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Re: WB30 project

One of the WB30's that I restored had hair pin valve springs. The other one had standerd springs. Ron

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Re: WB30 project

The B30 was a development of the 1940 B29 Silver Sports which had hairpin valve springs (the only BSA engines thus equipped)...

Problems with premature valve guide wear lead to the springs being replaced by conventional springs in later B30 engines, though the head with the larger spring boxes to accommodate the hairpin springs remained unaltered...

There was a B29 engine in the auction at Stafford and another for sale at the recent Shepton Mallet Autojumble...It would be a challenge to find the rest of the machine though as only a few hundred B29s were made before the outbreak of war...

I still have most of an engine left over from my B30 restoration..It might make the basis of a special at some point in the future..

Interestingly after the war the all alloy B29 prototype was used to develop the postwar 350 ZB Gold Star which was released in 1949...BSA produced only 12 sets of castings for the all alloy version..

I have a nice photo of Bill Nicholson on a works development bike in the Isle of Man (BSA entered it in the 1946 Manx GP...) and another example was also ridden by Bert Perrigo in trials around that period...

The ZB Goldies had the flywheel assembly machined identically to the 1940 B29 engine....Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Re: WB30 project

Here is one of the WB30 engines I rebuilt for a friend. Ron

 photo B30 2 007_zpsqckf9wm7.jpg

email (option): ronpier@talk21.com

Re: WB30 project


Didn't the failed TT bikes have hairspring valves ?

email (option): bsansw1@tpg.com.au

Re: WB30 project

The TT bikes had conventional valve springs, though a second set was fitted to the pushrods to aid valve closure...

Here's the picture of Bill Nicholson on the all alloy B29 development bike that I mentioned earlier...Ian

 photo B29-30.jpg

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Re: WB30 project

how many are actually known?

Re: WB30 project

I think there are 5 or 6 complete B30s and 2 incomplete ones...Also the remains of one in Scotland that is both incomplete and very rough...

Also there are various parts and a couple of engines about that I have come across at different times...

Early and late contract B30s are very different to each other and building a complete example of either from parts or an incomplete machine would be a challenging and maybe impossible task...

I spent a few years researching the variations before and during the rebuild of my own example and turned up some interesting stuff...For example I have an original full size factory drawing of the engine...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Re: WB30 project

There was an incomplete being sold in Malta. Did anyone purchase it?

email (option): unpob@yahoo.com

Re: WB30 project

That will be Clive Zammuts..It has a B31 frame I believe and other incorrect parts..Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Re: WB30 project

The B30 engine i mentioned earlier that I saw at Stafford was not on the auction, but in a stall in a carton box.
It had a sign saying; For sale B30 engine - rare.
No price - I dind't ask either...

Re: WB30 project

The B29 engine at Shepton Mallet (with one rocker cover missing) was on sale at £850...

I considered that to be too much....

Both the B29 and B30 engines are a bit too 'rare' for their own good, in that there are VERY few machines out there to fit them to...

Fine if you have one of those but if you haven't it would serve just as well to use a B31/33 engine...

I bought a cylinder head off a chap, just to get the rocker covers, who told me (after I'd paid him!) that he had been 'jumbling' it for a number of years with no takers...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Re: WB30 project

your is/was one of the complete ones Ian? good point of using a B33 engine, or just punch a 30 on the crankcase..... seen this video on a Bugatti Royale, they built a copmlete car because they found a chassis, of course its a Bugatti...but wait? I am not interested in any Bugatti so why not replicate what's missing on something I love. Catch is that many simply don't admit what has been replicated. I do. Would be more convenient to leave what original there is (which includes the rear frame) on a shelf until I find all the original parts? Last year I found a rear wheel so parts do come up from time to time. I was going to sell what I had simply because I wanted to restore one of my many Austin Utilities, but why sell something which is so sought after to restore something that is so common? Changed my mind, just in time.

Re: WB30 project

I've got a set of WB30 surplus to retirement. I was trying to sell them on EBay but had no takers, probably as I had advertised them as lightweight 250 forks.
They are very pitted but almost complete.
These came with my WM20 project.
Regards Jon

email (option): jonsewell8@hotmail.com

Re: WB30 project

Forks.. Vital word missing!

email (option): jonsewell8@hotmail.com

Re: WB30 project

Hi Jon

What size are the circular damper plates on the sides of your forks and how long are they from wheel spindle centre to top link centre?

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

Re: WB30 project

Dampers are 2.5" and length from top link to spindle is 24"....regards Jon

email (option): jonsewell8@hotmail.com

Re: WB30 project

Thanks for the reply Jon

The Military batch of WB30s used a reduced size side damper, the 2.5 inch version was used on the B29 and possibly some other pre war models.

There were supposedly some later B30s but very little is known about them, spare parts list exist stating that 100 machines were for the GPO and another 100 were for the Admiralty but the BSA factory ledgers don't agree, these spares list have the same part number for the bottom side links as the B29 so perhaps your forks are later B30?

Rob

email (option): robmiller11(a)yahoo.co.uk

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