Rebirth of a Lightweight Panther. 10. The Race (?) to the Finish

I now had all the parts I needed bar a few so I put the engine and gearbox in the frame and added the wheels, mudguards and toolbox. I had a set of steel primary chaincases and these confirmed that a pair of moulds Sherb had come across would produce the correct replicas in glass fibre should anyone need a set. 

Front end.

Back end

Engine and gearbox, timing side

Drive side

With the inner case in place I could fit the clutch and the two chains. The primary proved troublesome as it needed a half link which I had but most of the split links I found in various tobacco tins seemed to be marginally different in size; slightly too narrow so that the spring clip would not go on. After more searching I eventually found one that would fit.

Clutch parts

Engine sprocket and cush

The clutch pushrod to hand proved to be too short so I found some 3/16 inch silver steel on Ebay, cut it to length and hardened and tempered it. With a cable fitted the clutch is light and smooth.

Assembled primary druive and clutch.

I moved on to the electrics and made up a loom. I had the correct Miller dynamo fitted to the engine/gearbox assembly that started this whole thing off. I cleaned it and removed the inbuilt cut-out as I intended to fit a Lucas CVC unit. Running up the dynamo in the lathe gave about 18 volts  so all seemed in order there. A CVC unit from my junk pile, once fettled, performed well and I adjusted that to give about 7.8 volts using a 12 volt charger as a power source. With the dynamo still in the lathe I connected the CVC, an ammeter and a headlamp and found that all worked well when run up. Hopefully this set-up still works on the bike. A suitable bracket was made for the ignition coil which would live just under the fuel tank, and a supply was run from an ignition switch fitted to the headlamp.

CVC unit and ignition coil wired in.

 I found that I had several carburetters of the correct size but they all had wider centres on the mounting bolts. These engines, as in the case of the earlier Red Panther of which this machine is a development, had closer centres on the manifold which is part of the cylinder head. The early carbs are very hard to find so I modified the one I had by slotting the fixing holes. I also did not have the correct angled float chamber but thankfully Sherb produced a rather corroded one from his parts store. This cleaned up fine and is now in place with the internals swapped over from my 90 degree chamber.

The lights and horn were all wired in and are working satisfactorily and I also had a spark..

Replica tail light and reflector

Headlamp with ignition switch and speedo.

Now was the time to make a test. I have a small fuel tank I use for first firing up and I put this over the frame tube and connected it to the carb. With a float bowl full of fresh petrol I made a few priming strokes then switched on the ignition and took a decent swing of the kickstart. Nothing happened! With a bit more fuel and priming strokes a swing produced a bang back through the carb so I backed off the timing a bit and tried again. The noise was shattering as I was in the workshop and the bike had no exhsut system at all, not even a pipe. Long flames shot from the exhaust port as the engine roared into life for the first time in many years. It soon fell silent as the float bowl emptied but a start like this is enough to give the project a shot forward. Some snags were clear. The head joint was blowing badly, and I needed to source a silencer, I already had the pipe.

I had put a copper washer in the head joint, a mistake as these heads have a ground joint onto the barrel. It didn't take too long to correct that and get it back together again.

I turned to the petrol tank which I had painted some months ago. Getting a reasonable fit of the knee grips was taxing, they were on and off many times adjusting the fixings and the curve of the plates before I finally cried enough. I had the badges but needed to paint over the red letters so they matched the tank. I found the screws supplied didn't fit so ordered some new brass ones, they are 1/8 inch BSW 40 tpi. The second badge fell in half as I fitted it but I found another one tucked away in a drawer.

Fuel tank.

I fitted the exhaust pipe but that required a couple of copper washers under the flange as the exhaust nut would not pull up tight. This meant I had to stop and make a die to cut some rings from a sheet of copper which I had salvaged from an old hot water tank. Never pass up on handy looking bits of metal!

I looked on line for a silencer, Armours don't do them for this machine but Feked do and it duly arrived. I made up a clip to fit it to the frame lug at the front of the silencer but still need a strap for the silencer body. There is no lug for that on the frame so it will probably go onto the wheel spindle which. is the nearest fixing available. With the silencer in place I fired the bike up again. The head joint seems fine now but I appear to have lost first gear.

These gearboxes are renowned for being delicate and apparently give a lot of trouble when a little worn. I shall need to dive back inside which is a pain as I have put in some semi-fluid grease. A messy job loomed but it wasn't too bad as the grease hadn't filtered through into the kickstart case. It turned out that the foot change control quadrant was slightly too wide and was fouling the case. A quick spin of the angle grinder sorted that and we now have four gears.

The bike fires up easily and all the lights work. There are sure to be a few snags to sort once I take it out on the road but that must wait until the weather eases a bit.

So that's another project finished. I just need to contact the POC Registrar to sort a number with the DVLA and iron out any snags. Not bad going as it has taken just under twelve months from start to finish. I'll now turn this blog into a small book.

Now to the next project, Onwards and Upwards.