Sorry, John, you lost me just after Google.
Regarding your breathers, leave them alone, you know what they say - A bird in the hand is worth half a dozen of the other.
H
Oil loss through breather pipe
- Thread starter tjcassar
- Start date
Sorry, John, you lost me just after Google.
Regarding your breathers, leave them alone, you know what they say - A bird in the hand is worth half a dozen of the other.
H
Come on Ernie,
I want to know what breather set up you use????????
Please.......
Me, well after tweeking this, touching that, a quarter turn here and seating properly that and with a standard timed breather with the pipe extended past the rear spindle my bike is pretty close to oil tight most of the time - certainly satisfactory for me.
The single biggest improvement to the whole engine in terms of oil tight warm oil long distance I encountered was sealing the dynamo properly - so now the primary level stays put, so that probably means the gas leaking mains are balancing the crankcase and primary pressures so oil stays where it is and a full set of Neal Videan seals on the engine, everywhere (great stuff) finish the job.
Oh that and several hundred beer vouchers to a man who knows how to build an engine repaired the damage caused by someone else who had been paid several hundred beer vouchers and should have known better and we're getting somewhere.
But I've only done 8000 miles on the engine so far.......next to nothing.
Great fun isn't it.
Breather info please Ernie............?
Oh how I wish that JB posted on the Forum, I bet she'd have some useful advice to add on this subject.
Regards
Stuart
I want to know what breather set up you use????????
Please.......
Me, well after tweeking this, touching that, a quarter turn here and seating properly that and with a standard timed breather with the pipe extended past the rear spindle my bike is pretty close to oil tight most of the time - certainly satisfactory for me.
The single biggest improvement to the whole engine in terms of oil tight warm oil long distance I encountered was sealing the dynamo properly - so now the primary level stays put, so that probably means the gas leaking mains are balancing the crankcase and primary pressures so oil stays where it is and a full set of Neal Videan seals on the engine, everywhere (great stuff) finish the job.
Oh that and several hundred beer vouchers to a man who knows how to build an engine repaired the damage caused by someone else who had been paid several hundred beer vouchers and should have known better and we're getting somewhere.
But I've only done 8000 miles on the engine so far.......next to nothing.
Great fun isn't it.
Breather info please Ernie............?
Oh how I wish that JB posted on the Forum, I bet she'd have some useful advice to add on this subject.
Regards
Stuart
Stuart. Check your speedo mounting bracket. I had a Series B Shadow bracket that was made incorrectly. This caused the speedo cable to enter at a tight angle & would repeatedly cause the lower spade to break. It was only after several broken cables, a broken speedo drive & an overhaul of the speedo that I realised what & where the problem was. Another bracket (this time from VOCS) confirmed my suspicions; first it was steel not alloy so considerably thinner in section, and secondly the angle when mounted gave the cable a much more gentle curve into the speedo. All good now.
Oh allright then, Stuart, lovely boy, quick resume.
Rapide: Long ago I fitted a D breather - and it was fine for about 40k miles but then the blow-by was overcoming it, thin pipe debouched at the rear axle and dripped so much that following riders would be covered in oil. Crank-case pressure at high speed threatened to push out the push-rod seals. Non-return valve in the 3/8" pipe made no difference. Oil consumption about 300mpp but no smoke from the exhaust, standard valve quides.
Peter Volkers took pity on me and gave me a breather the fits over the magneto drive hole. Beautifully made out of turned aluminium, slim, with a gauze inside. It rises nicely to nestle under the tank, curves down to the centre stand and not a drop of oil comes out tho' you can feel the pulses of air. 1/2' pipe so not too obtrusive. See picture. Clevtrev and Rex rebuilt the engine 2 years and 4k miles ago, new +40 pistons but did not do anything to the heads apart from checking. Oil consumption 700mpp.
Shadow: This is original with about 12k miles when I got it. It had not been run for 40 years so a toss up as to whether to strip it or just run it and see what happens. Chose the latter. It was very smokey when it started and dripped from the standard breather at tickover. It also oiled pugs so that the front one had to be changed every 200 miles. I fitted an elephant's trunk breather from Kemp's. This is a cast item and bulkier than the Volkers one, has a gauze but wants a 5/8" pipe which I did not like. So I sleeved it down to take a 1/2" pipe running the same route as the Rapide, painted it black. I installed a metering wire in the front inlet rocker feed and this helped the oiling plug problem a lot. I might try doing the other rocker feeds as well but I do not think that will make much difference. The smoke in the exhaust gradually diminished so now there is none visible but consumption is 300 mpp. See second picture.
I think that is enough for now.
Yes, Bruce, Malta was hot then. No food and lots of bombs.
Best regards
Ernie
Rapide: Long ago I fitted a D breather - and it was fine for about 40k miles but then the blow-by was overcoming it, thin pipe debouched at the rear axle and dripped so much that following riders would be covered in oil. Crank-case pressure at high speed threatened to push out the push-rod seals. Non-return valve in the 3/8" pipe made no difference. Oil consumption about 300mpp but no smoke from the exhaust, standard valve quides.
Peter Volkers took pity on me and gave me a breather the fits over the magneto drive hole. Beautifully made out of turned aluminium, slim, with a gauze inside. It rises nicely to nestle under the tank, curves down to the centre stand and not a drop of oil comes out tho' you can feel the pulses of air. 1/2' pipe so not too obtrusive. See picture. Clevtrev and Rex rebuilt the engine 2 years and 4k miles ago, new +40 pistons but did not do anything to the heads apart from checking. Oil consumption 700mpp.
Shadow: This is original with about 12k miles when I got it. It had not been run for 40 years so a toss up as to whether to strip it or just run it and see what happens. Chose the latter. It was very smokey when it started and dripped from the standard breather at tickover. It also oiled pugs so that the front one had to be changed every 200 miles. I fitted an elephant's trunk breather from Kemp's. This is a cast item and bulkier than the Volkers one, has a gauze but wants a 5/8" pipe which I did not like. So I sleeved it down to take a 1/2" pipe running the same route as the Rapide, painted it black. I installed a metering wire in the front inlet rocker feed and this helped the oiling plug problem a lot. I might try doing the other rocker feeds as well but I do not think that will make much difference. The smoke in the exhaust gradually diminished so now there is none visible but consumption is 300 mpp. See second picture.
I think that is enough for now.
Yes, Bruce, Malta was hot then. No food and lots of bombs.
Best regards
Ernie
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That's very interesting, thank you. The bracket is a replacement that Brian Shaw bought and had fitted to the bike when it was rebuilt in Australia in 2007. I am not sure of the source of the bracket though I know where he bought it.
I might have someone bring one along to next weeks Herts and Beds rally so that I can compare - and of course with so many bikes side by side I can go along the line and look at the angle there.
But it sounds promising as you were experiencing a break exactly where I have.
Thanks for the tip.
Now, back to breathers....................
I might have someone bring one along to next weeks Herts and Beds rally so that I can compare - and of course with so many bikes side by side I can go along the line and look at the angle there.
But it sounds promising as you were experiencing a break exactly where I have.
Thanks for the tip.
Now, back to breathers....................
I broke speedo inners (on another make of bike) on a regular basis until I discovered that at some point the cable assembly, inner and outer, had been made a little longer to ease installation. The OE cable assemblies were OK if the cable run was absolutely perfect, but j-u-s-t too short if it wasn't.
So it would be worth taking the outer off, fitting a new inner, and checking the stick-out. I'd just been removing the broken bits, and putting a new inner in the old outer. It fitted with no apparent difficulty, but with a new inner longer than my OE outer, it was being buckled. When I bought a new outer, which made the stick-out correct, the problem stopped.
So it would be worth taking the outer off, fitting a new inner, and checking the stick-out. I'd just been removing the broken bits, and putting a new inner in the old outer. It fitted with no apparent difficulty, but with a new inner longer than my OE outer, it was being buckled. When I bought a new outer, which made the stick-out correct, the problem stopped.
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Stuart,
Just a thought. Early Shadow speedos were prone to breaking cables if the machine was wheeled backwards more than a few yards. It happened to mine. It was a fault in the right angle gearbox at the back of the speedo. A later modification solved this. As for replacement cables, inners and outers, new inners never seem to match up with old outers.
Just a thought. Early Shadow speedos were prone to breaking cables if the machine was wheeled backwards more than a few yards. It happened to mine. It was a fault in the right angle gearbox at the back of the speedo. A later modification solved this. As for replacement cables, inners and outers, new inners never seem to match up with old outers.
Just read through this whole thread. Thanks for the info, but thanks also for the humour. I needed a good laugh !
Someone mentioned Bill Kind. I've just been on the phone with him this evening. I bought my Series B Meteor from him many years ago, and have enjoyed many thousand miles of riding with it since. As my Meteor had never been touched since 1948, in recent years it has been somewhat OILY - now there's an understatement for you ! Tony and I did last year's Giro di Sicilia rally - I rode the Meteor - and I swear I used more oil than fuel, so much so that the Italian organiser presented me with a pack of nappies to put under the bike when left on hotel forecourts.
Since then Tony and I have rebuilt the top end, also fitting an O/S piston, new valves, guides etc, and I can tell you that consumption since then has been absolutely minimal and power has doubled. We were again invited on the "Giro" last October, and again I rode the Meteor. It was a different bike.
Someone mentioned Bill Kind. I've just been on the phone with him this evening. I bought my Series B Meteor from him many years ago, and have enjoyed many thousand miles of riding with it since. As my Meteor had never been touched since 1948, in recent years it has been somewhat OILY - now there's an understatement for you ! Tony and I did last year's Giro di Sicilia rally - I rode the Meteor - and I swear I used more oil than fuel, so much so that the Italian organiser presented me with a pack of nappies to put under the bike when left on hotel forecourts.
Since then Tony and I have rebuilt the top end, also fitting an O/S piston, new valves, guides etc, and I can tell you that consumption since then has been absolutely minimal and power has doubled. We were again invited on the "Giro" last October, and again I rode the Meteor. It was a different bike.