New face, new project.

[RDfella]

BJ - thought that pipe was the feed to engine.

[Swarfcut]

Yes Kiwi. Simple bolt on aluminium manifold for a single carb. Longstroke Star Twin shares the same basic iron cylinder head type casting, but is effectively a twin port head.

bergs...The versatile and ever reliable BSP thread......top marks there for innovation!

Jim. That pipe should lead down between the gearbox and the side of the timing cover. It's the oil feed pipe and joins a twin pipe (flow and return) manifold bolted on to the back of the motor. This may be missing, pics are not detailed enough here. Good news is that this is a standard part, not unique to the Longstroke,  being used on later plunger engines.

 Your later bike has armoured flexible oil lines, a completely different arrangement.

 Swarfy.

[Greybeard]

Hey Berger , its good to see the use of incorrect parts to get the bike rideable rather than garaged! Zoom in on the oil tank on the middle photo on Stuie's bike. Looks to be a pipe off the oil tank going nowhere to me. I have no idea where it's going, hoping someone can tell me what i'm missin? (apart from the obvious)!
 

I read your note. I hadn't spotted that detail. I'd like to know what it's all about. Maybe there is an internal vertical pipe reaching above the oil level and it's an additional tank breather. If oily vapour is being blown onto the back wheel and tyre I'm not keen on the idea.

[Greybeard]

Jim. That pipe should lead down between the gearbox and the side of the timing cover. It's the oil feed pipe and joins a twin pipe (flow and return) manifold bolted on to the back of the motor. This may be missing, pics are not detailed enough here. Good news is that this is a standard part, not unique to the Longstroke,  being used on later plunger engines.

But Swarfy, the pipe in that picture appears to fixed where the tank drain outlet is on my Plunger. Is that what you'd expect on an early machine?

[Swarfcut]

GB. Its a different tank on Rigid bikes. This style of tank, together with a Longstroke engine, feature on the first page of the service sheet 202...Lubrication.

    The banjo bolt here looks like the familiar vertical gauze strainer. My take is that the PO never got round to bending the pipe to fit, and for convenience just left it pointing the wrong way. Shame about that nasty dent in the oiltank. Anyone think it would pop out, tank sealed,  a bit of warmth from the heat gun and a blast of compressed air up the breather pipe?

 Swarfy.

[RDfella]

Swarfy's right. As I assumed earlier, it's the feed to the engine. Same on my '48 B31.

[bikerjohndavies]

Welcome Stuie, good to see pictures of the bike. Yours does look to be an early one with the 2 bolt square bottom timing cover. Out of interest as I can not see a main stand, has it got the lugs for one? The first few hundred A7's had a telescopic main stand but this was replaced with a standard stand after a few deployed while bike was in motion.
Swarfy is correct, one of the weaknesses of these engines is the wear of the camshaft as there is no oil trough below it as in later engines. I had a new cam made for mine by Newman Cams what was hardened and the NOS cam followers I had bought similarly treated to help prolong its life. I do know that a friend of mine had work done on his cases to build a trough though the chap who did it has now retired.
Swarfy also mentioned the later Star Twin twin carb versions of the long stoke engine when talking about manifolds. Here is a picture of a twin carb manifold and a Star Twin head and as you can see there are protrusions on the manifold face that fit into recesses on the Star Twin head which is different to the standard head.
As I said, any questions please ask and I will try and help.
Cheers, John

[bikerjohndavies]

Just had another look at the pictures and noticed you have later front forks fitted. The pre 49 bikes had a QD front and rear wheel that was interchangeable. The forks were wider apart to allow for this. Also the sliders only had a single lug for the mudguard stays to the rear of the slider so the front stay wrapped around the leg. Here is the page from the parts book for the front and rear hubs and a picture of the correct sliders. Here is also a picture of a 47 A7 with telescopic stand and wrap round front fork stays.

[Stuie]

Hello again all, alot of replies to go through there. Few I remember after reading through all that.
Firstly I have no idea when it last ran, the I'm the 3rd owner in the condition its in now, we think it was being restored but was sold and had the engine thrown back in to sell, hence the frame has been tidied up and the engine not.
The pipe pointing out the back of the oil tank is the oil feed pipe to the engine but it needs trimming down  and bending to fit. I just swung it round out of the way to fit the tank in.
I'll be checking over the cam shafts before I run it. It is a very early one bsa owners club stated it was second oldest one on their record when the registration was sorted. as such wouldn't have an oil feed to the rockers, but someone has Retro fitted an oil feed to the exhaust rockers although the pipe Is Missing.
I hadnt really checked over the forks for being correct, my plan is to get it running and riding so I can enjoy it and then I'll correct things back to factory as I go.

[Greybeard]

It's my task on this forum to use the phrase; 'clean the sludge trap'. If you already know about this, well great. If you don't know then please ask.

[BigJim]

BJ - thought that pipe was the feed to engine.

Yep RD, assume the bike is not running as seems to be set up to prevent wear to the rear tyre!
Agree that the rigid look is just so right!