Excelsior engine detail required please

[richard]

i did ask before but no luck , can i try again ? does anyone have a picture of the points cover on the Excelsior twin/ triple engine , siba dynastart Berkeley type  ( i.e. extreme right from drivers seat ) - thanks 


this photo is as near as i have got and it's still not clear . a nice special where a 1960's specials builder had shoe horned the Berkeley triple engine into a 2 wheeler - the only one i've ever seen . The Berkeley triple engine was pretty impressive in the car ! i wonder why the kickstart is fitted , perhaps the siba dynastart was not in use ?

is this number still on the Swansea computer ?

[Big Al]

Why are you with Excelsior? Another purchase? Never my fav unit, but each to there own, and they certainly knock out power when they are working.

Dustbin of diesel for a month.

[Rusty Chrome (Malcolm Parker)]

Hi Richard - it's obviously the engines dark side, nobody seems to have photographed it. Don't know if this illustration from the Talisman 3 Maintenance manual is any use.

[richard]

thanks a lot that "thing" top picture extreme left , that looks more like a pulley wheel ,  must be the points cover . got it now . even the one on ebay at the moment is missing the same cover . cheers

[steven mandell]

Maybe some one is barking up the wrong tree here?
Sorry about the bad viewing angles, but these photos were taken 6 months before you made your request known.
Are either of these at all helpful?
The triple is so pretty, that I threw in the picture even though it appears that the points cover is missing.
The twin likely has it intact, but I can't really make it out from the picture as these engines lie deep between the wheel wells on Berkleys.
Would it not be more fruitful to make your request known to a Berkley club or owner?

[Barry]

Many years ago I was given a triple engine from a Berkeley.
I was going to fit it into a motorcycle but (predictably) that never happened - whats the point?
I got in touch with the Berkeley club and someone drove down from Scotland almost immediately and was over the moon.

His one disappointment was the (small) points cam.

If I remember correctly there are two types.  Large and small.  The large version is more desirable.

The Berkeley club should know everything about these engines.

[Big Al]

Ah. The pulley look a like is the little saucepan lid like plated pressed steel cover that is held on to the dynostart by a clip. it is make-able/botch-able, till a real one comes along. It has a seal.

Triple points in two flavors or you put on a, hmmnyah, Suzuki triple set, that can be electronic? One of the Japanese manufacturers did one that goes in the space available. Points can be hard to get for one size of original points, I forget which. Possibly the smaller cam was an attempt to use standard points but was inaccurate for some reason - probably error increase from a fractal increase on a smaller cam. If so then the larger cam had smaller points that are not so easy to find. These facts may be mixed up and a different outcome achieved, but its a start.

[richard]

thanks steven , as you say you wouldn't think it so hard to find a pic of the engine but these still don't show that side . as you also say the Excelsior Triple is a very neat , and indeed pretty , set up - some things just look right .

ah just blew up the diagram a bit more and now realise that the cover is not " like a pulley wheel " at all but in fact a dished cover with seal or gasket behind it - my mistake   thanks again malcolm

[richard]

just in case anyone else was interested in the Berkeley Excelsior triple engined motorcycle special built in the early sixties . i have the update from this months OBM mag . The bike survived and is still around , most unusual for a special . i appreciate this has become " off topic " but i like to round things off

[Big Al]

I assume for the bikes there was a mag. So this might be living on the triple. The points would probably still be as the car though?