The AJS 33/7 Trophy Model Restoration: The Gearchange Positive Stop

As with the V-Twin, the positive stop for the gearchange is mounted externally …and I didn’t have one.  The positive stop that was originally fitted to these early OHC AJSs was, I believe, enclosed in a sheet metal casing. I never seen one “in the flesh” and the best that I could find is a picture of an apparently unrestored 34/10 model that I have screenshot from a Bonhams auction website: 

Picture courtesy of Bonhams

I did not have another spare complete positive stop mechanism but rather a collection of bits that I had acquired somewhere:

I asked around my buddies if anyone had a spare positive stop and Ron Langston came up with a gearbox front cover incorporating a complete positive stop mechanism:

I have no idea of the manufacturer of this gearbox/positive stop or to what bike it would have been fitted. If anyone that reads my blog has any idea, please let me know. I decided not to use it as it was for a 3-speed gearbox.

Ron also had a collection of various dolls-head positive stop bits and pieces and, together with the bits that I had, I was able to assemble a complete positive stop and in good condition. I had to make the spring-loaded indent that goes into the rear of the mechanism but that was a small price to pay.

And so, the starting point was a complete mechanism plus a lump of round steel to make the casing.

After a couple of days of machining the main body of the casing was made (I had to reverse-engineer the one that I had already made for the V-Twin):

and with the addition of a bracket:

The complete positive stop could now be attached to the engine plates:

and with a front cover and a new linkage

I could now select all 4 gears without a problem.

The remaining tasks are to fit the gear indicator and sort out the gear change lever but that can wait until I have the footrests in place.

 

UPDATE ON 13/07/2023

When road testing the bike I found that the gear change was very sloppy. I fitted a new return spring (obtained from RGM Norton, who I thoroughly recommend) and the gearchange is transformed.

The picture below shows the old and new springs and the reason for the poor gearchange is immediately apparent.

The AJS 33/7 Trophy Model Restoration: The Primary Drive

 

Although the gearbox was now in place and the Norton clutch had been rebuilt the primary drive was not yet complete. The engine sprocket that had come with the bike appeared to have been made from part of an original crankshaft shock-absorber with a sprocket welded on ….seen below.

This would probably have worked OK but there was a problem with the positioning of the clutch. It’s location on the gearbox mainshaft, seen below,

was too far out and this would have resulted in the engine sprocket also being located too far out on the crankshaft at around the end of the taper section. This would not be a good design feature and I therefore decided to move the clutch inboard by 5/16”.

Moving the clutch along the mainshaft is not a 5 minute exercise! Essentially, the splined section needs to be moved inboard and this means extending the splines along the shaft and reducing the diameter of the mainshaft to the thread diameter for a similar length (right hand side of the picture below).

and after pressing off the gear on the opposite end of the mainshaft

I have made a gearbox mainshaft in the past for the Sturmey Archer CS gearbox on my 1929 M18 Norton and although it is quite a bit of work, it is relative straightforward. The picture below shows a worn original CS gearbox mainshaft (above) with the new one (below) that I made. 

Although I don’t have the bike any longer, I put a few thousand miles on it, including a couple of visits to the Isle of Man for the Manx GP and a rally around Italy and Sardinia.

However, the existing mainshaft that I needed to modify here is through-hardened steel and it is simply not possible to set it up in the lathe and milling machine and machine it. It would be straightforward to reduce the diameter by grinding but I do not know how to extend the splines in hardened steel using traditional machine tools, at least, not the ones that I have. And so, back to my faithful spark-eroder who did both jobs. Copper electrodes were made to reduce the diameter

and extend the splines.

After making a new and extended nut to support the clutch centre, the complete clutch could now be assembled.

The last step was to make a new engine sprocket. The engine sprocket that came with bike, seen as the first picture in this blog post, was not a pretty sight. However, as the taper was a reasonably good fit on the crankshaft, the first step was to use this to machine a male taper to fit.

As I’ve mentioned in previousposts machining a sprocket with an internal taper has to be done with great care to locate the teeth in the correct axial position. As with previous engine sprockets, this one started out as a triplex sprocket with 3 rows of teeth, 2 rows of which were removed

before machining the taper. The male taper is used to check the accuracy of the female and to ensure correct positioning.  Finally, the keyway was put in using spark erosion.

The primary drive is now complete with pretty well a new clutch, engine sprocket and chain.