Old Britts

Electric start conversion for pre-1975 Commandos
Updated 06/11/08

black starter
The starter mounted to our bench development mockup.

Coming within the next couple of months will be an electric start conversion for pre-1975 Commandos. This starter is a modified version of Bob Oswald's (Quiet Power Drive) that he has developed and sold for a number of years. This is the starter system that Kenny Dreer used on his VR-880 Commandos.

Old Britts modifications to the QPD starter design are:

We have the starter bracket, engine cradle and inner primary cover development completed. We now have this starter mounted on our engine dyno and have used it on a freshly built Combat, 10 to 1 compression, engine. The starter turned over the engine with ease, almost like the spark plugs had been removed. We want to continue testing a couple of engines on our dyno that we need to test and tune. We have a customer's Commando that we will use to install our first starter and also use it to develop the starter switch, wiring harness and battery tray. The battery tray may also be something that we may have Andover Norton help us with once we come up with a final design. We also need to design an attractive cover for the top of the inner primary.

The starter motor in the first picture has a black body where the starter in the next picture has a chrome body.

chrome starter
The chrome starter mounted on our engine dyno.

These starters are the ones used on the Harley Sportster and have proven to be very dependable. We will be using the QPD belt drive and ring gear system.

starter
The drive side of a modified pre-MK3 engine cradle.

For pre-MK3 engine cradles, the drive side adjuster slot needs to be filled in by welding a blanking plate into the slot and then drilled for the correct top bolt placement. The timing side slot does not need to be filled in due to the fact that the starter bracket fixes the alignment of the starter to the clutch ring gear.

starter
The timing side of the modified engine cradle.

starter
The Old Britts starter bracket.

This bracket is one piece and has an outrigger bearing pressed into it.

We have modify the inner primary cover to fit around our starter bracket. The center mounting stud piller has to be removed for clearance for the ring gear and allow a cross shifting shaft if left hand shift is desired. Two screws were added that screw into the starter bracket as shown in the third picture below. The stock three bolts that screw into the crank cases along with the two starter screws secure the inner primary. The outer primary cover will be altered where the two locating pins fit the two cases together. The outer cover will have the locating pin holes drilled through the case. The inner cover locating holes will be tapped and two allen head bolts will secure the outer cover to the inner cover. Old Britts 1972 race bike with left hand shift has had the two primary covers attached this way since it was built and it has never given us any problems.

inner primary cover
The inside of a modified inner primery cover.

inner primary cover
The back side of a modified inner primary cover.

starter
The modified inner primary cover fitted up to the starter bracket.

One more picture of the chrome starter mounted on the Old Britts engine dyno.

Old Britts Engine Dyno

As development continues, we will add pictures and information to this page; and hopefully, in a couple of months provide you with pricing and availability.


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