Centurion

1976 Swiss Army Condor Motorcycle powered by a Ducati 350 OHC motor. The machine is in good unrestored condition. The motor was recently rebuilt with new parts and is not yet run in. New control cables and the seat has been rebuilt with new foam and cover It has leather panniers , one of which requires repair. Sale may include some swiss army personal equipment if required. The bike is currently on SORN and would be MOT,d at the time of sale. Note the pics are recent NOV 2016 the date on the camera hasnt been changed. £2750 ono if interested PM me or contact 07979607419

Heads up, I have used Aldi,s washing machine cleaner to clean the jets from my bike carb. It works a treat in their ultrasonic cleaner far better than anything else I have tried. Currently on sale for £1.99 for 2 bottles its worth a try at that price I used 1 capful to about half a pint of water. If it doesnt harm your washer it should be safe for other things and environmentally friendly cheers, Centurion

PS, Yes I know that the rifle butt brackets at the front are upside down, Centurion

A recent buy in good order. My WDCO has gone to be replaced by this a downgrade?. Perhaps not it does have suspension.[ATTACH=CONFIG]107263[/ATTACH]

I have picked this up a bit late. But I assume you mean the hole in the side of the float chamber top which leaks fuel if you depress the tickler button . If its leaking fuel otherwise then the float is at the wrong height or stuck. I have a complete but dismantled 276 carb for sale in the ads section with other WDCO parts if your interested. Regards Centurion

Hi, probably not a lot of help but to give you some hope I got a new old stock one off ebay last year. Just keep looking. I have re read your original post and I had trouble with mine running weak just off idle and was in the odd position of having the choke partially on and it spitting as if running weak. I found that be lifting the need a notch at a time I got it to the point where it runs without spitting but is just a touch rich at wide throttle openings. My mate reckons its all to do with the way modern fuel burns because it has ethanol in it. I found that if I can find ethanol free or use the best quality 4 star ( yes I know there supposed to run on poor fuel) it runs a lot better Regards, Centurion

Hi I have been off this forum for a while and on return when I tried to post a picture using the manage attachments button I got a warning box which said I was attempting an undefined action and wasnt logged in and that I should refresh the page and log in to try again. I couldnt close this box and the whole computer locked no open website or file could be closed. I had to switch off at he main power button and start again and the same thing happened. How do I get round this?? Rgds Centurion

Hi, the advice about the firing order putting your finger over the plug hole to feel for compression is the best way to go. When I had my Hotchkiss I did some work on the oil pump and lost the ignition timing. When I tried to reset the timing. I couldnt get it right using the timing marks. I eventually discovered that the flywheel isnt pegged so can be bolted on in any position. When the French rebuilt the engines they obviously did so many that they could set up the timing without any trouble. On mine the flywheel was half a turn out so when the flywheel timing marks were right the distributor rotor arm was not pointing a the no1 cylinder position. By using the thumb over the hole method I found that when the the flywheel marks were right it was timed on no3. Good luck , regards Centurion

Hi all I found out from a friend that his Dad had served out his National Service in the Royal Signals in Korea. He then wrote a book about it which I think he published himself. Its a short but a good read to give you the feel for this forgotten War. If your interested its by George Pagan , "A National Serviceman in Korea" ISBN 1-900467-16-X . If you can't get hold of it let me know I think he has some in his garage which he will sell on. Regards Centurion

Hi this is sort of skip story if thats what the threads about. At one time I worked in a Police station at a Newtown in Northumberland. A very worried member of the public came to the counter. He was worried because not far from the nick there was row of nice 30s houses and on the drive of blocking the drive completely and stopping the garage door was a skip loaded with rubbish. He didnt own the house but saw that the rubbish in the skip was from some building work at his house and He didnt know why it was on someone elses drive. A call to the skip company revealed all. The owner of the house where the skip had been left had recently hired a skip filled it and had it removed. He had not payed up. The owner of the skip company had then left the skip described on his drive completely blocking all vehicle access until ya man had payed his bill. It was there for a couple of weeks at least, not a Police problem just a civil debt. Centurion

Thanks Centurion

Thanks for that, Can anyone answer my questions re the roller cages and thrust washers. Regards Centurion

PS re the previous post, The engine with the odd breather arrangement for the oil tank has a standard crankcase breather assembly. Centurion

thanks for that, here is some info relating to both,I made an error in relation to the date of No 2 No1. ENGINE NUMBER 3900 ROYAL ENFIELD WD/CO 350CC OHV FROM CONTRACT C/11081, ORDERED 15/2/40 A QUANTITY OF 5000 COMPLETED ORDER BY 22/10/41 1053 DESPATCHED TO TEWKESBURY DEPOT WITH THE REMAINDER GOING TO CHILWELL. this engine has the vented oil tank with the vent exiting the rear of the crankcases and no breather hole in the oil filler No2 (engine number 15419) must have been assembled around September 1943 20314) 15419 (LH side below Magdyno) C/S1546 (LH side) Can you advise which way the open end of roller bearing cages face on the drive side main bearing , toward the flywheel or towards the cases, or does the outer race face towards the case and the inner face towards the flywheel. Regards Centurion

Hi gents, There appear to be a few WDCO ohv owners about Can you put your collective heads together and see if you can answers some of my questions I am rebuilding my engine following a big end failure and have had the floating bush big end replaced with a roller bearing by Alpha. The original flywheel thrust bearings are too thick to allow the cases to bolt up with them installed. Hitchcocks only have 84 thou thick ones. Which I may have ground down does anyone have a source of others of different thicknesses. I have 2 engines one a 1940 and the other which was fitted in the bike is 1942. There are several differnces. The 1940 motor has an oil tank breather channel through the rear of the crankcases venting just in front of the gearbox The 1940 motor has an oil feed to the timing side bush which isnt present on the 1942 one On the 1940 motor The oil feed down the centre of the oil pump drive worm into the centre of the timing drive shaft is a larger diameter. The style of the camshaft pinions is also different and the cams look to have different profiles Any info welcome Regards Centurion

Hi all, this may have been better in the I know its stupid but. What are the trailer weights that can be towed by. Weights in kg please. I have a box trailer which carries up to 3000 kg grossthe unladen weight is 900kg 1. Airportable l/rover series 2a or 3 2. Landrover 90 3.Landrover 110 Thanks Centurion

There has been a lot of correspondence in the classic bike mags about the effect of ethanol on tank lining products. Softening the coating as you have described it also has a severe effect on the Glass fibre tanks of the 60s and 70s. There appear to be products now being marketed which have originated in the US where ethanol has been used in fuel for some time. You could try one of these or wait until there is some feedback to see if they are as good as claimed. But the only definite wayto fix it is to weld it. If you dont fancy doing this yourself there are tank repair specialists but I suspect that the cost could be high which is why the liquid liners became so poular in the first place. Good luck with it either way Regards Centurion

Thanks for the response. The piston fitted had a slot cut through the skirt just under the lowest ring . The slotran horizontally from side to side and then vertically to a point just in front of the gudgeon pin hole. Additionally there was a slot cut from the lower edge of the skirt at is deepest point vertically to about 10mm from the other slot described. I can understand the piston taking a hammering but wonder if one with a skirt without these grooves whilst probably not re useable may not have broken up so spectacularly and spread so much debris round the motor. I dont think that the oil pump failed as there is no evidence on any of the other parts to sugges that there was oil starvation. Please see pics for the full extent of the destruction Regards Centurion

Hi all Just a tale of woe to share. I had my WDCO 350 ohv rebored and new piston. When the barrel was off I had a go at the con rod for big end play and all seemed well. The motor was rebuilt and ran in all seemed well it was going fine. I did 600 miles in the UK and about 350 in Holland with no problems. Following a visit to the Killhope lead mine complex in Co Durham I was returning down Weardale to Stanhope when there was a bit of a rattle a lot of smoke and no power. I had it recovered and taken home there seemed to be compression but it was also compressing into the crankcases and blowing out the breather. Head off seemed ok then I took the barrel off and all was not well. The big end had failed allowing the piston to clip the inside of the head and the skirt to touch the flywheel. The piston which was only 4 months old now has half a skirt and the remainder was minced and spread around the motor. I bought it from the RE dealers Hitchcocks and when I get round to the rebuild I am a bit wary of fitting the same make again. So I may be looking for a +40 piston from another source. All ideas and suitable suggestions considered. Regards Centurion

Hi I have a Champion L82C which I use in mine. I also use a Lodge C14 which it came with. This is a 3 electrode type and it definitely starts better with this in, with 3 electrodes there is more chance it will fire and probably gives the magneto an easier time. If you can find one it is the plug I would recommend. Regards Centurion

Hi There is a an occasional series in the MTV mag which shows vehicles at locations usually in France during WW2 with a modern pic of the same street. Is it done on here if not perhaps we should start. If I can get he pic uploaded heres one for the off. The photo is marked Okehampton 1943. The guy sitting a the front of the bike is my old man and he served in the Royal Corp of Signals with 3 Div. Does anyone know if the house in the background is still standing or is now a housing estate. Further can anyone id the make and model of the bike , possibly a Norton 16 H? and the other vehicles in sight. Regards Centurion

Hi having given your indicator problem a bit of thought (perhaps thats all I am capable of) Standard 12 volt indicator flasher units are in the main constructed to operate with 21 watt indicator bulbs. Most indicators added to jeeps are built into the front small blackout lights and probably do not have 21 watt bulbs fitted. So your churning out power for 2 x 21 watt and it has to be disssapated somewhere if the bulbs are smaller than this so to do so they flash faster? If this is right the answer could be to put higher watt bulbs in your indicators or fit a 12volt motorcycle flasher unit for 2 x 8 / 10 watt bulbs.I have seen these for sale in the vehicle wiring products catalogue and possibly on their web site at http://www.vehicleproducts.co.uk Of course not being a vehicle electrician this could all be b******ks but the units are £4.47 plus vat and postage so it could be worth a shot and may eliminate the need to fit extra bulbs in the circuit to absorb the additional power. Regards Centurion

Thanks for that Centurion

Hi I painted my Jeep with an eggshell finish the paint was from Warpaint. It went on fine with a roller and dried to a nice finish which wasnt too prone to scratching REgards Centurion

Hi if you after a 24 volt flasher relay. I have one I bought from Tony Suddes and never fitted. Regards Centurion