[Yinzer]

Ten pounds of crap removed & it actually feels like dad has functional brakes.
The shifter feels much more precise also.

Next task is ignition & valve timing.
I'm also reading all I can on the mysterious worm gear & quill bolt.

The Hitchcocks conversion was easy & everything lined up perfectly.
My biggest concern was the interference fit of the layshaft bearing & the shifter fork bushing.
They were perfect at .001/inch
My shifter fork bushing ended up being about 1mm proud of the inner casting for a nice amount of slop.

[AzCal Retred]

Yinzer - Kudos on the shifter install! You are WAAAY ahead of where you were. Be deliberate in your shifting, it isn't Japanese. What works for me is the 1940's method - Clutch in - toe into desired gear & hold pressure - clutch out, feel it engage - then release toe pressure. The shifter is a ratchet mechanism indexing gears thru a bellcrank driven plate - olde skool all the way. Apparently a 1920's lathe transmission adapted to motorcycle use, robust up to about 40 HP.

My take on the Worm & Quill:
   I use the rubber seal worm nuts because it's easy & I have a phobia about shaving off a piece of crumbly cork into the oil passage whilst installing the Quill bolt.
   I radiused over the flat nose of the quill bolt to make it easier (& more idiot proof) to slide thru the Worm nut seal without damage.
   My Quill bolt shaft had seen some wear so I replaced it with a new stainless one. I grease these bits before installing the bolt.
   Twice I have removed a Quill Bolt and had the seal guts come out on the bolt shaft. It appears that the Quill Bolt shoulder rubs up against the rubber seal, increasing friction and (maybe) putting unnecessary torque onto the seal face, tearing it free of the nut. You could use extra bolt gaskets (copper, red paper) to space the shoulder back, but I haven't done so. I check the seal every oil change and keep a couple spares on hand.
   
I have not used cork seals. My experience with the rubber seals leads me to conclude there is an axial dimension to the seal that I'm not up to speed on, that the cork length protruding from the Worm Nut may need to be trimmed to properly fit each installation. Excess shoulder pressure it seems to me may break up exposed/unencapsulated cork, not enough might allow it to spin inside the nut. Again, I'm speculating here. However, I believe that oily/greasy cork would have less chance of friction bonding to the Quill Bolt shaft than the rubber units. The reality is that these cork seals worked well for many moons before rubber arrived on the scene, and many worthies here still use them. IF they require hand fitting, I can see why shops trend towards rubber. I have all the bits, I'll try it sometime, but rubber for now.

[Paul W]

My Quill bolt shaft had seen some wear so I replaced it with a new stainless one. I grease these bits before installing the bolt.

Same here, but I replaced it because the chrome plating on the hex nut on mine had begun to peel and I sliced my finger on it. The exterior surface of the quill on the new stainless replacement felt quite rough so I polished it to a mirror finish with abrasive cloth to prevent it tearing the neoprene seal. I also chamfered the end where it would first contact the seal on fitting it. The original seal looked perfect when I did an oil change a few days ago.

[Yinzer]

Day#2 progress....

Did the tappets & checked the primary chain.
Then it was ignition...Plug, points, condenser, battery, coil....ect,ect....
Static timing both full advance & at zero advance. Nice hot spark.
Everything adjusted.
Quill & worm gear look good except a large burr on the end of the quill. Packing ended up being rubber. (1998)

Found out 1/2" water pipe makes perfect foot peg spacer material.

All looks good. Next week is fuel system.

I'm getting tired of running the battery down when working on it so I'll probably do something about that soon.
Thinking a 4-position ignition switch should do it. Looking into it now.
https://www.feked.com/lucas-ignition-and-light-4-position-switch-body-norton-triumph-oem-lu30552.html

It would be PILOT...OFF...IGN...IGN+LIGHTS

[Adrian II]

As mentioned elsewhere some Washington bureaucrat decided years ago that the lights couldn't be allowed to come on independently of the ignition (so long ago that BSA were still in production).

Form the photos it looks like this Bullet was one of the last with Magura switch gear and therefore an all DC lighting system (sounds about right for 1998). If the alternator and reg/rectifier are still healthy you don't even need a battery, a suitable capacitor will let you run battery-less, if that's an option for you or your father.

A.

[Yinzer]

Form the photos it looks like this Bullet was one of the last with Magura switch gear and therefore an all DC lighting system

From what I hear, kind of a mixed blessing.
The Magura levers are basically gone so if the bike falls over, it's not going to be easy to fix.
I guess the 3 wire system involves less wiring chaos so that is the benefit.

We hope to keep everything stock except for the right side shift, 4-position IGN switch & possibly a small bottle exhaust pipe. (and tires )
The kickstarter sticks out further to clear the large sausage muffler and kinda jabs us in the leg.
Not a big deal right now but it's on our minds.

US regulations were responsible for some really terrible features.

[Adrian II]

Magura stuff is nice but not essential. Venhill the throttle and other cable suppliers still carry some Magura levers, but I don't think any of the current range is compatible with the pre '99 Bullet's with the one-piece lever perch and switch bodies. A generic set of brake and clutch levers and handlebar switches (the sort of thing Raymond fitted to his Bullet recently) will do the job if it comes to that. Not stock, but you have already made some changes.

A.

[AzCal Retred]

Toss the Magura kak. Do the Minda upgrade conversion and don't fight it, or go all Old School with the controls. The Minda stuff works very well & is cheap to maintain. It's nice to be able to buy off-the-shelf parts.

The OEM bent kickstart lever can be heated & straightened in a vice IF you have the long header pipe. That allows you to mount it a bit more forward and get a bigger "bite" when kickstarting. A straight lever is way easier on the leg. Paint works fine to cover discoloration.

OEM wiring is problematic, you'll be modding it anyway. Maybe better to get a high output Lucas alternator & Boyer regulator and start from there. Both my OEM reg/recs cook the battery at 16V, the Boyer does not. One fix was to get an 18V power tool battery & bootleg that in there - 16V can't hurt it at all, they are tiny and sealed, easy to hide.

[Karl Childers]

Curios about the pipe peg extenders, pictures?

[Yinzer]

Curios about the pipe peg extenders, pictures?

The OEM spacer material for the foot peg tube was 7/8"OD x 5/8" ID. Regular black iron water pipe was all I had.
It works and no special trip to the industrial metal supply yard.

If something bad happens to the Magura levers, we'll probably go with the old school looking ones.
For the time being, the salami-pipe stays and we will kick around it. The 10 pound air cleaner also stays for now.
I'd rater not change anything if I don't have to. The bike looks really nice the way it is and if it gets up to 55 mph, that's good enough.

Hitchcock's just got more of my money about an hour ago.
Another box will soon be on the porch.
So far so good though. I haven't found any catastrophic reason for it being put away with so few miles....Yet

[Paul W]

Yinzer:

and if it gets up to 55 mph, that's good enough.

We all said that, to begin with..... 

[Carl Fenn]

I must say l do have a liking for the pre unit bikes something about them, perhaps it just throws my memory back 50 years.

[Yinzer]

Day #3 progress....

Rebuilt decompressor w/ new cotter pin & copper seals. New cable and had to spin with valve grinding paste to make air tight. Very dirty for only 600 miles.
New fluids in all 3 places (Mercury 90 wt gear oil /  20-50 GTX Castrol / ATF-Ford 420 ml) New primary gasket.
New clutch cable & adjustment.
New petcock & refreshed fuel line & filter.
Rebuilt MikCarb VM28 w/ new main/needle jets. Reused primary. New enricher pull button type [not lever]
Had to reuse float valve because ordered wrong one [Mikuni VM28 does not fit...Wrong thread]. Then ordered one from India that was POS and unusable.
If it sticks again I'm gonna throw a spanner.  Where in the hell do you find a proper/functioning float valve?
Intake manifold is lost in the mail somewhere between my house and country I can't pronounce. 

Got tires [Dunlap K70's 3.5" & 3.25"] in the mail today along w/ tubes & rim strip.
1/8" fuel vent hose apparently delivered to wrong house 

BTW...I only have 2 drain plugs on dad's and BOTH have screens. I thought there were 3 and the rear one did not have a screen???

Went for a little dive into the spaghetti behind the headlight & got all the flashers blinking & tail lights working. Horn inop...Add to list.

Anyway...Getting closer to noise & smoke.

[Paul W]

The two drain plugs with screens sit in the oilways. The third one is to drain the contents of the oil reservoir and doesn’t have a screen because it would serve no purpose.

[Bilgemaster]

Good choice of lubricants. The Mercury (Quicksilver?) was their straight GL-4, yes? Also, the clutch cable wasn't one of the OEM ones, was it? There are FAR robuster options. I like the Barnett one, but Hitchcocks offer various heavy duty ones.