Fitting an external oil filter.

[Colsbeeza]

Lindsay, I am looking at your photo of the Timing side bush/bearing. There appears to be balls or rollers in that bearing. Does it have the Timing Side SRM conversion.? If not, what is happening?
Col

[Lindsay S]

No tapered bearing, just the ordinary roller main; probably fitted in Birmingham 66 years ago!

[Swarfcut]

 Looks like a standard lipped roller bearing to me. But more bemusing is the timing side main which looks like an end fed crank conversion, (reckon I can make out some rollers) but with what appears to be a bronze outer track....I would have expected all steel. Cam bush looks a bit thinner on the face...is the cam gear kissing the crankcase?

 Choice of type and brand of drive side main bearing is more wide these days, plenty on the forum featuring bearings which demount easier than the original type. If it is an end fed conversion, does the timing side bearing now eliminate crank float? I'm sure earlier incarnations used a bearing which combined axial and radial limits.

 As stated, maybe this glitter was part of the initial bedding in process. Cleaning out the tank, watching and checking could have saved a lot of work.

Looks like Col has also had the same thought about the timing side...not what it first appears?

 Swarfy

[limeyrob]

I'm with you Swarfy, that looks like a TS roller conversion with a bush on the end.  Doesn't look end fed.  Probably needs to come apart and check how the end float is set on the exact conversion to make sure one bearing is not fighting the other.  That could explain the chips on the DS bearing edge.

[Swarfcut]

 Yes Rob. That crank needs to come out so we can see what's going on. The threads don't look even and I am wondering if there is an element of RM in this engine's previous life.

 Swarfy.

[Lindsay S]

Steady on! There’s no needle bearings it’s just a bog-standard A10 engine and what you are seeing on the timing side is an indelible shadow of the teeth of the ts pinion. The engine is on the bench, everything apart from the drive side main is good and once that arrives it will all go back together. As regards the glitter in the oil, as some have said, that may be normal for a freshly built engine but I just wanted to satisfy myself that nothing nasty was going on. I would rather do that than have that niggling thought on my mind every time I threw my leg over it! When it comes to it, it is no big deal to pull and strip one these engines and it beats sitting in front of a tv spewing out rubbish!

[limeyrob]

Well it certainly fooled me!!

[limeyrob]

To stay on topic I took a couple of pictures of my return filter set up. Its the usual Norton clone. My objective was to keep it out the way and to use the standard oil pipes in case I wanted to revert.  I tapped it and fitted a pair of engine oil pipe unions and its bolted under the battery tray.  The short pipe to the tank is just long enough for about 1/2" of flexy.

[Lindsay S]

Nice job but not one that I could do because I have got a ski slope and standard air filter.

[limeyrob]

Yes, mine was missing the ski-slope, air-filter and came with a Concentric so I had more options.

[Worty]

Nice job but not one that I could do because I have got a ski slope and standard air filter.

You could remove the ski slope and put the oil filter between the engine plates like mine.  Won't interfere with the standard air filter either.

[Lindsay S]

As a follow up to my last posting, the engine is all back together (for the second time!) and has done just over 200 miles with its external filter sitting between the front down tubes. It hasn’t been obliterated by a rock so far, in fact it picks up very lin the way of road dirt considering the muddy state of our roads at the moment. I’ve had no wet sumping and the return to the tank has been instantaneous on startup changing to a steady stream periodically punctuated with air bubbles after a few seconds. The oil filter is situated about an inch higher than the sump plate.
I am certainly glad that I didn’t fit the filter above the gearbox as I have since had to remove the ski jump in order to replace a very worn gearbox position adjuster but that is another story!

[Worty]

I am certainly glad that I didn’t fit the filter above the gearbox as I have since had to remove the ski jump in order to replace a very worn gearbox position adjuster but that is another story!

I've never had a problem with the positioning of the filter in place of the ski slope between the engine plates.  IMO, it's more discreet and doesn't impact on the 'look' of the engine.  It may be a little bit more involved to change the filter, but it does look very neat.

[Lindsay S]

Not that much of an eyesore Worty!
 I’m afraid I’m all for practical when it comes to such things. Where it is, I can easily get a wrench round it and a catch tray underneath when it comes to changing and I know how tight those things can be when the have been on for a little while! Could it also act as an oil cooler, I don’t know. I still have my ‘ski slope’ so between the plates is not on because, without the ‘slope, I lose the bottom mounting for the air cleaner. ….anyway!

[Worty]

What does the bottom mounting for the air cleaner look like - I don't have anything like that on mine??

Fair enough with the rest of it mate, not suggesting it's an eyesore but I do like the way mine went on - suits me I suppose.