Bewildered ! Help ! (thick blue smoke)

[trevinoz]

Tom,
               Looks good!
Now, if you turned the engine over with the idler gear out, the camshaft wouldn't turn and your valves wouldn't move.
Thick blue smoke = oil burning which I don't think could be a valve problem.
You have to determine how the oil is getting into the combustion chamber. I wouldn't expect sloppy guides to let enough oil through to cause thick smoke.
In my experience the oil passes the rings, usually after the engine has "sumped up".
I'm pretty sure that you would know if you had a bent valve because the engine would run rough.
After nine years, I would be a bit wary of running an engine without looking at the bores. They tend to get a bit rusty.

Trev.

[Greybeard]

Front brake is dodgy!

[muskrat]

Just give her a compression test first. And remember to hold the throttle wide open when you do it, about 10 kicks will do.
Cheers

[tomtit]

Thanks Trev, Just don't know how the rings might have gone at this time as she wasn't blowing any blue smoke beforehand just seems coincidental the rings decided to go at that particular time, but who knows stranger things do happen.

Musky have put a bid on a compression tester on Ebay which finishes tonight, so will do as you suggest when it arrives.

Greybeard, your comment on the front brake being dodgy could you elaborate on this please, do you mean wrong type ???. just curious.

Thanks again to all for the advice.

Tom

[trevinoz]

Tom,
              Another place to look is the head gasket, my mate just had oil burning troubles on a Rocket. Turned out to be a warped head and the oil was being sucked from the rocker box drains.

Trev.

[Greybeard]

Greybeard, your comment on the front brake being dodgy could you elaborate on this please, do you mean wrong type ???. just curious.

To get the maximum brake leverage the cable and drum lever should show an internal angle of less than 90°; going to 90° when operated. Yours look to be greater than 90° before operation. Shoes may be worn or the lever wrongly fitted; on my plunger A10 I found that the lever is designed so that if you turn it over you get a slight change of angle.
See my front hub.

[tomtit]

OK see the problem GB, the front brake cable on the bike is shorter than the correct one. Front brake works OK, there were new brake shoes fitted before I bought her. Looks like I'll be adding a new brake cable to my shopping list.

Trev, suppose the head gasket is another possibility but strange how this problem only arose since I removed the rocker box.

[duTch]

 Tom, I don't think a cable will change anything- but at least you'll have a spare, try adjusting the lever...?

[tomtit]

duTch, if I turn the lever over as suggested by GB and the lever moves down to a lesser angle then I would need a longer cable as the cable on the bike is too short.

Tom

[duTch]

 Ok, if the outer is already too short to shorten....

[Topdad]

I've the same brake and had the same problem ,all the cables I got were to short to get the angle right on the brake arm, I got one made specially and cured it, brakes works so much better, Bob.

[Greybeard]

...all the cables I got were too short to get the angle right on the brake arm...

Apologies if I'm telling you how to suck eggs: on a Bowden type cable shortening the outer has the same effect as lengthening the inner. Of course if the whole assembly is too short then you are stuffed. 

[RichardL]

Hmmm? You must truly be having a bad brake problem for all that thick blue smoke to be coming out.   

[Greybeard]

Hmmm? You must truly be having a bad brake problem for all that thick blue smoke to be coming out.   

Troublemaker!

[tomtit]

Methinks the front brake cable issue is the least of my worries.