Hitchcocks Forum

Hi again. I took Mark's advice and put SAE 90 in the Connie gearbox and most of it has found its way back out again - no wonder there was no lube in the 'box! It looks to be coming either from the vertical split between gearbox halves or between the main 'box and the end-cover. I assume it's a case of stripping from the timing side, splitting the shell and rebuilding with new gaskets & seals... Any thoughts beyond this? Stephen

Hi Stephen, just do it properly, pull the box down and fit sealed bearings in it, also check the layshft bush, check for a crack between the mainshaft and layshaft bearing holes and that will be the end of your problems

Stephen, the first thing to do is work out where it's coming from. I suspect from what you've said you haven't run the bike on the road yet in which case it's probably going to be the joints, the inner cover has no gasket and relies on just jointing compound and not many securing case screws. Check to see where the oil is coming from first but I have come across a gearbox shell (on an Interceptor) where the bottom casting seam on the main shell had a major blow hole in it, only alloy welding fixed it!
REgards, Mark

Thanks, M&N...good advice. Quick update; stripped the end-cover and inner case off and discovered two sources of oil-leak, a very sloppy main shaft bearing (replaced with a sealed one) and a knackered oil ring on the kickstart shaft. Both replaced and reassembled, off to get some lube to try it out. Oh, and the drain plug didn't seal properly because the casing was damaged at that point (repaired with a file...). Fingers crossed! Thanks again, Stephen