Comet Oil Filter Woes

Martyn Goodwin

Martyn Goodwin

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Non-VOC Member
Issue is that the Spares Company are already selling a paper element oil filter specifically for a Comet and the problem with it is that it simply DOES NOT WORK because it is way way too long, making it impossible to acheive an oil tight installation.

Based on the dimentions of the filter chamber in my Comet, the overall length of a paper element filter cartridge, including the sealing rubbers should be no more than 3 inches. I wonder if anyone from the Spares Company is aware of this matter? I also wonder if they will keep selling a part that is unsuitable or if they will take the opertunity to corrrect the size on future orders??


boggler122 said:
You are not the only sufferer from this problem, I at first thought it was the spring which had become coil bound because it was too long being a new one, there have been some cases. The woolen felt filter element is far more forgiving in the respect as it can be crushed easily as you screw in the brass cap. Iam building a bitsa Comet and have come across allsorts of 'interesting problems' , which must have consumed the factory fitters valuable time. i had considered slicing a section out of the filter to make it fit and applying silcone rubber to seal it up. Another idea was to fit a large inert object into the filter chamber, instead of the filter so that the chamber would quickly fill and circulate the oil where necessary and fit an external cartridge in the return line as others do. I think this is also a Royal Enfield dodge. The Spares Company have been persuaded to produce various oversize and under sizes of timing gears perhaps we could make special plea for Comet oil filter elements, which i imagine won't come cheap.
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C

chankly bore

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Being the sad, antisocial prevert that I am, I can state without fear of contraception that the original filter chamber gubbins was all "TECALEMIT" because a lot of it is branded so! Martyn, have you tried the filter shop next to the speedo. shop near Heatherdale Road?
 
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ogrilp400

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The paper element filter only has a tin skeleton that would crush immediately under the pressure of the oil filter cap being done up. I don't think that is the problem. Here is a test, take the filter out and run with out it. For the short test duration no damage will occur.
 
Martyn Goodwin

Martyn Goodwin

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Non-VOC Member
I now have a RAG oil filter in place and there are NO leaks. As to the ability to crush the steel/paper element filter - the structure of it is TWO perforated steel columns - one on the outside of the filter and one on the inside. Now consider the structure of the Comet oil chamber - its a relatively thin walled aloy casting and the cap is machined from brass. If one was to attempt to effect sufficient pressure - through tightening of the cap - to attempt to crush those TWO steel columns that comprise the filter element, either the alloy engine casting would crack and/or the threads strip. The root cause of the problem is self evident - the Spares Company Metal/paper oil filters are just too long for the space they are intended to go into.

As I said, I have gone back to the RAG style of oil filter and am trying to lay in a supply of them to see out the foreseable future requirements of my Comet. Sorry Ken. You know my number - happy to chat.

ogrilp400 said:
The paper element filter only has a tin skeleton that would crush immediately under the pressure of the oil filter cap being done up. I don't think that is the problem. Here is a test, take the filter out and run with out it. For the short test duration no damage will occur.
Click to expand...
 
R

rapide049

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Martyn Have you tried the filters from Neil Videan or Terry Prince ?
Maybe you have , Buy local if you can
Greg
 
Martyn Goodwin

Martyn Goodwin

Well Known and Active Forum User
Non-VOC Member
In a word. YES. But still with like issues.

I have asked others to measure their bikes but so far no data. I suspect there may be significant variances bike to bike and that may be why these "new" filters are OK for some. BUT the design of the filter chamber/cap mechanisms allows for over 1/2 inch of variance in the length of the filter element - even though it seems that the metal/paper filters on offer are all at the long end of the range. As I stated in an earlier post I have been fortunate in securing - just today - enough RAG style filters to keep my Coment on the go for at least another 60,000 miles.[

Martyn

QUOTE=rapide049;39289]Martyn Have you tried the filters from Neil Videan or Terry Prince ?
Maybe you have , Buy local if you can
Greg[/QUOTE]
 
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