oil presure

[muskrat]

 Yes that does look to be a better method Richard. Will borrow that one next set I do.
Cheers

[alanp]

You all know I'll beg to differ  . A guage will tell of imminent danger quicker than any of my senses. Mine sits on 45 lb at 2500rpm + and 20 lb at idle hot. I once had a problem with a forine body in the oil tank blocking flow but only after about 10 minutes running (warm up lap) down to zero. Stop engine for a minute and restart with full pressure. Certainly would have blown her without a guage.
Cheers

Muskie, this is very very similar to an incident I had. Thank God I had a gauge!
I checked all the way from the tank to the pump inlet to find out what was adversely affecting suction since it was clearly a suction problem (having run 2 oil pressure gauges in parallel to confirm that it wasn't the gauge playing up) and didn't find a thing. I changed the oil pipe from the tank to the engine inlet but I then narrowed it down to inside the oil tank and tried various ways of poking things down the suction pipe in the tank e.g. wire and cable ties, and things went back to normal pressure.
I can't think what could have got past the suction filter mesh in the oil tank unless it was congealed oil sludge inside the suction tube. I even run with a return line filter.
Pipe dreaming if I had a spare tank I'd be tempted to change the suction tube inside the tank to a larger bore to make it less likely to restrict suction. Meanwhile, I check the oil pressure gauge frequently, especially in the first mile or two to check that all is well.
Our experience makes you wonder how often engine failure is caused by suction problems without anyone knowing since if this has happened to us statistically it must have happened many times to others without an oil pressure gauge to explain why.
Yes, I'm an oil pressure gauge fan.
 

[Gerry]

Hi Guys, I must have been "lucky" when I removed the tank strainer (its not a filter) and felt that grinding sound. Some clever fella had grit blasted the tank prior to painting with the strainer and cap removed! I used a Dremel to split the seam all the way round and found the bottom of the tank full of sludge and grit. Nice and clean now and back together. Then I drilled and tapped the sump plate and fitted a drain plug with recess for an 'o' ring and which was also drilled 1/8" and a rare earth magnet pressed into it. Never use an oil tank which has any sign of grit in it as no matter how many times you wash it out the grit gets jammed in the split between the two halves beneath the weld and gets jammed in there. Then when the bikes vibration slowly feeds it back into the oil bingo one wore out engine in no time. Funny that the WWII M20 was fitted with a tank filter back in the 40's and the B40 army had an after market British Filters paper element filter, yet BSA never fitted one to their civilian models. Wish I'd found this post prior to my cases being put back together...damn!Cheers. Gerry

[Brian]

While on the subject of oil pressure gauges I thought this might be of interest. This guy fitted a oil pressure gauge to his A65 to warn of any impending trouble.

[orabanda]

Gosh, that was a close shave!
Luckily the gauge wasn't damaged!

[bsa-bill]

Well it didn't seem to help to much

[KiwiGF]

Ref crankcase in pic before, painful but luckily only an a65 eh  

When i was young and irresponsible and getting a bottom end knock in the 59 super rocket,  i can remember thinking i know what the problem is (big ends gone again) but just take it easy and it will keep going for a while....

but then losing patience, giving it beans up a local hill, and then pushing it home with a huge crack in the case with the broken crank showing through....

[muskrat]

 Bit hard to read whilst riding and funny how things like that happen when your riding.
Cheers

[beezabro]

Hi Guys
I have just been through hell re oil pressure on an A10. I Tapped into the relief valve housing and fitted a gauge after a major blow up on freeway with luggage plus wife. On start up the gauge showed 60psi cold then down to nothing after 10 miles. Changed to a pressure switch in case the gauge was not sensitive enough and oil light on at 15 miles. CONCLUSION: A10,s don't have any oil pressure to speak off. Thats fine unless you are doing high speed free way riding in which case, get an end feed conversion which will give 40 PSI hot for ever.
So dont depress yourself trying to get oil pressure on the standard set up.
Beezabro

[muskrat]

G'day beezabro, welcome to the forum.
As you say they will run on little oil pressure up to a point. If all is good they should have 40 psi at cruise (60mph) but will survive on 15 if not pushed.
Both mine give 60psi cold at idle and running. When flogged and red hot still deliver 20+psi at idle and 50 on the go. Most of those oil pressure light type things are only set at about 5-10 psi. If the light came on I'd worry. As our motors are bush and plain bearing they need a bit of pressure against a roller type big end / main that needs volume (flow) to survive.
Highway speeds and distances are a lot greater these days and for our bikes to keep up, must be in good nick. Good oil pressure is a must. The oil is our motors blood and I don't think you could run a marathon with low blood pressure.
A gauge just gives you something else to worry about so they weren't fitted std. She'd run great for many thousands of miles, then loose pressure and blow up. Re-build and keep going. Things were much simpler then.
Cheers

[chaterlea25]

HI beezabro,
Welcome to the forum
I will have to agree with Muskrat

"" I Tapped into the relief valve housing and fitted a gauge after a major blow up on freeway""

It depends where you drilled into the housing ???? Can you post a picture of it
THe drilling MUST be on the oil pump side of the PRV to show a proper reading
After the blow up have you replaced the oil pump? Even reconditioning the pump may not be enough??
There are many many posts here about oil pumps and their failings
My thoughts on the "monkey dung" used in the manufacture of the pump bodies is well recorded here
Another consideration may be which grade oil have you used??

If no reading or oil light on after 15 miles then you need to investigate further

HTH
John

[Jeremy]

Hi Gerry, I'm interested to hear Kiwipoms reply.
I bought an (alleged) A65 some time ago and the difference is the length of the pump, the pump body looks the same but the neck is longer, I think it might be possible to swap the worm and it's housing bit with an A10 one, and wonder if this is what Kiwipom is up to.

Like many things in my shed it's been looked at and put to one side for future projects/fancies, will be interesting to maybe get a bit of heads up n it

My bike has this - a 65 pump body but A 10drive neck.  It was done by srm 20 years ago so I don't know itf anything was modified but I think its simply a question of building a hybrid pump from the two.