Quick Update

Panther Clutch Update

Once the clutch was apart and cleaned, I looked at the plates.

They do not seem to be bowed but they have obviously been hot.

If you look at the color spectrum on the edge of the plate it shows that it has been around 

500 degrees F at some time. Could have been that the clutch was rotating with little or no lubrication and heated the outer edge.

The springs were a mismatched set with three of one size and two of another, that makes it hardly surprising that the nuts were not set in the same place.

I have a new set of five springs winging their way from the UK, no the POC has not had a change of heart. I got them from Draganfly.

Fortunately lots of those older bikes used the Burman gearbox and clutch arrangement.

More soon as it progresses.

Ciao Bella

Norm

Panther Progress

It May Be Reverse Progress!

 Last weekend the first test ride did not go as planned.

The clutch would not release completely which made coming to a complete stop a bit tricky.

"No officer you can't give me a ticket for a California stop, it's the clutch honest"

The clutch cover has been removed and the clutch inspected.

The first thing of note is that the clutch spring nuts are all over the place, they should all be just flush with the end of the stud.

The first thing I needed to do was make a tool to remove the nuts.

As the measurement  was a bit tricky with everything in place, I made a best guess.

The first piece was good enough to remove the nut which had least tension.

Once I had the first nut I could make decent measurements and remade the wrench.

As you can see the Panther was previously owned by Mr. Phil I. Stine

When I was an apprentice millwright, the manager of the engineering department Mr. Dodds, called vise grip or pipe wrench damage the marks of the Philistines.

Translation to UK English:

Vise Grip = Mole Grip

Pipe Wrench = Stillsons 

These were made by guys who were either too lazy or too uneducated to use the correct tool.

OK once in a while you have no choice, but you need to do your best to avoid them.

But even worse, beat the crap out of everything in sight with a hammer and punch or chisel.

Grrrrr.

Once the nuts and springs were all removed with the Mk II tool the cover and clutch plates were removed.

Now I have a conundrum, The assembly has the correct number of friction plates, which is three as per the addendum note on the Burman drawing of the clutch and gearbox.

The problem is that instead of one plate in the back of the set up there are two.

Both plates in question are seriously scored, now this cannot be from friction / slip between each other as they are both internally splined with no chance for relative rotation.

More research is obviously required.

I'll update the blog when I find out something, or maybe just give up and become a Philistine.

NAH, never going to happen.

Ciao Bella

Norm

Second Sunday

Not What We Had Hoped For!

The Panther started up well on Sunday morning and a test ride round the tract was decided upon for a proof of capability.

The clutch drags and will not fully disengage, the brakes are less than perfect and therefore need some adjustment.

It was decided that discretion being the better part of valor we should defer the Second Sunday meet for one more month.

All in all I'm happy with the progress, the bike starts fairly well, the electrics are working as they should, the new magneto connector and HT wire produce a consistently strong spark.

The bike was ridden on the day for which we aimed, just not to the place we had hoped.

Not a failure, more a realignment of goals.

So, we took the Velocette and the Triumph instead.

The Triumph performed really well but the Velo decided to be a little petulant when I tried to start it for the return trip.

We had lots of advice from the Velocette "Experts" but ultimately we started it ourselves..
Experts 0 Amateurs 1

It was a picture perfect day for So-Cal in February, clear and warm, about 80 degrees.
A pretty good turn out for Valentines Day 90+ bikes.

As the organizer said, a good group of guys who brought the love of their life, and some of them even brought their wife or girlfriend!

Rick rode the Triumph and I rode the Velocette.

I have to say that the more I ride the Velo the more I like it.

As with most of these older bikes, when you kick start it the momentum from the kick start mechanism passes through the clutch. After a few hard kicks the clutch warms up and slips.

Today we adjusted the clutch, a not very scientific method was illustrated in the manual, but we'll see what happens on the next ride.

I'll send an update on the Panther when there is something to report.


Ciao Bella 
Norm