Forum

[Dennis C]

My apologies to the Indian designer, I could have sworn back around 1964 I was able to remove a tappet from below on a British 350 Bullet, It was however an ex Royal Enfield works scrambler so possibly it had been modified in many ways.

[jefrs]

As Adrian says, this looks like a complete dog's breakfast but it's actually quite straight forwards with just one thing broken. The pita is that it's a strip-down. Bad luck. Those mushroom head tappets (or cam-followers) remind me very much of doing a side-valve, it looks like the G design was based on a side-valve motor. And equally, the cams had to be removed to get the tappets out, I would replace both whilst in there.

[Jezyorkshire]

Thanks for all the replys, work is going to get in the way till Sunday when hopefully will start on the strip down, hopefully get girlfriend to order parts this week.
Is it possible to strip down without damaging the gaskets or should i order new ones, thanks, Jez

[Adrian]

I suppose it is possible, or you could turn down the O/D of a set of guides for the classic cam followers to the same O/D as the Electra-X guides. In any event this means losing the valve lifter collar on the exhaust cam follower, though our host's modified version of the AVL valve lifter for classic engines would still be an option. (Pt no. 90257).

The head on my latest engine will be modified to take the old-style decompressor valve, the same as on my current AVL hybrid engine.



It seemed preferable to modify the crankcase so that a set of standard Bullet cam followers and guides could be used, with an eye on ease of future replacement, rather than having to go and modify the components again at some later date.



A.

[Adrian]

Sorry, missed page 2!!!



Jez, you will at least need new head and cylinder base gaskets with some gasket goo (Wellseal or Blue Hylomar). You might get away with re-using the timing cover gasket and rocker box gaskets, but having new ones to hand in case you can't is recommended.



Please note there are two cylinder head nuts under the rocker spindles which can can be awkward to get at inside the rocker box, so you will need an extended socket to reach them (cue Halfords' tool section). I seem to recall the factory cylinder head nuts on my 2005 Electra had 12mm hexagons originally, (the stud uses an 8mm thread), I replaced mine with stainless steel 8mm nuts with 13mm hexagons. Also refitting the sprung rocker shaft washers between the rockers and the head casting can be very fiddly, it's best to use some sort of mandrel to line everything up when refitting the rocker spindles. Have fun!




A.

[vince]

Hi, Dennis your memory is correct, early ones were two piece and it Was possible to remove them from below. Vince

[Dennis C]

Thanks for confirming that Vince, Just for a moment I thought age was affecting my memory.

[vince]

Hi, If the fit is anything like early bullets the extractor will not work unless the crankcase is heated to expand it . a quick tip is to pour boiling water over the cases and then go at it with a blowlamp. In any case your'll need to heat cases to fit the new ones. Vince.

[Jezyorkshire]

Hi Vince, yes am expecting to have to use a bit of heat, can't get started yet on the bike as have had to move house, too many jobs to do all at once, bugger!

[Jezyorkshire]

Got everything stripped down and found the broken part in the timing chest, got the guide extractor and cam spindle extractor in post yesterday so hopefully it should be sorted soon, cheers, Jez