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Archive indexA couple of telephone calls prompted me to write (type?) a brief article for a change.
Certainly not! There is little enough meat there to do the job that it is supposed to do! It appears to me that the answer would be to remove the carb stub end from the manifold, ream into it and Araldite a suitable sleeve. This would also be a way of reclaiming damaged manifolds.
Another telephone call, a few weeks back, was an enquiry about an alternator stator. In other words, the coils. The Firefly is unique among clip-on engines of that era, and unusual among full-blown motor cycles in that it boasted an alternator. Even its big brothers from the Vincent stable only had dynamos. I suppose that the reason is that the engine was not originally designed by Vincents, but by Millers, the 'other' electrical people.
Today's tip: the bearing. Yes, "the" bearing, as the Firefly only has one size of bearing throughout the engine. The Vincent spares number is VF41, but you can get it in any roller bearing stockist. The RHP number is KLNJ 3/4 but most foreign manufacturers list it under EE6.
First published - August 1999