "in the family", so to speak. The Calder and Hebble Navigation could probably do without extra navigational hazards. If you actually do want to go for the Indian CB drive (it's not a distributor, they fitted those to the twins) let me know, my spare one isn't going anywhere.

A.

Sorry, chuck in another < b r > < b r > or two to make sense of that.

I'll see how it goes but I'll bear it in mind Adrian, thanks. Don't worry, it's unlikely to get dumped, not yet anyway. After all this work it won't be worth selling so it's probably a keeper, and it is very pleasant when it works. Bighead bullets are underrated and very pleasant bikes but the stuff I've found is amazing, here's a few examples: mismatched handlebar leavers, wrong toolbox, wrong speedo, wrong ammeter, left fork seized in casquette (described as fully restored), right fork mudguard lug JB welded on and snapped off in my hand, ancient cracked tyres (described as fully restored), wrong right fork slider, wrong light switch/horn, wrong horn, dead battery, homemade exhaust rocker cover (yes homemade!), worn out monoblock off a BSA A10 and jetted as such, float bowl full of gunge and not opened for 50 years, no gasket between carb and head, no washers with the nuts holding the carb on, wrong front engine plates, original worn out rear brake shoes, wrong mudguards, no washers underneath any nuts anywhere (yes really), worn out and rusty 350 clutch with the wrong plates in and the bearings all over the clutch casing floor, no circlip in the clutch, snapped and badly rewelded clutch casing stud, rotar on just finger tight, no thrust washers with the timing pinions, re used chewed up screws for the timing chest and gearbox, gearbox with no oil or grease in it, fading magneto and a/a unit with rounded off bolt. I haven't been in the engine yet but dread to think how it's been thrown together. It's my own fault for buying on impulse off eBay, but on a positive note, when it's done it will be lovely and be the bike I thought I'd bought in the first place. The fact it's one of only 750 made has kept me going

There have been a few Big Head Bullets sold on ebay in the last couple of years, I probably saved a picture of it somewhere. Too nice to ditch, indeed, but sadly it seems to have fallen to you to put right all the bodgery. A.