E: Engine Pinion Touching Thrust Washer...

[Cyborg]

That looks like a humdinger of a return spring on the valve lifter mechanism. Likely added to help the rubber rings keep oil inside the timing chest… or maybe cut down on the lubrication required for the lifter cable.
While you are in there… “you may as well” replace those rubber rings (ET187) or switch to the newer setup with a seal.
You can look it up on VOC Spares. ET187SP-KIT

Won’t be long before hearing the term “ you may as well” causes you to curl up in the fetal position.

 

[50BlkShadow]

Have you watched , The Mighty Garage videos, Not the be all and end all,
But it would give you a good idea of things, I think.

If you zoom to the bottom of this Forum opening page,
In the right hand corner,
Under Resources Miscellaneous.

Yes I have, part of the reason I got brave enough to have a look in the timing chest. The videos are incredibly helpful.

 

[Cyborg]

Should match the numbers stamped between your cylinders ( crankcase mating numbers)

Also inside the primary cover and the little generator drive cover that is on the primary cover.

They often don’t match because so many were swapped around over the years.

 

[Bill Thomas]

Incredible Bill! It would be great to have you here in California to help me with this ol’beast!! I’ll keep taking all the shared information I can get and decipher accordingly lol… I’m just so excited at getting this bike running, but I want to do it right. It’s my OCD on the later!

I am afraid you will soon find out that, There will be Short cuts you will want to take,
Like to fit the spindles in the cases, The cases should be apart !!,
To heat the cases right for fitting spindles,
Most of us heat the cases "Best we can" with some of the stuff in, Unless it's a complete rebuild,
And sometimes use Loctite !, But I don't think that is much good,
As I said , You can buy oversize spindles, If you can work out how , Too big the holes are ?,
It's not a perfect world, Don't forget we are talking about a 1950 bike.

I know how you feel, I was a Jaguar mechanic many years ago,
And wanted to do Perfect jobs, But had to lower my standards in the real world.

 

[bmetcalf]

Ask ten Vincent owners a question and you'll get a dozen answers!

 

[Cyborg]

Ask ten Vincent owners a question and you'll get a dozen different answers!

Fixed that for you.

 

[Gene Nehring]

Order some new cam spindle sealing rubbers while you’re at it. It’s important to change them from time to time.

 

[Alyson]

By chance, does anyone know what the KK32 stamped on the inside mean?

like cyborg said, it's the matching numbers. If they do match the engine case left and right side mating numbers, lucky you. Also the primary drive cover and the dyno cover alike. I do believe the numbers are unique to each engine. No two alike. I have a dyno cover sitting here on my desk with P5* and apparently it belongs to a '49 HRD rapide somewhere in the U.S. of A. I've put it out there for the owner in case s/he wants it but to no avail. So now it holds a chocolate or two if I'm lucky. I have another dyno cover somewhere.... in case I get really hungry

 

[Cyborg]

I wonder if a thread would be of much use. Folks could list what they have or what they are looking for. I stand to be corrected, but don’t think there is any harm in listing mating numbers. Without the engine number… no harm can be done? Title it “Missed Connections”?

 

[Cyborg]

like cyborg said, it's the matching numbers. If they do match the engine case left and right side mating numbers, lucky you. Also the primary drive cover and the dyno cover alike. I do believe the numbers are unique to each engine. No two alike. I have a dyno cover sitting here on my desk with P5* and apparently it belongs to a '49 HRD rapide somewhere in the U.S. of A. I've put it out there for the owner in case s/he wants it but to no avail. So now it holds a chocolate or two if I'm lucky. I have another dyno cover somewhere.... in case I get really hungry

Around here, we’d need a primary cover.