A Scott resurrection
The story starts in the UK in 1973 when I tried to buy a basket case 1929 TT Replica Scott from a local character.
I did not have the £60 he wanted but he was very interested in finding a swinging arm Ariel Red Hunter. After putting together a complicated deal to acquire a friend’s Red Hunter, it all fell through. Commiserating over a couple of ciders my old mate Tuck mentioned he had the worn partial remains of a post war Scott, which if I twisted his arm hard enough, he would part with. So after putting together another tortuous deal I became the proud owner of a 1946 Scott Flying Squirrel.
After the first flush of enthusiasm and resisting the urge to tear everything apart, I quickly concluded that rebuilding the engine, and obtaining a radiator was going to be costly. As I had a few other machines to work on, I took the attitude that it was going to be a long term project which would be worked on when money, resources and new skills allowed.
The rolling chassis was the easiest part to start with, stripping the paint off the frame found it in very good condition, straight and undamaged, but there was something odd about the frame. It took some time for the penny to drop as the modification was so well done, two additional loops of tube had been bronze welded to the upper rear frame tubes to support the rear mudguard. I then realised that the non-standard rear mudguard was from a Francis Barnet! I decided to keep the modifications, they looked so right and Scotts are renowned for owner modifications. Stripping the Dowty Air Forks (correct for 1946) revealed they had been converted to the later spring in-tension forks and everything was well worn. Hard chroming the fork legs, turning up some new bushes and a bit of hand scraping eventually produced a good set of forks. The forks were one of the first “upside down forks”; the fork legs slide up and down inside the outer fork tube, a lot sturdier than some of the alternatives. The Royal Enfield double sided front wheel just needed a good clean up and a new rim, although the double-sided single leading shoe front brakes took some time to bed down. The rear wheel was another issue altogether and no doubt the rivet counters have already spotted the problem. No matter how I tried, the brake stay would not line up, further research revealed that I had a swinging arm rear wheel. After a bit of head scratching and a couple of cardboard prototypes I made a rather neat brake anchor. Four decades later Tuck found the correct rigid rear wheel buried in a pile of Birmingham Swinging Arm Scott bits, and it’s now sitting in my garage. The three-speed gearbox was the next challenge; originally a Velocette design that Scott bought after Velocette moved to a 4-speed box. The Velocette gearbox was attractive because the inboard clutch lined up nicely with Scott engine’s primary drive sprocket on the left hand side of the central flywheel. The final drive sprocket sits on an extended main-shaft and is supported by its own self-aligning bearing assembly. Scott converted the gearbox to foot change in 1934 by adding a ratchet mechanism that moved the original gear selector. Stripping the gearbox revealed two related problems, the input shaft bearing sleeve and the bronze bush it ran in, were both badly worn. After lapping the input shaft bearing sleeve for hours, making a new bush, shimming the end float on the shafts and hand scraping the new bush, it seemed to go together quite nicely (more of this later). The project stalled whilst I saved up enough money to have the engine rebuilt by Sam Pearce, a well-known Scott engineer. Although the engine is relatively simple, it is not one on which you learn by your mistakes, they are easily damaged and parts can be difficult and expensive to obtain. The rebuild took longer than planned, the badly worn barrels had frost damage and another had to be found. Sam ran it on his test rig explaining that those that vibrated slightly were usually more powerful than the smooth engines, however mine vibrated and had the power of a smooth engine! With the engine rebuilt we were on the home straight, whilst I attended to all the plumbing, rebuilding the Pilgrim pumps and electrics, there were two more key items. Although I had found a very second-hand later water tube radiator with a loose baffle plate, I really wanted a honeycomb radiator, they just look so much better. Replica radiators were being made, they were expensive and there was a waiting list. Arriving early at one of the Scott National Rallys, I spotted a brand new replica honeycomb radiator for sale at a bargain price, I have never written a cheque so quickly. The final key item was the twin cylinder Magdyno. Scotts used a special Magdyno with different