gvinrad Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) Hi Guy's, My name is Gerry and I have been directed to this forum whilst looking for information on my Stuart Turner P5XC stationary engine, I have been told by the previous owner that it came off a WW2 RAF fuel bowser ?. I have a general interest in military vehicles, own several classic British motorcycles including a late 1930's BSA M20. My current most active interest is in old stationary engines, these are a lot more affordable than classic motorcycles in today's current economic climate. Looking around on the internet makes me wonder if my engine could have been fitted to an AEC 0854 ?, what I'm after is can anyone confirm if this is the case or not. If so I would like to find some photo's showing one of the Stuart Turner engines in place on such a vehicle, I'm hoping that someone on this forum can either help me out with some photo's or point me in the right direction. There do seem to be plenty of photos of this type of vehicle on the net, but they don't tend to show the rear end of the vehicle in any close up detail of the pumping set up at all. Any help that forum members can offer me will be gratefully accepted, Cheers, Gerry. __._,_.___ Edited January 18, 2012 by gvinrad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joris Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Well I can't answer your question but would like to welcome you to the forum: Welcome to the forum! :dancing: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gvinrad Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 Hi Joris, Thanks for the warm welcome, to start off with I'm not sure that I will be able to contribute much information to this forum. However I might be able to offer some help to any members who own BSA M20 motorcycles, although no expert on the subject I'm the technical consultant for M-series models with the BSA owners club. A position that I have held for the past 7 or 8 years, not sure how many forum members own BSA motorcycles. Cheers, Gerry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joris Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I'm sure we'll find a use for you, worst case scenario you can clean out the clubhouse with Jack (for which we are still trying to find anything usefull, been looking for 5 years now!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gvinrad Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 I'm sure we'll find a use for you, worst case scenario you can clean out the clubhouse with Jack (for which we are still trying to find anything usefull, been looking for 5 years now!). Ah !, You never forget the old training. Many's the time I have been known to be caught pushing a broom around the floor, certainly a skill that a few others could do with learning. Used to also have a bucket of damp sawdust handy to keep the dust down, I doubt health & safety would allow this now though. Gerry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Ah !, You never forget the old training. Many's the time I have been known to be caught pushing a broom around the floor, certainly a skill that a few others could do with learning. Used to also have a bucket of damp sawdust handy to keep the dust down, I doubt health & safety would allow this now though. Gerry Welcome in, I am sure that there will be plenty of questions concerning the M20, I have one... its a poor starter when hot, it is not fitted with the distance piece between the carb and the cylinder, resulting in possible evapouration from a very warm carb......... any thoughts????? (The electrics have been serviced, and found to be good, good spark etc.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gvinrad Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 Hi Ray, Well my friend I fear you have hit the nail on the head, my advice would be to fit the manifold/spacer between the barrel and carb. This is a classic problem on side valve engines especially ones with cast iron cylinder heads, it would probably help if you were to fit the later aluminium head but then of course you are deviating from originality a little. However this is sometimes deemed acceptable if it improves matters, an ally head could be blacked to look pretty close to an iron one. A worn carb could also contribute to starting problems as could a poor spark, but it seems you have removed that from the equation !. But fitting the manifold should certainly help matters, it does sound like fuel vaporisation to me. Not sure if that's any use to you Ray, as I don't think I've told you anything you don't already know !. Thanks for including the photo, the bike looks good !. Cheers, Gerry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RattlesnakeBob Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Hello GVINRAD welcome aboard ! I own a BSA !......she's not an ex army model but is a damn good 'un never the less! I've got a BSA 1965 Grand Prix Victor 441 Scrambler... ...it's got a slight army connection in that apparantly a very short run of this model (albeit a fair bit altered from the scrambles one) was made for the Army so I am told around 66/67 ish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gvinrad Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 Hi Bob ?, Would that have been the WDB40GB that you refer to ?, this was a 350cc single cylinder machine with a trials gearbox and increased ground clearance with off road tyres. If so I had one myself and only sold it recently, mainly due to financial hardship (cash flow problems forced me into selling off 3 BSA'S last year). I will try and attach a photo of my old one, but as I haven't tried this before it might go missing. Cheers, Gerry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big ray Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Hi Ray, Well my friend I fear you have hit the nail on the head, my advice would be to fit the manifold/spacer between the barrel and carb. This is a classic problem on side valve engines especially ones with cast iron cylinder heads, it would probably help if you were to fit the later aluminium head but then of course you are deviating from originality a little. However this is sometimes deemed acceptable if it improves matters, an ally head could be blacked to look pretty close to an iron one. A worn carb could also contribute to starting problems as could a poor spark, but it seems you have removed that from the equation !. But fitting the manifold should certainly help matters, it does sound like fuel vaporisation to me. Not sure if that's any use to you Ray, as I don't think I've told you anything you don't already know !. Thanks for including the photo, the bike looks good !. Cheers, Gerry. Many, many thanks for confirming my suspicions, I can now go down that route with a degree of confidence..... thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RattlesnakeBob Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Yep that looks like the one mate....not too sure of the details but I think it may have been higher compression than the stock civilian offered 350?...anyways.the frame is more or less the same as the Victor Scrambler but probably beefed up a bit I guess???......the motor looks the same except for being 350cc instead of 441cc capacity...same casings I guess..... the same model eventually ended up as the B50 but by then it had grown to 500cc as I'm sure you know well... .....crackin bikes and great fun to ride though .....I've had a struggle with the clutch over the years on mine which I'm told was a problem with this model regardless of capacity?? dunno what your findings are?? .....the clutch slips when you kick it over or if you set it tight enough not to slip , then she is difficult if not impossible to get onto gear once she has started..so I'm midway through fitting an entirely new assembly ..watch this space! hahah! ..those 'in the know' have suggested the only total cure is to change the entire clutch assembly to a B50 one which apparently cured the problem ??....but I'd rather not do that as I've have rebuilt her as originally as possible...... there really aren't that many 'real & proper' Grand Prix Victors left ...... only about 500 were made originally from what I can find out and approx 250 of them went to the US... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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