Not my finest moment lol, that fall made a right mess of my leg on the 4th sub on the first group, didn't want to give up tho, it was worth it in the end, saw some amazing places and got to ride with some really great people, will definitely try to go again my leg a week on Blackwater Dam
Another quick update the Greeves is running great. It got me round the pre65 Scottish may not have been very stylish but I got round , my hat goes off to the 6 days riders as I'm done after 2
"Pinking", "knocking", "bag of spanners". I'm just wondering if you actually had zero squish clearance to start off with ie the piston was hitting the head. In which case an extra 0.9mm of clearance may be a little excessive, but not much.
There was no signs of any piston to head contact, but it must have been close as when the barrel was torqued down the piston was above the top of the barrel, it was the only thing I didn't check when I originally built the engine ?, it would knock mainly under heavy load pulling up steep hills, on the flat it would be fine, the timing had been checked multiple times and I'd tried different settings all made some difference (good and bad) but non cured the fault this is the only change that has stopped the knocking, so weather it be squish or compression im not sure but it runs great now, it would be nice to get an expert go through it and find out exactly how it should be set up or how close ive got it, as TRF says there are many different combinations of these engines so it may have been a bit of a lash up in the past lol
Yeah im just glad that ive got it to stop sounding like a bag of spanners and possibly ruining a rebuild, it runs great and has more than enough power for me
Every day is a school day like I said I've done basic rebuilds before and never had to mess with any engine like I've had to with this one, it was a non runner when I got it and it's been a pain in the backside
I've never messed around with the squish on any of my enduro bikes, i used to get a local kart engine builder to do any major work for me as they would fly once he had finished with them so I wouldn't know what would be the best clearance
I'm surprised that a small squish clearance was causing the problem as I've always worked on the assumption that squish clearance should be small. what did you start with? And what have you got now? The bike's looking very handsome, by the way.
It was quite a lengthy process trying lots of things one at a time, it got to a point where nothing i did changed how it ran for the better, it would knock/pink under load but once you were on the flat it would rip your arms off once it got going, I didn't measure the squish but took off the head and tightened back down the barrel (head bolts hold the barrel aswell) and the piston was sitting above the top of the cylinder so I took a punt on using an old head gasket that my uncle had which was the correct bore and was I think .9mm thick and it has totally transformed how it runs. Thanks that pic was taken last week on a trail by Hawks Nest
Just thought I'd update this post I've finally sorted the running problems. First fault (starting/reving)was the brand new carb which has been swapped for a new amal premier carb, the second fault was a combination of things (gettin hot/pinking), turns out these Villiers engines have a usefull feature of a drain plug in the crank cases, which had come loose on mine and was letting in a small amount of air making it run hot, so that got a new copper washer and some thread tape making it run a lot better but not perfect, whilst talking with a couple of riders whilst out practicing they mentioned about the squish with it having a rebuild, so that was checked and found to be very tight/narrow so I've used a copper head gasket I had off another bike and what a transformation the bike is a complete different animal, so thanks to those who posted ideas and maybe this might help others in the future because there's nothing worse than a thread with no update on whether a fault has been fixed, here's a pic of it now it's finished
Years ago I had a similar problem on a (believe it on not) TY 175. it would start easily and run for about a minute,(enough time to get to the first gate) plug dead. 5 plugs later, (slow learner, and all available plugs stuffed). I went and got a platinum plug and instantly no more problem.
As to why, Sorry no idea, but I'm guessing that maybe combustion created a deposit that shorted the plug, and the platinum one ran hotter/colder and prevented this happening.
These days I would go for an iridium plug.
Same here on my Greeves running a brand new electronic ignition, it would do 2 laps of a trial then pack up, swop to a new one (ngk) and would do the same, swoped to a platinum one and it's been fine since
That's a woodruff key you need to take that off the crank, tap down on the end closest to the gear and the other end should pop up then use a drift to knock it out of its hole, thay can be really tight in there, I always repace these as they can sheer, usually when you are furthest away from your transport home.
There was a new pair on my beamish when I got it and I thought they were ok untill I dropped on a par of Michelin x11, the mt's would slide off the top of rocks but on the same sections (Bracken rock's) the x11 had much more grip, couldnt tell that much on grass/mud
Ive always struggled to get good fitting gloves, ive got long fingers so I would have to get a larger size then the palm of the gloves would wrinkle and give me blisters, the ones Ive found to work the best were MTB gloves from Halfords, I tried on 4 different brands till I found a set that fit perfect and bought three pair just in case
Hope they have everything bolted down up there, last time I was was at that venue we had 2 attempted thefts in the night and had my bike stolen during the event, I was a traveling Marshall on an enduro stopped to help a load of stuck riders and some thieving b*****d had it away never to be returned
It was nice to meet you too Andy, good to put a face to a name, hope you get your transport sorted soon, its a bit lonely being the only beamish in a sea of Ty's, it was a good trial and had enough time at the end for a play on the harder routes I think its time to move up a class or two
, my hat goes off to the 6 days riders as I'm done after 2
like I said I've done basic rebuilds before and never had to mess with any engine like I've had to with this one, it was a non runner when I got it and it's been a pain in the backside
Any Ideas What's Going On
in Greeves
Posted · Edited by hulmie
Not my finest moment lol, that fall made a right mess of my leg on the 4th sub on the first group, didn't want to give up tho, it was worth it in the end, saw some amazing places and got to ride with some really great people, will definitely try to go again
my leg a week on 
Blackwater Dam