Another Stormer returns to the road

Information on the Stormer 2-stroke machines
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teamcoates
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon May 13, 2013 9:32 am

Another Stormer returns to the road

Post by teamcoates »

As promised, I will commence my article on the year long restoration of my Y4 250 Stormer.
Purchased as a runner on eBay, I was seduced by the fact that the seller was local, it was registered for the road, and had been in the same family all through. It was even delivered to my door.
Here's a photo of the bike not long after delivery. It had a V5 and according to the document was first registered in 1976. From the Tax disk it last saw the road in 1982.
I was hoping for a simple restoration - ho ho!
Stormer as was.jpg
Some bits looked better than others:

Whilst some parts looked in reasonable fettle:
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teamcoates
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon May 13, 2013 9:32 am

Re: Another Stormer returns to the road

Post by teamcoates »

Here is a picture of the Rear mudguard and light:
Original light and rear guard.jpg
Rear wheel - which looks OK, but wasn't. A few loose spokes plus one seriously bent.


There was also an interesting box of bits, including the original headlight, broken Lucas switchgear and assorted levels. Oh, and the Original number plate.
Stormer bits.jpg
Time for a strip down.

As one would expect, everything was filthy and showing signs of age. At least the Exhaust guard was present, and indeed the chrome was (and still as I have done niothing other than use a cloth to clean it up):
Stormer strip.jpg


The plan was to ship the large parts to Peter Thorne at Aspire Restorations in Oxfordshire for cosmetics, whilst I did the rest.
Peter did a great job - not least in doing a weld repair to the rear frame tube thanks to a lack of chain maintenance, plus managing to remove the old swing arm bushes with only a modicum of violence.

Powder coating in AJS grey removed any trace of that particular remedial work, without eliminating all traces of the past.
He also had a number of parts re-plated.

That left me with the motor.
A quick wash and soak with degreaser had things clean enough to take a proper look.
Barrel and head off and I knew I was going to be ringing Nick Brown at AJS, as it looked like it had suffered really bad detonation. There were marks all over the combustion chamber. Oh, well, I had kind of expected a rebore at the least.
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teamcoates
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon May 13, 2013 9:32 am

Re: Another Stormer returns to the road

Post by teamcoates »

I asked my brother in law to drop the engine off at AJS (I had visited previously to purchase Swing arm bush kit, Fork seals, plus some of the "cosmetic" bits and peices I knew I (wanted) needed. Fabulous place, and Mel was good enough to show me around. How they ever found anything is beyond me. But I could have spent all day there.

Anyway, I digress. The fork stanchions were already away at Philpots in Luton, so got on with the usual cleaning and figuring out a plan on what order to bolt everything together. This is meccano for grown ups, right.
Nick called me to give me the good news about the engine. It wasn't detonation, at some point something had let go. The head would probably clean up, and a rebore would probably sort things out, but he was a bit worried about what may have been the cause. What did I want to do with the patient?

I gave him permission to open her up - despite the warning that he would have to do it in his spare time as he was too busy to do it in work time.
At this stage I had never met Nick. I knew a part strip was necessary anyway, as I wanted the front sprocket changing and didn't fancy the clutch exploding across my garage floor.
This was September. I had owned the Stormer since July, and the Stanchions had just arrived.

Then Peter called to say the Frame and all the other plated parts were ready - at least I could start putting the chassis together.

Who hasn't lost a part iin a rebuild?
I had managed to loose the top "special washer" that acts as the steering stem cover. Thankfully, an email to Mel at AJS resulted in another parcel and receipt to go into the file.

I struggled with the rear shocks, and debated long and hard over which way up to fit them. At some point I will remove the Hagon stickers and deny any knowledge - you will see why when I post some pictures of the final article.

The speedo fitted OK (it is a NOS item from Chronometrics Nottingham - the last on ethey had in stock. At some point I will refurb the original), but I had a right pallaver with the speedo drive and cable. The orginal drive was a basket case, and the cheap cable I bought not much better. After much research I found a (correct) replacement drive and good quality cable of the right length. No-one list them for Stormers of course............

The forks went together - but needed a bit of breaking-in No videos exist fortunately of my mothod to effect this. Needless to say, the chassis sans engine, is not terribly demanding on forks, front or rear.

Then came the news that the motor was ready, as was the bill.
I now have a cardboard box with all the bits Nick had to replace, some of the parts being made out of Unobtanium. We believe we how know what caused the "detonation" - it seems highly likely that the clutch has exploded at some point, as evidenced by the fact it has been assembled incorrectly when "repaired".
New seals, fresh bore and new piston and rings, and a nice vapour clean, and all was ready for re-assembly.
The nights are drawing in, it is almost December.
Finished motor.jpg
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teamcoates
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon May 13, 2013 9:32 am

Re: Another Stormer returns to the road

Post by teamcoates »

Blast. I had typed a whole bunch of stuff, and then got distracted and hadn't saved.
What now follows will be an abridged version.


So it is now December. In fact in a couple of days it will be Christmas.

I have collected the engine from Nick. Since I neglected to supply carb etc he has not been able to test it.

Time to fit everything.

That was relatively easy - I had an ample supply of "special" engine bolts.
I have chosen to fit AMAL Mk2 34mm carb. It has been an eBay purchase and was previously fitted to a Lambretta.
The carb was a fiddle - despite the fitment of angled Intake from a Norton Commando (I believe).

I promise myself that I will sort out the Carb to Airbox (I do not want to modify the box) later on.

Will it start?

Kick, kick, ouch. B*gger.
repeat, quite a few times.

Eventually I get life.
For perhaps 30 seconds, and it dies.
Claiming victory, and exhausted I call it a day.
The Stormer lives and it is not yet Christmas day.

I have managed to achieve one of my (much) revised milestones.

January fails to see a repeat of the Christmas bonus.
I blame the Motoplat. It does seem to be indifferent in when it produces a spark.

I decide that an Electrex World kit will cure all my ills. I decide, however, that I would like Nick Brown to fit it.
He agrees on the proviso that:
1. I supply the unit (easy, I do not live a million miles away from their factory)
2. I deliver the bike to his home, as again he will be doing the work in his own time

Nick is a great guy, and this is a job well beyond my modest capabilities, not least because my Stormer backplate has already been modified to fit the Motoplat, possibly by Fluff himself back in the day. Nick believes that my bike is a converted Crosser, since the Engine and Frame numbers predate the FB era.

There are some issues, not least due to the fact that I need a new backplate, and I have also specified a lighting coild on the Electrex.

The bike will not start.
I fetch it (marvellous things these MotoLug trailers) and drop the bike off at Peter Houghton at ElectrexWorld.

Both Peter and I fiddle with the wretched thing for ages - in between variuous other commitments.
Peter can get the bike to run briefly (much as I did at Christmas) but not for any significant duration. We declare (well Peter does) that it is a fuelling issue. To his credit Peter has spent a significant amount of time on this - both he and I have spannered and pushed the ruddy thing up and down the yard outside the factory unit.

It is now May and I am hopeful that the MK2 I have had on order at Burlen will arrive any day, or month now. So I order a few more parts for the Lambretta carb.......
Oh, and another MK1 Intake manifold as mine appears to walked out of the garage.

Another thorough clean of the carb reveals blocked cold start jet, and a dodgy cold start plunger. Wild experimantation with Pilot jet gets it running and an idle of sort.

I will never put a used carb on again with an ultrasonic clean.

I have missed my worst case scenario deadline (my local village fete has a 2vintage/old/whatever you want" to parade. I console myself in the fact that I would have missed it anyway due to one of boy's being in a football tournament, but it still hurts. We live and learn.

At least now I know it is a runner I can get it finished and here it is:
Finished article.jpg
Finished front.jpg
Finished front number plate.jpg
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