Francis-Barnett Plover 86 restoration and repair

Well the jinx on this bike strikes again... just as I had got it running, and fixed the throttle cable, the kickstart failed as I was trying to do a compression test. It sags and hangs pathetically as shown below.  Kickstart failure ... clearly an issue that will need sorting but at least it might offer the opportunity to fix the oil leak along the kickstart shaft at the same time. I cant find any accounts of how to sort this out so I'm winging it atmo. Firstly I removed the kickstart lever, gearchange lever and magneto cover so I could access the gearbox drain plug and drained the oil using a hose joiner as spigot to try and keep it clean for reuse- its only been in the bike 2 days! Magneto cover removed- joiner in drain hole Draining the oil I could then remove the 5 cover screws- all the same length. I'd anticipated needing an impact driver but in fact all came out easily with a 90 degree screwdriver. Removed case screws and tapped to free the case To disconnect the clutch o...

The carb in this bike is probably fine because I've started the motor before and it ran nicely. However that was throttled simply using the stump of broken throttle cable so I will have to fit a new one (Hard to find but I got lucky) and for this the carb needs to come off. I might as well strip and clean it out at the same time. The Amal 375 carb is a fairly substantial lump. Unusually in the bike, the carb is held on by 2 Bsc bolts rather than studs. Sadly the heads of these have been mullered at some point in the past. Luckily it did grip in a ring spanner. I'll file some of the burring off to improve fit as Bsc bolts are going to be hard to find. Damaged bolt head. Other bolt not so badly damaged. Carb was easily removed so I took some pics to show the various fitting positions before removing the air filter- mine is simply the air filter case and contains no filter. The fuel inlet was secured with a bolt that looked wrong- its a metric thread whereas the original should be...