Hawkstone SA Gearbox/Kickstart

[johndsims65]

Hi all

Have a problem with the starting of my SA 2T Villiers, on a number of occasions when trying to turn the engine over the kickstart seems to "lock up " and can only be sorted by putting into low gear and rocking back and forth.

Seems to be a gearbox issue as the crank can be turned by the flywheel when this occurs, wondered if there was any historical problems that could explain this.

Unfortuanately I bought the bike part restored and engine and gearbox were back together and fitted but I do have a spare gearbox should this be a major fault.

Any suggestions would be greatly apprieciated

Regards
John

[John Wakefield]

2T kickstart

Looks like you have problems with the kickstart ratchet, maybe worn or siezing on shaft. Either way you will need to dismantle gearbox to sort it. Maybe best to fit the spare gearbox (if it is ok) & sort the other box later.

[Brian Catt]

John, you obviously know the box better than I, but I think the cause could be down to several things, like a spacer missing, loose selectors or a duff bearing. These would allow misalignment of the gears during the starting procedure. Rocking the bike will pull the shafts back in the other direction and it will free up.
As you suggest it might be easier to fit the spare box and check how that performs, then attempt a rectification on the one now fitted.

[johndsims65]

Thanks guys

Looks like I will be stuck in the shed this weekend again (what a shame !)

I will let you know if its obvious what the problem is with the existing gearbox

Regards
John

[johndsims65]

Hawkstone SA Part 2

Hi all

The previous post about the gearbox/kickstart turned out to be nothing to do with either, I swapped the gearbox only to find it the same.

Ended up stripping primary drive chain and clutch and found the tightness was in the crank, stripped right down and split crankcase to find crank conrod bearing is the problem aswell as the main bearing.

Now need some advice on where to have crank reconditioned, or should I put my hand in my pocket and let Villiers Services fully recon all engine (bearing in mind that I have not had the engine running yet)

Any thoughts guys

Regards
John

[Brian Catt]

A number of 4 letter words come to mind! Looking on the bright side, it probably means you have 2 working gearboxes, but that's small beer in the face of a major engine job. If these bearings are bad, it will probably pay you to get someone well versed in 2Ts to look at it before making any further moves. Any ideas, John W?

[John Wakefield]

2T crank

If the rest of the engine is ok ie bores, pistons, clutch etc I would go for a recon crank, would be cheaper than whole engine & gearbox.
Get a couple of quotes to do the crank. 1 from Villiers Services 2 Simon Bateman of Nametab Engineering.

(Brian I am now in touch with Sven thanks)

[Colin Sparrow]

Please note; threads on this problem merged. Better not to start new threads as a topic progresses. Please.