wanted, battery box & wiring for Mark 1

[rtwdoug]

Hey All,
I just picked up a Mark 1 here in Florida. It had been sitting for several years, I got it running, great bike!
I need a battery box and wiring loom/harness for it.
The wires are so old, all the insulation is cracking.
other than that, it looks to be complete & original

Thanks! Doug

[eddie]

Hi Doug,
             That's some find! It looks pretty original, except for the frame repair (just behind the swinging arm pivot). This is probably the second time it has had problems, as the frame appears to be a factory replacement unit with the lower subframe mount down on the bottom rail. Originally, the bottom tube of the subframe would have run straight to a plate lug on the frame rear downtube just above the swinging arm pivot. When new, early frame breakages during the guarantee period were dealt with at the factory (where the whole frame was replaced with a later type with the lowered bottom subframe fixing, and a modified subframe supplied).
 Regards,
              Eddie.

[rtwdoug]

Thanks Eddie
its definitely had a repair on the rear frame, but I hear they were bad about breaking. at least the numbers still match.
I wonder why the original subframe mount doesnt go all the way to the original frame tho? unless thats been modified as well
heres a better pic of the repair

[eddie]

With hindsight, we now think that the frame breakages can be attributed to the poor design of the swinging arm pivot pins. Mr Douglas made the pivot pins hollow with a small cross hole to grease the bushes. This was fine with regular greasing, but failure to do it at regular intervals often resulted in the grease solidifying in the small cross hole - pumping in more grease then just pushed the blanking plug out of the end of the bush. The pin would then dry up in the bush and put extra loads on the rear frame lug (resulting in the tubes cracking). Had the pins had a blank end, the grease would have no option but to go through the cross hole!
 Douglas were well aware of the problem with cracked frames, so were in the process of reducing the stresses by moving the lower subframe attachment to where it is on your frame - this entailed a modification to the lower leg of the subframe (again, as on yours). Home market machines went back to the factory for this work to be done (the new frame keeping the original number), but it is thought that, for export machines, Douglas just supplied the replacement frame for the importer to deal with - the result being that some export machines now have frames with no number!

  Eddie.

[Daren W Australia]

Hi this may fit http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-BRITISH-MADE-ALL-YEARS-DOUGLAS-80-90-PLUS-HARNESS-1455-HANDMADE-LOOM-/332091321319?hash=item4d522f6be7:g:9w8AAOSwgQ9Viivo&vxp=mtr
Daren

[David Lawrence]

Hi RTWdoug,
As Eddie as so swiftly informed you your problem is sadly very common.
Regarding the wiring harness, these are available from the UK as the Douglas Club does get them made to the original pattern.
 I may be able to dig out a battery box from the depths of my garage.
If you are interested in either please email me directly via the email ikon below my name.
You should also consider joining us in the Club, incidentally, traditionally called The London Douglas Motor Cycle Club Ltd, which for a great many years has covered Douglas owners world wide, the name is retained in it's entirety purely for the historical tradition of being formed in 1928.
We also supply both the illustrated spares book and the original T35 works manual, I happen to know this because I look after the reproduction and selling of them!
Enjoy your recent purchase, incidentally if you can give me the frame, engine and gearbox number we can trace the history of the bike as far as the distributor. After that we can only track it if previous owners have fed the details into our machine register.

Dave

[douglas1947]

Hi Doug,

congratulation, interesting projekt!
I have nearly finished my MK1. I have read you will get help for the battery box and wire loom.

Itīs apitty with the repaired frame; there is also a repair on your back frame.

Michael