To Scott, Where ever you are!!!

Hi Scott, got an email from you via the webboard, only it had no return address.
You had some questions about A-10 trannys, so here are the answers:
Oil, and level. Use engine oil, typ 40 or 50 weight, and fill until it starts coming out of the little level check hole to the rear of the kicker lever. There's a bolt or something you remove, and while the bike is level, just add oil through the pushrod adj access cover until it starts to run out.
Also, don't worry about the rollers in the clutch hub. a little grease on ass'y will do the job. They only do work while the clutch is disengaged, so the grease should work just fine.
Tried to use the link in the email to the pics, and it didn't work// Would like to see the bike, I'm always interested in creative ventures!
Dr Dick

Thanks Dick!

I guess this bike is some type of Morthodite freak, so we're in the correct place for it. My address is sjelescheff <at> yahoo <dot> com. Very glad to know about the rollers. I spent far too much time thinking about it, and had plans to install a grease nipple, but I'll save the energy. I slathered the grease on there, but not a whole lot stays in place wen you're done. I also can't get the basket 100% true on the hub. I'll see just how off it is once the thing is running. Here's the pic I was trying to send. The industrial-strength spring was necessary because the clutch springs alone didn't pull the pedal back fast enough for my liking. The clutch cable also takes a radical angle from the point where it anchors to the primary cover. I'll try to re-engineer that. For anyone who has no idea what I'm talking about - this is a (somewhat crudely) modified 45 frame with a BSA A10 tranny, foot clutch, jockey shift, and #428 o-ring primary chain. Thanks again for the advice.

Hi Scott,
Neat machine. I like the tranny adjusters. I did something similar on Frankie, in that I anchored the top tranny plates to the motor mount bolts as you did. Something you may want to do with a foot clutch is shorten the clutch arm on the tranny and make an adapter to move the clutch cable inward to match. Gives you to get more travel to accomodate any clutch irregularities and hopefully get the clutch to really free up when pulled in. I did that on the tractor and it helped some.
Where did you get 428 O ring roller chain? Sounds like a good place to use it. I change out primary chains frequently on Frankie and the Square 4. Had one blow on the Square 4 once and it did beaucoup damage to some very hard to replace cases
Dr Dick

Thanks for the kind words. 428 o-ring chains are pretty common on dirtbikes. Here's a page from the Dennis Kirk catalog:

http://tinyurl.com/2uq5me

The front sprocket is an 08B from McMaster bolted to a stock 45 sprocket after some machine work. The clutch sprocket is also a single row 08B, from the BSA folks. The 428 chain is almost a dead ringer for the 08B (see Victory Library's British Transmission Ideas book).

A tensioner would have been nice, but the hex arms connecting the tranny top ears to the rear engine mounts are reverse threaded on one end and should adjust easily enough.

Dick - are you suggesting increased or decreased clutch pedal travel?

Scott, The pedal moves the same distance, but the clutch will free up more. Shortening the arm will give you more travel at the plates, greater effort, hopefully letting the plates free up more completely. The 4 spring is much better than the 6 spring in this respect.
I like the shift linkage also, I bet that lever doesn't move much to throw a shift!
Dick

Thanks Dick-

I tried running another linkage to a tank shifter. I used the stock shift gate with the indents removed. Didn't work, though I spent way, way too much time trying to make it work. I had a hard time with slop and lever length, if you know what I mean. The jockey shift works well. I reversed the linkage on the right side to make 1st gear forward, and neutral, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th back. The crossover shaft is made from a Honda shift-shaft welded to some 1/2 rod. Another forum member asked about the cable end - that's a piece of 1/4" brass rod, threaded to 1/4-28, drilled down the middle, and soldered to the cut-off end of a stock A10 cable. A female rod end bearing screws onto the cable end. I may replace it with a clevis end for a straighter cable run.

I looked at something like that for my British transmission 45 and I couldn't make sense of the lever geometry either, with a tank lever. I looked long and hard at a lever assembly from a police-shifter Big Twin, but in the end I have just gone down another route altogether and the bike now has left-foot brake ( using a BSA wheel and a clutch pedal from a servicar ), right-foot shift using the old brake pedal and a short rod with adjustable clevis ends, hand clutch on the left bar and the usual right-hand throttle and brake