SCC No.2 is, I suspect a much under-used colour for portrayals of NW Europe. My Dad was L of C and landed on 25th June but if I ask him about vehicle colours during 1944-45 is always most insistent that they were "nearly all a browny colour".
Hi Andrew.
Originally my ML had a post war engine so I rebuilt it with WW2 crank cases that I got from Steve. After which I was unable to engage the gears. So I needed to re visit the bike to see what I had done wrong.
So far, all I can find is that I think this plunger spring is wrong and much too heavy. I'll get some new parts from Villiers Services and rebuild again and paint the engine and exhaust and dull chrome the two down pipes as it would have been from the factory. Ron
I should report that having had another look at my Normandy James ML tank in the daylight that the tank was originally brown and NOT green as I stated before. It is funny how different light makes colours appear a different shade.
Also Ron, a very very minor point of detail but note from the photo of the Canadian on the ML that there is a full stop after the letter C and my original tank also has this. I have never seen it on C numbers on other makes. Cheers, John
John. Steve has sent me a picture of your tank and given me the order to fit that Dot . However mine is from near the end of production in 1944 so I'll be keeping the green colour. Ron
I am about to purchase a James ML motorbike but I cannot locate the frame number. Where are the most common places to look for when searching for serial numbers? I did notice a brass tag on top of the engine that describes the type of oil that is to be used in the 2 stroke engine. Was this a common practice for the bike used in WWII?
Thank you very much!
p.s - I was able to locate a number on what looks to be the "frame". The number reads ML 28181. Any idea of what this could be?
Brandon, the frame number on ML's is located at the base of the front-frame headstock on the right-side..........genuine WD ML's do not exceed "ML 8500" although the next 1,500 were cancelled WD orders and finished in civvy colours............James made the ML for the civilian market from 1945 right through to 1948 and in volume too, and very popular it seems to have been...........frame numbers ran consequitively and one with a five-digit "ML 28***" number is late (47-48) civvy manufacture but not too difficult to convert back to a WD replica (unlike the WD Flea that is wholly different to later civvy models)............you will need to source certain parts and much of the WD tin-ware can be sourced or modified by Terry Roberts at Metal Magic.........
The brass lubrication plate is standard on all Villiers 9D engines, although some late post-war civvy ML's went over to an aluminium plate but otherwise identical...........the engine number will be to the rear of this plate, WD engines being prefixed "AAA" and suffixed "A"............