Engine Numbers - Competition Department

[Lightningpower]

Hi Everyone,

Does anyone know who holds the information (i.e. Despatch records etc.) from the BSA Competition Dept? I have an engine number from that dept., and the BSAOC UK, doesn't have that info.

Cheers

[beezermacc]

VMCC at Burton on Trent hold all the despatch records. There is an issue with the competition department as their frames and engines didn't always exit the factory through the usual channels so their despatch records are mixed in with the records of the production bikes and many of the comp shop bikes, when leaving the factory, were not recorded in the usual way, if at all. I have an A65LC which is shown in the despatch records as a blank line when it entered the comp shop but there are no records I can find of its final release from the factory.

[Lightningpower]

Thanks. How does one access the MVCC records? I see on their site that I can join and have access. Given that I live stateside, can I make an inquiry and be confident that someone across the ocean will do extensive research on my behalf for nearly $100 it will cost me to join?

[beezermacc]

Maybe make a phone call to VMCC to explore the issue. Alternatively, a friend in the UK might be able to help you out. I used to be in the VMCC and visited their library to look at the despatch record for my RGS and my LC. I was told that the library is open to the public so maybe you don't have to be a member to gain access. I am no longer a member of the VMCC as I was unhappy with their financial management but that's another story.

[KiwiGF]

I dont think you have to join. I got a certificate and didn't join, but I did pay half price as the nzbsamoc is affiliated to the  vmcc

[KiwiGF]

Here is an example of a cert from vmcc....

[Lightningpower]

It sounds like I need to give it a try. Thanks!

[Joolstacho]

Just out of interest, when I bought my SR motor I was told it had been used for grass-track racing, and that it'd had replacement crankcases, the seller told me that the factory didn't include the engine number prefix (D, or C etc) when they supplied crankcases as spare parts. My engine number is A105851. Can anyone confirm this factory practice?

[Lightningpower]

I had an a10 engine with correct factory stamps, never changed, and it had a frame number stamped into it. The engine was built about 3 or so years later than the frame number. So, I surmise that the factory did, at least in this case, build  specialist motor to replace whatever had blown up in that frame.

[Joolstacho]

Well, mine was supplied as a pair of 'empty' crankcases only, not a complete engine. I presume because the factory wouldn't know if they were replacements for a 'C' or 'D' series engine, they left off the prefix letter?

[Rocket Racer]

I've always wondered how factory replacement engines were supplied stampwise... most sets of cases I have are date stamped underneath with a full date, but my super rocket engine which is not I believe the original has a date stamp of 1967 which I suspect makes it a factory replacement, whereas the engine is theoretically a '61 by its numbers

[beezermacc]

Engines officially replaced by BSA had two sets of numbers, the original numbers, and another set starting with ERS (Engine replacement service)

[beesa71]

I always thought that ERS stands for Exchange Replacement Service and there would be such as a four digit number after it that. I have some ERS leaflets somewhere so must make an effort to find them, they might add usefully to our collective understanding.

Presumably an ERS number could at one time have been traced in Factory record books. I gather that those books are not any club archive.

I'd be interested to see an ERS stamping, I recall seeing them in period but haven't seen one for years.

Similarly, replacement crankcases we obtained were completely blank, no number or prefix.

Regards to all.

Paul.

[Topdad]

That's how I understood it , blank cases with the workshop using its own stamps onto the case. I assume the ers scheme would have been part of the warranty claims dept which from what I recall was abit of a shambles .

[beezermacc]

'Exchange' / 'Engine', I suppose the terms are interchangeable but if I've got that wrong I'm happy to go with 'exchange'. Anyhow, it is a fact that the crankcases were stamped ERS followed by the service department's own reference numbers. I used to have a set of these and can't remember what happened to them. They also had the numbers of the engine they'd replaced so had two sets of numbers.