Forum

[Dennis C]

Hi m1ks, Like you I have no desire to fall out with anyone here, first thank you for your comprehensive explanation, as I said earlier I have to a degree lost track of this thread due to multiple similar posts, the comment regarding 350 seizures was a follow on to MadMikes post I wrongfully assumed that another poster had said "they all do that" to which I do not agree. --------- again I am not trying to be clever but I have been repairing., tuning for racing and latterly restoring old British singles and twins for more than 50 years now, At the risk of teaching my Granny to suck eggs, modern engines can run much closer tolerances due to better matching of materials and water cooling ETC, modern engineers also are more used to working to these closer tolerances and consequently I find that a lot of rebores on these old style engines are too tight, you point out that the bike was rebored prior to you buying it. -------- from your original post and the pictures shown it is evident that the piston has been excessively hot which has resulted in the seizure, also from the pictures there is no lack of oil circulating, the seize it appears happened after a run at a higher consistent speed than previous rides, what happens is the piston expands and begins to drag in the bore this then requires more throttle to maintain the same speed, this very quickly becomes a vicious circle with the result you have seen, the answer is to increase the bore size to prevent this happening again, or you can run the bike rich which does two things the extra petrol thins the oil on the cylinder wall causing it to run in faster also the extra petrol cools the piston to a fair degree keeping it from expanding so much, with experience you can feel the engine begin to loose a little power and pull the clutch in and stop to let it cool down before any damage is done. ------ I have had two BSA singles already this year with the same problem, this is why I do not dispute that you had the bike set up correctly but what I do say it that correct in this case is not what you want, let it run rich until fully run in then put it back to standard and run very carefully feeling for any sign of that power loss, if you detect it tightening run it rich again for some more miles. All the best and good luck with it.

[MadMike]

Dennis I have no wish to be too pedantic, but Bullet Whisperer actually said in his post ".....the(Indian) 350's are far more likely-even prone- to seizing than the 500 machines." It was this apparent tacit acceptance of a problem that i picked up on. As an engineer, and over 50 years experience of restoring, riding and tuning British, Americam and Japanese bikes I find the acceptance of a tendency for mechanical failure to be unacceptable. As usual I always do, and will continue, to draw the comparison between a washing machine at £350 and any new or modern bike at many thousands of pounds when trying to demonstrate the way in which motorcyclists accept failure and housewives do not. My last comment on this one.

[Mark M]

I've been reading this with interest, I wasn't aware of the seizing problem with the Indian 350s but in the interests of balance I'd point out that 1) Quality control in the Indian Factories has been very poor at times over the last 20 years, 2)Many bikes have been imported privately and have therefore unknown build/service histories, and 3) Many spares have been bought from Ebay and similar suppliers in good faith by Owners who may not have the skills to check or fit them properly. Add all these together and you'd have to be very confident to expect "modern" levels of reliability! m1ks mentioned that the bike was a non runner when he got it I think, so he's having to painstakingly correct lots of problems. He sounds skilled and logical which (apart from having lots of money!) is exactly what's needed to get this bike back on the road, and he's doing it with humour and patience so I think he can be forgiven the odd grumble; I'm much worse when it goes wrong for me as my poor wife can testify! So carry on and please keep us updated, as the rebuild of my Ebay 1955 350 (see it at greenlane.biz) proceeds I'm going to need to blow off some steam too!
REgards, Mark

[Dennis C]

Hi Mike, As I have said I have no wish to fall out with anyone on here or anywhere else for that matter, I appear to get reprimanded for agreeing with people as well as offering help, Hmm possibly that is the way of the internet?, I hope not, I don't question your skill and agree that no one should put up with shoddy products.

[Alan R]

Hi guys !! -----------Oh dear, I appear to have pulled a muscle in my back, what with all the "ducking and diving" going on.... wait now, that was ONLY A JOKE, LADS !!!!!!Though I must admit it is difficult to keep track of related events when more than one thread is opened up. Referring to that "Duplicated thread"---our hosts are always approachable and probably would have removed that one upon request...if only for the sake of clarity. As you know, both LES H and I at different stages of these threads had not initially realised that this was a 350... hence my offer of a used piston(for a 500) and LES apparently "detecting some sarcasm " from myself. Anyway... getting back to the "real problem" in hand Mk1s------ what's the current state of play viz your engine then?? Has a spare +0.040" piston become available ?? or will you be spending some more money ie a new piston and a light hone to the barrel ?? Did you have a close look at what I thought appeared to be a hairline crack in one of those photos ?? Let's hope it's not---eh ??

[Norm]

I'm going to buy a washing machine, gotta be easier than this. Mark mu wife knows how things work when I had a mental meltdown earlier this week when I went to fit the Pazon ignition to the 54 and I discovered the inlet cam/dizzy sprocket had the wrong number of teeth, but luckilly our hosts had one in the specials bin under the title "not sure what this is for"

[m1ks]

Have caught up with this thread this morning. Good to see we avoided a fist fight, .
I'll be certain to make sure I'm running richer once I'm rebuilt again for the extra security and confess I'm more used to the more forgiving materials of a modern engine and your very valid points are taken on board Dennis.
Alan, current state of play is, new rings ordered and still contemplating having a cleanup of the old piston and see what I think before dropping on a new one. No sign of a good used one. I missed the hairline crack comment, likewise I hope it's not, where did you spot that, on the piston pic? If you could point me in the right direction I'll investigate and glad you mentioned it as if it is it could save me more grief.
I've had a couple of days not working on the bike, I have to work on it outdoors and the run of good weather has given way to showers, this damp combined with the warmth brings out the midges in droves and they are relentless and utterly vicious. I'm sure it's the real reason the English gave up invading and nothing to do with bannockburn.
I'm still awaiting getting hold of a friend who's closely related to the scarlet pimpernel, to borrow his flexible hone, the more I look at the bore, the more I'm convinced it'll hone out with a few light sweeps, I'm either getting more skilled in my judgement or more optimistic, time will tell on that one.

[Mark M]

Norm, I'm interested in your comments about the sprocket, I know the one you mean, why did you need one with an odd number of teeth?
REgards, Mark

[Norm]

Mark,
Now I have a crank driven alternator on the Meteor, I decided I could now fit the Pazon ignition to it. The Pazon replaces the K2F mag which has a 19 tooth sprocket so therfore I need a cam sprocket with 19 teeth. It was only when I was fitting the Pazon I realised my mistake. I'm still not out of the woods with that sprocket because I need a 44 link chain and the single row chain from the Series 1A Inter is only 40 links. I might have to go with a 24/19 sprocket and chain from the Series 1 Inter, so that sprocket might remain where it is because I can't get a chain for it. I went to Renolds Chains here this morning and their min cash sales at the counter is $200 so that isn't much of an option and Tsubaki don't have timing chains for some bizare reason. At least with the Pazon I can adjust the carby

[Mark M]

Norm, why not use the 44 link chain from an SM fitted with the SR2 mag? You only need one row of the chain I know, but the other row should clear and won't hurt anything. And it's £16.50 from Mr H!
REgards, Mark