1949 D1 BSA Bantam Restoration Diary February 2000 February 2000 A month away and now I can get back into it! The engine is coming along .... but not without some headaches. The bottom end needs rebuilding which isn't unexpected and it is now off at my friendly engineer. The crankcases however are found to be badly damaged (see photo below). It looks likely that the chain came unstuck at some stage and tore things apart. Lucky I have that spare engine from the swap meet! The bite out of the crankcase reveals past abuse or accident. February 2000 continued... A couple of boxes of engine bits. Cylinder is off getting a rebore but the gearbox and clutch seem okay. Might treat it to a new set of clutch plates anyhow.

Feeling so good about having the correct 55mph speedo I decided to renovate it myself. Wrong. Opening it up I found a mass of rust, crumbled springs, spiders' eggs and other rubbish. This one IS a job for a professional! BACK - NEXT