question BSA charging set gaskets

[morrisc8gs]

Hi,

 

I am currently restoring a BSA charging set (chore horse) and need gaskets for the cylinder head and for the bottome of the cylinder block.

 

Does anyone know of a possible source? Is it possible to make your own?

 

I also need the retaining pins for the valve stems - any ideas?

 

Also need the air filter.

 

Hope someone can help

 

Many thanks

 

Martin

[Tony B]

The cylinder head dosen't have a head gasket. I just gave it a light smear of Hoylmar blue. One VERY important point. The rectifier is Berilyum. DO NOT crack or breack it, the dust is very poisiounous!! I used mine yesterday. A tipper stranded with flat batteries, it was giving out 30 volts! at 10 amps! Five minutes the starter was spinning at warp speed. Depending on what you actualy haveThe BSA or the proper Chore Horse parts are interchangeable. Mine is a Chore horse, however it has the BSA ignition side plate and flywheel.The Chore Horse one was chewed up, and the BSA had a cracked engine block. There are manuals available on line from the Military Radio site, but can't find the link at the moment.

Edited January 9, 2010 by Tony B

[Tony B]

Found link it is Wireless 19 group.

[morrisc8gs]

Hi Tony,

 

thanks for the quick reply - sounds like yours is working well after all these years.

 

I have got the manual from the 19 set site. I have also got a user handbook from here

 

http://www.howardengineerium.co.uk/BSA.html

 

I am a bit confused now as the user handbook clearly shows gaskets on the cylinder head and for the bottom of the cylinder block. I also retrieved a damaged gasket from it. Doesn't the gasket give the tappet clearance too? ( .012in) in the manual from 19 set site.

 

Thanks for your help

 

Martin

[REME 245]

I asked the question about the American version of the Chorehorse some time ago as I had found one but no one could identify it.

 

Does anyone know if they were produced for lend lease or the American army?

[Richard Farrant]

 

I am a bit confused now as the user handbook clearly shows gaskets on the cylinder head and for the bottom of the cylinder block. I also retrieved a damaged gasket from it. Doesn't the gasket give the tappet clearance too? ( .012in) in the manual from 19 set site.

 

 

 

Martin,

 

I can confirm head gaskets were used on the BSA, I have overhauled a good many of them and was puzzled by Tony's reply as you were.

[Tony B]

Umm, I took the head off my Chore Horse. It had no gasket. Refitted it , with a bit of Hoylmar and it works fine. Didn't need to touch the bottom end. worth unscrewing the petrol tank vabvlve and checking that though, mine has stuck.

[gritineye]

My BSA one was a sealed recon unit when I got it, the exhaust valve stuck open after a while, I took the head off and the gasket was asbestos type paper, I cut one out of a cereal box and it works OK, I have since bought a square of paper gasket material of the non asbestos type to make another more durable one.

[The Auck]

If it isn't a silly question but is there a difference between the chorehorse and the BSA charging unit? How can you tell the difference? I am about to restore something that resembles a charging unit of sorts but can't id it.

 

Nigel

[Tony B]

The diffrence is really the plate on the outside. The BSA is almost an exact copy of the Chore horse. Engine wise the side plate which has the points and magneto and the flywheel with magnets have to be paired together , but will fit both. Air cleanears etc look slightly diffrent but will fit. Carbs are interchangeable but a real swine to set up. I was lucky apart from changine the flywheel, ignition plate from the BSA the Chorse Horse ran sweetly. I had the top off to check the condition, this is where the oddity of no head gasket came up. I just Hyolmared the top back on. Wheather permitting I'll strip the top of the BSA carcase and see what's there. If you post pictures of your kit we can give you a better answer.

[gritineye]

I used mine yesterday. A tipper stranded with flat batteries, it was giving out 30 volts! at 10 amps! Five minutes the starter was spinning at warp speed.

 

Tony, caution needed here re self starting.

[Tony B]

We actually used it more less to warm the battries on the truck up. As it had decided to stop right across a road junction it was desperation measures. I've actually just finished playing with the thing. I'm still trying all angles to get an old 6 volt battery up. So I put it in series with a 12 volt and wound the old Chore Horse up. I will point out it was outside to allow for any hydrogen to gas. The output measured at full blast across the sytem was 20.26 volt starting at 1 amp then going up to 20 as the system heated up. Unlaode voltage measuered at 30. Unfortunatley though two cells of the 6 volt started to gas one didn't , so it has breathed it's last. The manual says that you can use 250 feet of cable from the set to battries, so it is a powerful little beast.

 

Considering the thing has sat in the shed for about two years, was dragged out filled with fuel , given a whiff of Easy Start, and away it went, they are tough old beasts. I have tried to pul start it, took about a week for the shoulder strain to go away, with no starting! So now I put it on a charged 12 volt and use the little red button. This reverses the flow so the rotary dynamo becomes a starter motor. Once running it self sustains on the magneto. The engine is fixed on a mechanical govenor. Voltage and ampage output is variable by a conrtrol knob. Though I do keep a seperate meter across the system.

Worth having about the workshop if you can get one.

[listerdiesel]

We had a batch of 10 gaskets made for the BSA sets, I am in touch with Martin (assuming it's the same Martin!) re a new gasket through our stationary engine forum.

 

We still have a couple or more of the BSA units that our son plays with, and also we have a couple of the Pincor WS No12 generators, these are probably going to the WWII museum near Eindhoven in May of this year, when we go to the Nuenen engine show.

 

Peter

[morrisc8gs]

yes it's the same Martin - thanks for your help Peter

[The Auck]

Finally managed to take some photos of my Charging Set. It's made in Canada and has MOD no. Any comments about it would be appreciated. Seems to have its own fuel container, is this normal?

 

Nigel

[gritineye]

Just wondering if anyone has regularly started one of these using a heavy truck type battery, and did any damage result as per the warning?

[Tony B]

Your missing the cage that goes over the whole thing. You can start them off any twelve volt battery I've always started mine on the vehicle battery. It is only for a few seconds. Pushing the red button turns the armature into a motor. When started the engine runs on the magneto. The fuel out pipe from the tank has a valve on the bottom, which may stick. You can try pull starting, wouldn't recommend it.

Edited January 22, 2010 by Tony B

[Eugene]

Hi Nigel,

here's some pictures of my Canadian charging set that you might find of interest;

Don't laugh -it's how I bought it! It's currently under restoration -when I get around to it.

I haven't had it running, but it would spin over on a battery and I've since got it sparking.

I also have one of the 1950s BSA units and a similar American type.

-Roger.

[Tony B]

Hey seen worse. The good thing is they are tough as old boots!

[Adrian Barrell]

The first one of these I ever got is a Canadian one, it still has the maple leaf decal.

 

I was given it by a friend of my fathers. He had a boat he used it on but removed it when he could no longer start it. He had removed and cleaned the carb, made a new flange gasket and refitted it all to no avail. When I restored it, I found he had made a nice job of the gasket, all apart from forgetting to cut a hole in the middle!

 

We had a laugh about that one, he was a nucleur physicist........

[The Auck]

Hi Eugene and others. I thought mine was bad!!! I'm selling mine as its surplus to requirements, so will let someone else restore it. So were these used the same as the other charging sets? Would they have been used in vehicles etc? I take it they are wartime?

 

Nigel

[Tony B]

The wartime one is the Chore Horse, made in Canada. Uses, they seem to have been everywhere. Mostly with signals vehicles of the Smaller type up to 15 cwt. The bigger 3 ton QL's carried either a built in generator or a larger auxilary on command vehicles. The BSA sets are mostly dated in the early 1950's, 53 seeming to be the most prolific. With the change to solid state radios they went out of use. Small but extremly heavy, the also use a rotary dynamo with a Boron rectifier, the dust is very poisionus, so another eson for them going out of use. During the war there were also battery trucks. These were loaded with a number of cells and were used as jump starters fro vehicles , or to carry replacement baterys, change the one on the vehicle then charge up later, these also had charging sets. Very versitile bit of kit.

[listerdiesel]

OMC (Outboard Motor Co)

Pincor Gene-motor

BSA

Johnson

 

These are the four names asscoiated with these units, Johnson/OMC I think is the same company.

 

The ones we have are 30V, one we sold to the Wings Of Liberation Museum in Eindhoven last year, we still have a couple of them plus 2 of the Pincor units, which are made specifically for the WS No 12 power supply. These last will also be going to the Museum when we go over for the Nuenen engine show at the end of May.

 

This is worth looking through:

 

http://www.asecc.com/data/iron/index.html

 

Peter

[REME 245]

Nigel

 

As Tony has already mentioned, Chorsehorse Generators were used on all radio equipped light vehicles such as Carriers and 15cwt trucks which could not charge their radio battery's directly off their own engines.

 

Others will confirm or otherwise, but from memory there was no British war-time production of these generators only Canadian. I have certainly never seen a a British version I would consider to be of war-time production.

 

Peter - when we discussed the Pincor version sometime ago you said you would confirm your source of information for there use with number 12 radio radio sets (mentioned in manuals)? When there are three or four different British models listed specically for this radio set it hard to see the need to obtain supplies from the US.

[listerdiesel]

Peter - when we discussed the Pincor version sometime ago you said you would confirm your source of information for their use with number 12 radio radio sets (mentioned in manuals)? When there are three or four different British models listed specically for this radio set it hard to see the need to obtain supplies from the US.

 

I did respond to you directly, or maybe on the stationary engine forum.

 

The Pincor unit has 230V AC and 12V DC outputs, all of the BSA units that I have seen and we have ourselves are single low-voltage DC output, 12V or 30V. It also has an additional external flywheel added to the engine on the cooling fan side.

 

The Pincor handbook specifically states that it is for the WS No12 on the first page. The Generator Number is:

 

BD-12-A DC/AC 250Watt No1 (American) (1A).

 

I don't know if the OMC/Johnson units are also dual-voltage with the 230V AC output, they certainly did make a 110V AC + 32V DC and another one 110V AC + 6V DC.

 

Peter

Edited January 27, 2010 by listerdiesel