AJS & Matchless Owners Club

A good friend of mine is considering buying a 1925 single. The engine is not good, to say the least, and requires a lot of work / parts. What is the availability of parts like for vehicles of this vintage? Hen's teeth, rocking horse poo? Or is there a good network for parts within the club?

Cheers, Chris

Consider no parts will be available. The club will not make parts. They would be expensive to make in small batches. Even a batch of 10 could take years to sell.
However, parts are being made by owners with the skills to make them and at a more affordable price. Even right now wheel hubs and timing gears are being made.
You need to be in the know what parts are being made within the prewar e group which I help moderate. You will see topics like " I am making wheels hubs for 1925 /28 AJS any one else what them? " They will not make parts to stock so you have to put you name on the list.
If you wish to join the e group e mail me at prewar@jampot.com I will activate the website site to send an e mail to your address to join the group. Activating the website to send you an invite to join the group, cuts out the approval to join procedure.

Cheers Rob I will relay your reply.

Rob , as you say some parts are made by owners , i have big end assemblies for 1927 H4 and had 4 pistons made for the same
Is there a running list anywhere of teh parts that are available other than posting from time to time
It would be a good idea to have a link to a excell sheet with parts that are being made and available

g80csp11 wrote:Rob , as you say some parts are made by owners , i have big end assemblies for 1927 H4 and had 4 pistons made for the same
Is there a running list anywhere of teh parts that are available other than posting from time to time
It would be a good idea to have a link to a excell sheet with parts that are being made and available

There are no lists of parts that have bee made by group member over many years. If there was a list it would not be any good, as all the parts would have been taken.
I did say something along the lines, when a member was making parts, you had to get your name on the list. If 4 people wanted a certain part 5/6 only may have got made.
All that may remain would perhaps be Drawings. There are quite a few drawing files that will program a CNC machine to make parts.
Due to the file size of these drawings, they have not been archived. Quite a few drawings have be archived in PDF format.
You will find many drawings of pre and post war parts here. http://archives.jampot.dk/technical/Do- ... elf_parts/

If drawings have be archived in PDF format , where are these located it is much easier to re-manufacture if a drawing exists
I disagree that all parts will have been sold , as I have previously said ive parts specific to 1927 H4 and most recently Big end assemblies, piston and con-rod
while i primarily wanted to repair my own bike , at the same time making a few extra made sense

A list would be useful listing parts , and if a drawing exists with a contact

This would help the group as a whole , i understand that the 350SV may not be the most expensive AJS but spares are still rare
If I had the information i would collate the list

Sorry Rob only just got the link to pdf's but not many pre 1931 parts on list

I have had many prewar parts made over a number of years. I have none left now. Some batches have cost me up to £1,000. Needless to say I only made what was demanded. I did have made 180 small star springs for girder forks + Hawk & Arrow rear suspension. 80 more than I really wanted. I only took the 80 extra as correct gauge material had to be made. The one sheet was big enough to make 180 springs. I said it would be a shame to scrap left over material. I may still have just a couple of those springs left.

I you disagree with me there may still be " overs" left of parts made in the past, you can always try for a few bits that were made in the past. Do this before you waste your time making a useless list.
Here's how to find what parts were made in the past. All e- mails are archived. Sadly when Yahoo ended as the groups host, all files are now lost, I am not sure if e mails can now be found.. io has now hosted the group for over a year.

I've no pre-war machine (wish I had) but the list on the archives is a great read.

If Don Madden's drawing of the stop light switch bracket is right I must have an original one.

Johnny B