STRIP DOWN HORRORS ON BSA BANTAM

CONTINUING WITH THE BANTAM B175 STRIP DOWN THE ENGINE IS REMOVED AND MR TWEED DISCOVERS SOME HISTORY OF MECHANICAL CATASTROPHES THAT HAVE OCCURRED TO THIS POOR OLD BANTAM IN ITS YOUNGER DAYS....BUT IS IT SALVAGEABLE???
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• BSA BANTAM B175

[@magni1200]

Bought a 1959 D7 Bantam when I was 16 for 40 quid and within days it blew the head gasket. Fixed that and then the clutch wouldn't disengage and I stripped 1st gear leaving just 2 gears. The clutch burnt out, unsurprisingly, so I stripped the whole bike to find the suspension was seized front and rear and the dynamo had also burnt out (what did I know??). Parts were cheap but the whole bike was also very cheaply built. I learnt a lot! Bought a Honda C72 after that and boy, what a difference!

[@TweedsGarage]

The difference must have been like chalk and cheese, twin cylinder, ohc, electric start compared to a 2 stroke single cylinder tracing its roots to before the war .....now was it all the bike's fault or an over enthusiastic wanna be John Surtees 16 year old's throttle hand ?

[@martinwade9421]

My brother recently bought a B175 with money gifted to him for a major birthday. He dismantled & rebuilt the engine. The big-end was shot, with much evidence of clumsy dismantling over the years.Difficult to re-assemble as the main bearings were a very tight fit on the shafts.It's in bits in my shed at the moment, waiting for crankshaft shims and the brass bushes that go inside the sleeve-gear.Interestingly, it seems to have left the factory without the components that attach the front mudguard to the forks, ( other than the steel-strip braces fore and aft.) This brother bought a clapped-out Bantam around 1969 for a tenner. It devoured coils, condensers and the odd big-end.

[@TweedsGarage]

Sounds like he's reliving his youth with the same motorcycle with a different set of challenges!!. The B175 may have left the factory with the bracket but it probably vibrated off, mine has sheared off the rear mudguard subframe brackets and cracked the mudguard ( looking at many for sale this isn't uncommon ).

[@martinwade9421]

@@TweedsGarage Hi Sir. There were no holes drilled anywhere on the mudguard pressing, strangely.

[@shedbythetracks]

Another superb production! When you take apart old machines, I'm always struck by how artfully made the pieces are. Even down to the nuts and washers. Each part has its own personality. I know everything is tighter, stronger and more precise today, but we have engineered the soul out of everything. Or... it could be I'm just an old fart that stares death in the face each morning and nothing can make me happy. I'd like to think it's that artful thingy.... Cheers from the Shed

[@TweedsGarage]

You are quite right Randy, for some reason i rather like the look of the clutch assembly it's quite geometrically pleasing to the eyes and its not your inner grumpy talking, modern engines have had all the character designed out of them, there is nothing more soul destroying than looking at new cars...keep well my friend and keeping giving that Mr Death a withering stare.

[@shedbythetracks]

😁@@TweedsGarage

[@andrewmicas4327]

Yes its correct we were short of money, I had a 125 cc (123) 1953 Bantam to get me to work in Engineering. Started on £2 10 shillings per week. I made little end bushes for the other lads from Phosphor Bronze better that what BSA made. The Wipac ignition was a very poor design. Good thing was the bike did 100 miles to the gallon on petrol/oil mixture.

[@TweedsGarage]

Thanks for that Andrew, its nice to have some first hand experience of running these bikes back when they were everyday transport. 👍

[@g4joe]

Passed my test on a Bantam 1964. 👍. Paid £13 helmet, jacket,gloves, RAF goggles thrown in.😄 I was on £3/10s a week at the time.

[@TweedsGarage]

At £3/10s a week it was the closest you could get to flying 😁

[@g4joe]

@@TweedsGarage Yes, untill I got an Ariel Arrow. 250cc👍Went to watch John lee Hooker at the Bluesville Wigan on that 1964.

[@JRattheranch]

Happy memories! I bought one new in 1966.... FDE 166 D I'm amazed I remember the registration number! 🤨😅. And yes I absolutely flogged it, but not for long.

[@TweedsGarage]

Glad to have bought back happy memories 😊 unfortunately you must of flogged it too hard as it doesn't appear on the DVLA records anymore 😔

[@rosswootton8825]

I had a D14 4 back in the 70s. The little end disintegrated and the needle rollers were sucked down into the crank case, sucked up the transfer ports, hammered the piston crown/head and were finally spat out of the exhaust port. On reflection I don’t think the previous owner knew that he had to add oil to the petrol. He didn’t seem all that bright I seem to remember!

[@TweedsGarage]

Sounds like it really threw it's rattle right out of the pram😲

[@rosswootton8825]

@@TweedsGarage Yep it sure did, fortunately I’d just bought a Triumph 650 TR6 so that became my daily ride and I sold the Bantam to a mate to repair for very little money. Still it was good while it lasted.

[@retromechanicalengineer]

All very typical Bantam fayre. Not too bad at all. Should be a good 'un. Best wishes, Dean.

[@TweedsGarage]

Hopefully Dean, need to make a new stuffing plate then weld the bugger in .

[@retromechanicalengineer]

@@TweedsGarage My D10 engine has had the plates welded. I haven't stripped it yet so I don't know how well it's been done. It's in a fairly poor state overall, torn out threads in the casings and quite a bit of restorative welding required. I'll get to it...Eventually! Dean.

[@billdoodson4232]

A bunch of us had a share in one of these when we were around 14, to ride around the fields local to us (with the land owners permission). We paid £10.00 for it, then I managed to hit the electricity pylon in the field and bend the forks, my share of the repair cost was a fiver, which I didn't have. I was searching around our local scrap yard and found a complete jam pot AJS, minus front end. I bought it off Mr Walker the scrap man for 10/-, then gave an older friend a call who I knew had a Matchless front end. He came to the scrap yard, paid me a fiver for the AJS and took it away in a trailer. I paid Mr Walker his 10 bob and borrowed another 10 bob off my mum, paid for the forks and off we went again. If I'd thought on I'd have asked my mate for £5.10/-

[@TweedsGarage]

Law of sod says that if there is an empty field with a pylon in it you will hit it 😂, i congratulate you on your young wheeler dealing antics to recover the situation, well played 👍

[@billdoodson4232]

@@TweedsGarage The "track" we used to ride around went just past the pylon after a corner. I'd actually got the Bantam drifting with the back wheel out, when it caught grip, shot across the track and launched itself at the plylon, I was half off the bike when it hit and basically ended up with one leg each side of one of the lower triangulation trusses. It probably took 15 minutes before the pain subsided enough for me to speak. In the meantime my "mates" were berating me about the bent forks and how I'd have to pay my half for the damage. I think there were 5 or 6 of us who had put up equal amounts to buy it, the agreement was that anyone who bent it paid half, with the rest covering the other half. Not a bad arrangement to be honest for a group of 13 & 14 year old lads.

[@terryblackman6217]

Really enjoyed today's video. Please keep the banter coming. My wife said, didn't you used to be on Emmerdale as Seth the gamekeeper. 👍😆

[@TweedsGarage]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 bloody hell I'm not that old...More of a Mr Wilks type character ( what was going on with that Mr Wilks/ Amos relationship ) . Mrs Blackman has got lines and must write " i mustn't be so cheeky " one hundred times.

[@paulhewitt1488]

Very enjoyable and informative. Great detective work identifying the cause of the gouge marks. Looking forward to the next video. 👍👍

[@TweedsGarage]

Thanks Paul, glad you enjoyed it 👍

[@coplandjason]

Very good Allan, some Famous Five style sleuthing there!

[@TweedsGarage]

Lashings of ginger beer after 😁

[@Jays-shed]

Crumbs! How simply splendid

[@TweedsGarage]

​@@Jays-shed😂

[@oldfarthacks]

knackered, indeed a good description of that motor. Good job on tracing down the source of the damage. I myself have a bad habit, with that engine, I would most likely take it to bits and replace / refresh everything so that it was in effect a new motor. We are doing that with my daughter's 5.7L hemi out of her pickup, she spun a rod bearing. The first thought was, just replace the bearing and buff out the journal, but that would be insane, the motor is well over 200 thousand miles. So in effect, we are doing a complete rebuild. It comes down to, why take it out and apart more than once.

[@TweedsGarage]

I could rebuild it with new parts but a lot of the new parts tend to be made in India and just aren't up to standard of the original parts and being realistic even when rebuilt it probably won't do more than a few hundred miles a year so it'll be mechanically sound with good bearings and consumables like chains, cables etc and being a two stroke it is very difficult to resleeve so the longer you can avoid a rebore ( they can only be rebored twice and new cylinders aren't available) the better. So as the cylinder doesn't have a ridge at the top, like the good old days it'll have a light hone and new rings to freshen it up.) Good luck with the Hemi, it sounds like a fun truck 🙂

[@petermckee1061]

Thanks Allan. I enjoyed that and look forward to the next video. That bike will come up very nicely. Cheers, Peter.

[@TweedsGarage]

My pleasure Peter

[@gbentley8176]

Yet another gem Mr T. Your good lady wife making a Captain Mainwaring's never quite seen wife performance in Dads Army.Excellent stuff. Right about tools. Expensive and difficult to get years ago. That said, S'oton was blessed with numerous ex government places and marine shops. Steel and nuts and bolts singly at pocket money prices from Messrs Lawsons and our local ironmonger. All gone and now I struggle to open some of the packs!! Keep up the good work. Best wishes.

[@TweedsGarage]

Oh i do love an army surplus store Mr B, unfortunately not many about anymore, glad you get Mrs Tweed's Elizabeth Mainwaring appearances. Those blister packs are lethal so take care Sir.

[@colinbeadle7109]

You're spot on about the abuses these machines were put through in the hands of my generation. Your camera close ups of one or two mangled nuts caused by previous over tightening with any tools to hand and probably totally wrong for any repairs with a two pound hammer for backup sufficed. Along with a popular adage of the era, "use brute force and claim ignorance if it breaks!" Another would be appropriate as well, "After everything tried fails, read the instruction manual!" Exclamations added!

[@martinderrington221]

Great video mr tweed looking forward to the next one

[@TweedsGarage]

Thanks Martin

[@chrissills962]

What a story, good job you can sort out what happened .you do make it very interesting.

[@TweedsGarage]

Jackanory's got nothing on me mate 😄

[@StuartsShed]

Overall looks like good machine - should be able to have it recover from the sins of past "amateur enthusiasms" and back in fine fettle in good time.

[@TweedsGarage]

I think the battle scars are called character, there's a few famous race cars still going with blanking plates on the block covering holes where an excited con rod exited at some time in their history.

[@dwillett7281]

Epic video as always ❤

[@TweedsGarage]

Cheers 👍

[@chrislee7817]

I remember having a terrible time with air leaks on the carb of mine. Turned out some muscle had over tightened the nuts and the carb face wasn't flat and let air in .

[@TweedsGarage]

That is a common problem with Amals, rubbing the mating face on a sheet of glass with grinding paste was the old school way of getting them flat again ( the Bantam has a o ring to help.....but thats missing 🙄

[@453421abcdefg12345]

I think these small transport bikes have been used as everyday transport for many years, given the need to get to work the next day they were no always given a slow considered repair, and as you observe they get a bad press when they fail in later life, it is only now that they are given the care and attention they deserve, but in their heyday they were handed down for very little money, to be abused until the owner could pass his driving test, then passed to another owner who kept it going on a shoestring, now it has found an owner that has the skill and knowledge to get it back to new again. Good luck! Chris B.

[@TweedsGarage]

You sum it up perfectly Chris 👍🙂

[@asciimation]

The problem with Cumberbund Bitchslap is anytime I see him on screen I feel guilty for fancying his mother!

[@TweedsGarage]

😂......really?!!.....slinks off to search Mrs Cucumberpatch on Google 😉

[@asciimation]

@@TweedsGarage Did you find her? The Avengers, Carry On, UFO, Dr Who, she was in a lot of interesting things back in the day. If you knew about it it was very amusing in Sherlock when his parents were played by his actual parents.

[@TweedsGarage]

@asciimation ah yes, being a fan of UFO in my youth and a can fully understand your fellings......and Mrs Tweed told me about her and his father appearing in Sherlock

[@billdyke9745]

Not looking at all bad for its age. That rogue screw could have caused much more damage than it did. A drop of Locktite would not have been a bad idea... 👍

[@asciimation]

"Not looking at all bad for its age." I don't know, the ends of that moustache are starting to get ridiculous!

[@TweedsGarage]

😂....its reaching peak length, don't worry spring moulting season isn't far away 😉

[@ChunkehMunkeh]

Is that not a steel skull insert in the cylinder head?

[@TweedsGarage]

No it's surprising just a very clean non butchered thread

[@nickbarber2080]

Are you Billy Childish's brother?

[@TweedsGarage]

A distant nephew ........

[@philnewcomers9170]

duz it run orlrit on e5

[@TweedsGarage]

Hi Phil, yes it'll run fine on E5, i tend to stick to Super Unleaded for all my older vehicles to reduce the effects of ethenol ( most premium brands tend to have less than 5% if any ethenol in their Super brands as the regulations states they have to have up to 5%) .