Got all the spacers done and in place now. I realised, after studying the Hycam list again (thanks, Knut!) that I had several spacers in the wrong places., which explained a discrepancy that was popping up in discussions about spacers: some say that the 2 spacers at the front, (frontmost? foremost?) engine mount are of equal thickness, whereas the Hycam list shows one to be more than twice as thick as the other. We'll get back to this in a minute.
Wrapping my mind around the placement of the spacers was more difficult than I expected. I at first assumed that the left rear engine plate was simply spaced over to the left a ways and the gearbox moved over to meet it and then more spacers between the gearbox and the right rear engine plate. And yes, it probably can be assembled that way and work just fine as long as you make all the necessary allowances in other places to compensate.
But the Hycam list clearly labels some spacers as fitting between the right rear engine plate and the frame. It wasn't until I tried putting myself in the position of the guys who built the first prototype that I finally understood correctly what was going on: the production models are built like the prototype, just a Norton engine in a Matchless frame rather than a Norton engine in a Matchless derived frame.
So! Back to those front spacers. If you have the spacers on the rearmost frame lugs (upper and lower) on one side, you'll end up needing equal thickness spacers on the front mount. If you have the spacers on the other side, then you will need the spacers described on the Hycam list, AND your engine will actually be centered in the frame.
So NOW I have the right spacers in the right places. I went ahead and bought a engine/primary cover spacer off of eBay. It's exactly the same as the ones sold by Baxter Cycles, and if I had to do it over again, I'd just by it from Baxter, as once the shipping and taxes were added on, I only ended up saving a whole dollar over Baxter.
Here's pics of what I assume will be the final positions of the spacers--these are made and placed according to the Hycam descriptions. Note the gearbox spacer slightly right of the centre of the photo and the engine spacers in the upper right quadrant:
Here we see the front spacers--do it this way and your engine ends up centrally located in the frame--or at least mine did....
Here you can see a little of the difference between the front engine mounting plate and the rear engine mounting plate in terms of spacing. The front engine mounting plate has the spacers on the outside (between the frame and the plate), whereas the spacers on the rear plates are between the engine and the plate on the left side, then between the frame and the plate on the right side. On the gearbox the spacers go between the gearbox and the right mounting plate.
Here's a good shot of the .343" thick spacers between the engine and the left rear plate and the .156" thick spacers between the frame lugs and the right mounting plate:
I feel pretty confident now that the spacing is all correct. although I do not have my engine/primary case spacer yet, I did experimentally put the inner primary case in place and was pleased with how much better the line-up of things in that area seems to be now--the inner case itself seems parallel with the mounting plate and the gearbox input shaft sticks out far enough now that I am not wondering how in the world the clutch is going to fit.
Anybody know if a Burkhardt magneto cover will fit a Hunt magneto? We're about to find out....
