1937 Royal Enfield

While I am waiting for some bits for the TS250 rebuild I thought I might make a start on the next one.
About two years ago while doing some 'vermin control' on a property west of Coonamble NSW, I came across some bike bits in a tip near and old abandoned house. These properties were divided up after the first world war into 5,000 acre farms, but the country is so poor that most of the returned soldiers who took up the blocks walked off them during the depression. Most were bought by weathier owners and joined together to make the big (150,000 plus acres) farms that now struggle to survive. How these bits came to be near an old house 180Km from town I will never know, but being the bike collector that I am I loaded them onto my quad bike and brought them home. I joined a vintage bike forum and with some help was able to identify the bits as being from a late 1930's Royal Enfield model A.
I have never had much to do with English bikes having only ever ridden a BSA 650 and Robbo's Triumph the other day. The reason that the RE became important to me is my father had an RE 1939 model B (250cc side valve) that he taught my mother to ride on in 1944. This bike is essentially the same but had a two stroke 225cc engine. Through the vintage forum I have established that it is either a '37 or '38 model as some bits that I have were only used in those two years, so I am calling it 1937 model.

Not a lot there as some of the frame tubes have been cut out probably to repair something on the farm.
Being an Enfield, I researched some of the parts on ebay coming from the Enfield factory in Madras, India. The price of the bits made it worthless to try and repair too much. For example; I have bought complete wheels with new chrome rims, stainless spokes, new hubs and brakes, bearings, axels, etc for $460 (front and rear pair)delivered and they a good quality and run true. Also tanks, mudguards, seat, tool boxes, headlight, etc. Just amazing what they are making and at what cost. The fact that Enfield didn't change the design much in the last 50 years has helped with this, and although the bits are not 100% correct for a thirties bike they are still Enfield and are close to the period.
Today I started on replacing the frame tubes that were broken and rusted. The original manufacturing was with cast steel fittings and tubing brazed into them. Removing them required a lot of heat but eventually got them out and the fittings cleaned up

The ball races from 1937 had rusted away and the new girder forks I bought from India came with new races and balls. They were for a 350cc and were a bit bigger in diameter, so I machined some spacers to fit the new races and to fit into the headstock. I assembled them to make sure of alignment and tack welded in position, pulled apart and will TIG weld them in tomorrow.

The frame top tube was an unusual size and I skimmed a bit off a 25mmNB pipe to make a good fit, with a doubling tube to fit inside it.

This will probably 'spin some of you out' so to speak, but I see this as a very doable and challenging project. Any offers of hats?

 

Never too old to learn Moo. This could just be a warm up though.
HOT day in the shed today, but I think I have achieved some forward progress.
TIG welded the collars for the bearings in and ground off smooth.

Had to turn up a piece of old car axel to make a former to slightly expand the tubing I had for the upright tube from seat to gearbox mount to make a good fit into the fitting.

Using my press I forced the former into the tube and expanded it by 1.5mm.

Bewdiful fit!
I set up the drill press and with the new $50 drill drilled out the old broken bits of tube ready to take the new downtubes. Note the masking tape depth gauge.

 

Now time to put the bits together.
These frames on old British bikes were tubes furnace brazed into cast steel fittings. After giving them all a good clean up I coated the cleaned areas with flux, tapped the tubes into place and silver brazed then into place, checking and rechecking that it all lined up as you only get one shot at getting it right. Each joint has a $15 stick of 45% silver rod into it, maybe a bit over kill but I wanted to be sure that the joint was completely covered and would not fall apart under me.
Fitted the headstem doubling bush in and brazed into place. Then the top frame tube over that and the rest like a mechano set.


Not a bad days work!

 

Layed the engine on its side to get an idea of where the engine will sit in the frame.

Tacked the frame to my steel welding bench and with blocks of wood got the engine in position and made the engine mounts and bolted in.

Sat the tank, seat and dummy primary drive cover in position to get an idea of how things will fit.

Now the sharp eyed of you will see that is not a RE engine. I will no doubt get some remarks from some of the older vintage bike fellows about using a Japanese engine, so be it. It is my bike.
I plan to use a 1977 Yamaha DT250 engine that I kept from a bike I sold last year. It is a 2 stroke like the original, and by the time I 'disguise' it with a dummy primary drive cover, dummy magneto, pipe and carb it should pass a not too close look. I plan to hide the oil tank in one of the tool boxes, and battery where the original gearbox would be. I will be making a few changes, such as foot gear change instead of the hand change, no premix, decent lights, etc. Note the tank in photo above. 14 Litre new tank from India from a 500cc modern, came 2 pak painted, stickered and hand applied gold pinstripes for $170. Would have spent that much on the crappy Yamaha tank I was planning to use. Have mudguards, tool boxes and other bits all came painted and pinstriped.

 

Did some alloy work today. This is all that remained of the gearbox that I dug up at the tip.

I needed to make a battery box, and the thought hit me (ouch) that with some work I could fit the 6 volt battery into the casing and mount it behind the engine similar to the original mounting.

I bought a piece of 12mm alloy plate and fired up the Plasma cutter to make the adapter/mounting for the dummy chain case.
Should look ok when finished.

 

Would love to come over there Simon to get away from the heat.

 

Have the gear case/battery box done now. Will get the body of it sand blasted with the frame when finished, and maybe a bit more polishing of the cover.

The mount for the dummy chain case cover took a bit more effort. I cut the plate to match the Yamaha cases, then to match the Enfield cover. Had to cut some bits out so I could weld in pieces of 13mm alloy bar, drill through for the mounting bolts and tap into the adaptor plate to mount the cover.

I needed to seal the magneto from dirt/water that may be thrown up by the chain. I welded a 3mm alloy piece to the adaptor plate, and with a cardboard template cut and ground to shape to fit the inside on the cover. It will still need a rubber seal to make it water tight.

Will look good when all tidied up and painted.

 

And for those who wonder 'what hell am I doing', this is what they looked like in 1936.

This is a one family owner in South Australia that is still ridden.

 

Made an adaptor to mount my 'Chinese Amal' carb to the Yamaha reed valve block. Had to make up a plastic bush to fit the aircleaner to the carb.