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Re: BSA B40 Military M2 1968

well that's is a timely and interesting series of posts , Trevor

I just bought an ex army B40 GA off the ye olde gum tree.
was wondering how I would search its army ARN :

The Army archives motorcycle book is -203 and you will find the BSA's from item 94743 - 94744 ( C 15's ) then 94754 - 94753 ( c15 framed B40's ) then 94785 - 95234 ( B 40 GA ), 444 of them so 6 are missing.


found it no prob : I see it was disposed of in 1981 - so either lasted a long while in army service - or not used at all... will have to check when arrives in aweeks time (to Melbourne Australia). has non matching engine to frame number.

has the 1 side pannier and the circular map( ?)/ document case on other other side

Re: BSA B40 Military M2 1968

Most of them were disposed on in 81 or 82.
Have a close look at the tank between the filler cap & mounting bolt
Look for the shadow of a stencil that read PROV-UR ore CERT - UR
First means we think it is an Uneconomic Repair the second says we know it is.

The Aust ones were fitted with a leather pannier on the left & the box on the right with a high level pipe that is unique to the B40 GA so that sound right.
Very few had mismatched engines but there were around 20 engines in various states sold at each auction I went to.
When you drain the oil always filter it and check for little flakes of cage.
If it is painted air force blue then it was stolen from one of our ex-members as there were only 2 blue ones and both get stolen withing a year or so.
I have a list of stolen B40GA's somewhere

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

Re: BSA B40 Military M2 1968

Most of the bikes had less than 500 miles on the clock so they never made it to the first major overhaul.
Thus most have matching numbers.
I think the MP's bikes had higher milage but I never though about recording them.
At the time we were looking at buying a lot and use them to kick off a BSA parts shop
However as they needed new big ends this idea faded away very quickly.

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

Re: BSA B40 Military M2 1968

Trev - is green -not blue- so not your mates.
Was on rego in NSW- so all kosher .... .
Its got another B40 GA engine.
The AWM books show it dispose d of with matching eng / frame numbers.

So presumably changed post sale

Re: BSA B40 Military M2 1968

Hi Trevor, all this is interesting stuff. You say that Aussie WD B40's had special gear ratio's. What would be really good is if you could tell us how many teeth the sleeve gear has,plus how many its mate on the layshaft has. If this could provide a bigger step than the B40 GB ones then there is a market for them here in the UK. I'm currently gathering parts to build an early C15 dist type engine with an early C15T gear cluster,this is as far as I know the widest ratio sleeve and its mate that BSA made.This cluster won't go into the later cases that the WD box will fit.Currently the WD box I have gives 3 lovely ratios for trials work, but there isn't enough of a gap to get a decent road speed,22mph and its revving its brains out...

Re: BSA B40 Military M2 1968

AFAIK the sleeve gear is the std BSA 1:1 with the clutch.
They were geared to 65 mph ( same as the M20's )

If I get a chance I will count the teeth on the box or provide with BSA part numbers
There were no special gears, it was just a selection of ratios that were available.
1st was a slow march
2nd was a quick march
3rd was only a bit faster than a sprint.

I accidentially got into an Anzac Day march one year on the way to the All British Rally which was at Myrtleford in those days.
I could comfortably ride with the marchers in both first ( which was a bit loud ) or just off idle in second.
That was the std box
After that I fitted the biggest secondary drive sprocket I could get to fit inside the chain guard.
From memory it was a 23 tooth in any case I had to pull the gear cluster out to fit it.
The 2nd & 3rd bikes got whatever would go through clutch hole.

SO now you made me look it up.
According to the service manual 00-4133 the internal ratios are the same as the UK Mk I, but that does ring true to memory.
particulaarly as the Aust bike had 75 mils more oil in the box.
Again according to the manual the overall ratios are taller being they were supposed to have
23 / 52 primary
19 / 50 secondary

Both use WM3 x 18 rears but we fitted WM2x 18 fronts against your WM2 x 20
When I go to the storage I will pull a box out & measure

IT might be what the manual says & what BSA supplied were different or the mind behind these fingers is not remembering things as they were.

My genuine ( army ) parts book is out on loan at the moment but I do remember what it said is there and what actually was there were occasionally at odds with each other.

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

Re: BSA B40 Military M2 1968

reading about about the service manuals , Trevor - do you have copies of any ?

I found this riders handbook at my club library

AWD being Australian War Dept - not all wheel drive ...


and interestingly tells 'the 'troops'' not to labour the engine….to no avail


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