ET: Engine (Twin) Godet electric starter

[greg brillus]

Hi there Vincent, Did you carry out any modifications to secure the starter ring gear to the chain wheel........We have another one here with about 2500 Km's on and the ring gear bolts came loose and has caused some carnage within the primary area mostly the G 2 cover damaged. The owner seemed a little upset about it........

 

[Vincent Brake]

Yes i secured it to a alu chain wheel from N. Vi.
But than with the allen bolts having a H7/js7 fit part.
Its grinded. Don't know the english name.
Furthermore done a ring in to keep it centered

 

[oexing]

Problem with these bolts seems same like with brake drum bolts on hubs, or sprockets on hubs. You want ZERO play in the bolt fits in bores so all load will spread evenly onto all bolts . Great job with precision ground bolt shafts and reamed bores but the cruel reality is you will not get all fits so perfect for even loads on all bolts. And still some play in threads too, these are not meant to bear side loads. One good way would be to replace all bolts and nuts with rivets , possibly aviation ht alu rivets that you heat up to 550 degrees to anneal them before riveting. Rivets will take the complete space within matching bores and will be evenly loaded afterwards. You don´t have to disassemble that kind of parts all the time I guess when there is no need. And even so, you can drill out alu rivets no problem, they do it all the time on aircraft for repairs.
I will use alu rivets on brake drums and sprockets but you can keep your bolts provided you put a good measure of mild to medium Loctite on bolt threads plus the bolt shafts to fill any gaps in the assembly. It is NOT a matter of preventing shaking loose the bolts but to fill up all space within the fasteners to spread all loads safely on all bolts. So really this will save you any problems described above. Easy to do with existing spares, you cannot do any harm but don´t use high strength Loctite, even mild types are allright as they can carry high loads from shear forces.

Vic

 

[Chris Launders]

Could you TIG the nuts to the end of the threads after final tightening, easily ground off if you ever need to remove the starter ring.

 

[greg brillus]

Yes what Vic said makes good sense........Some might be difficult, riveting the sprocket to a cast iron drum might result in some tears....... The chain wheel and starter ring gear on this Egli has no means of location at all........ Just the drilling and tapping of 8 holes about M6 or similar to locate an item that is probably one of the highest loaded parts on the engine......... It needs a locating ring as Vincent described, but probably needs some form of dowels as well........Not 100 % sure if some nuts can be added as this area runs very close to the inner side of the primary cover. We have a new ring gear being sent to us, and I believe they made the newer ones with softer teeth, so less inclined to break off so easily........Has anyone seen the insides of one of these engines, especially the timing chest........ I wondered if the stock valve lifter mechanism can be installed.

 

[PapyG]

Good morning all,
Indeed there were crowns with teeth too hard and which were brittle ... This has been solved and since then there has never been any problem.

Do not hesitate to call Godet

 

[oexing]

When space is a problem rivets will fit nicely and do some more jobs at the same time. Softened aircraft alu rivets could be useful for these starter gears as well - or so I believe. With some tech sense one can apply just sufficient force in the riveting operation so as to fill any play in the holes in both parts. All loads plus positioning will be as planned with the riveting action. Nobody will want to have this disassembled all the time so why no rivets ??

Vic

 

[Gerry Jenkinson]

Thanks all so far,.......My concerns are that these are late model Godet Egli's we are talking about....... . My real question is, does anyone know of any other owners of these bikes that have starting issues.......GB.

Yes, my 1330 had to have it replaced after 600 miles.
Some time later it again made some frightening noises after which the starter motor spun but the engine didn't turn.
The bike also had several other problems.
Gerry

 

[Vincent Brake]

Not any more!!

 

[Monkeypants]

A friend of mine , Nigel from the Norton Forum has had two of these 1330 Godet Eglis built.
The first one, built in 2010, had the Harley starter. This was one of the first of that type for Patrick Godet.
At the rally in 07 Godet brought at least 2 estart 1330s, but those used the Grosset starter.
I remember chatting with Patrick on the Promenade at Douglas as he and another fellow worked on one of the 1330 starters that had broken.
Nigel had no issues with his 1330 Egli with Harley starter. Unfortunately he only did a thousand miles with it over a year, then sold the bike on.

Recently he took delivery of another Godet 1330. Both this 1330 and the previous one have Vincent type Hemi heads, very little if any squish band.
He seems to ride in a year about the same distance as we WestCoasters do in a weekend, but so far all is ok with that bike.
Not much of a test and not much info, except the squish band bit.
I don't think you will find T Prince type squish bands on those Godet bikes, from Nigel's info. He is a big proponent of squish heads, but did not come up with them on his 1330s.

On the other hand, the squish bands on the Prince heads really take some force to overcome.
I'm not sure that any of the existing estarts could cope with the squish heads on a big capacity high compression engine.

Glen