It's all great stuff. I saw a fellow French club member this a.m. with his A7 - which he proudly told me last week never ever had a drop of surplus oil in the crankcase and 'there must be something wrong with yours mate' . . . he was late on parade . . . had to drain his crankcase before he could get going. Smoke and oil everywhere, and an almost empty oil tank, when he looked, after a few days in his shed. Touchay, as they say hereabouts. Funny old world. Now he's asking me what he should do - talk about country of the blind and the one-eyed man! That was what I asked him last week.
Re giving things a good thrashing, reckon I part-qualify in terms of usage even if I'm not throttle-happy - a steady 65 in Christian units will do for me on the old stuff - esp when the speed limit is 90kph. And the old 'uns get used most days all year as it's sooo much better than sitting in a tin box. Round here, it's a modern Yamaha XJR that sits and collects bird-doo cos it's just boring as well as licence threatening. This year my old AMC twin (tell me about wet-sumping, tin primary chaincases, drowned clutches, porous drive-side mainshaft non-seals) has done four times the mileage of the Yam (the AJ's already done a quarter of a million miles), and the BSA twice as much as the japanese, even though I only bought it in June. So it's not lack of use. (The Yam may not have ***** out any oil though - so will probably go rusty.)
Think I agree about monogrades and roller ends, although I'm not sure if there aren't multigrades which are sticky enough these days even for them. In my youf I ran a B31 on whatever I could pinch from my dad's shed - and the engine was 100% bullet-proof. Ditto a series of Ariel singles (which weren't as bullet-proof and cost me quite a bit by the standards of the day). Most of us have got some rollers in our hair - I mean engine, don't go there - even if they're lighter loaded than a big end. Think on balance if I had a single I would probably go 30 grade for winter, 50 for summer - certainly mates with Velos and stuff do that.
Re having a look at the oil pump arrangements, balls and springs etc - I'm going to. Can't remember from long ago quite what's in there (must buy book one day), and not sure the whole thing has to come to bits to check it out. But I'm not putting a(nother) one way spring-loaded ball valve in there, unless the default setting is 'open'! Am half-way through knocking up a steel feed-line tap with a tapered tip that seals off the flow when screwed in, when it also earths the mag . . . Q is, will it fit or am I going to have to make a spaghetti-like mess of the plumbing . . . and can I make some nice grooves to hold O rings to stop the thing leaking out of the screw-in bit. Modern in-line plumbing taps with the rotating metal ball system of closure (rather than a rubbery pad that cuts the flow) seem to have 'orrible nylon seals in them, which is an invitation for trouble as they might melt, stop working effectively, and worse, send a gooey mess down the feed line. Brass on brass is what we really need, like a decent old-fashioned gas tap. Used one of them the other week to replace a leaking petrol tap - taper-needle principle again, and it is amazingly effective and petrol proof, with no seals, no cork, no plastic - just good ole fashioned metal to metal. Problem (apart from offending purists cos it looks different) is that the high pressure gas regulator I started with from the box of odds and ends cost someone far more than any fuel tap we're ever likely to see - and I only had one lying around. Ah well, time for (more) beer, which will be the cause of any b**** in this offering . . . Groily
