Hitchcocks Forum

Did the Screw thread on the outer gearbox cover change to metric from Imperial?

Not that I know of Graham and it wouldn't have gone from metric to imperial it would have been the other way. My guess is you have tried fitting a timing cover screw in the gearbox cover and they are different

Well whats happened is I ordered some new ones from MR H our host and 3 long ones were silver and the 3 short ones goldish, I mean who puts odd coloured ones on their bike, so looking at Indian ebayers. I know R/E did a thread change to metric in about 2002 but were the covers included in it.

Not that I know of Graham but I wiil try and remember to check this morning

Sorry Graham can't check it out. I started thinking about timing covers and they changed to metric somewhere along the line. I don't have a late model Classic here to check on but the Electra timing cover is 6mm so I believe the later cast irons would also be, but not sure when they swapped over. I also know the sump plugs and quill bolts went metric somewhere along the line. I don't think the gearboxes changed but I could be wrong but all the left shifts I have converted to right shift still had imperial threads. Not sure if the 4 speed left shift continued till the introduction of the 5 speed but if it did I would think they kept the screws the same till the 4 speed ended. I think you could still buy the bike with a 4 speed up until the last one was sold in early 2008