Hitchcocks Forum

I was putting a crank back together today and I was checking the timing shaft to make sure everything was ok. I removed the OPR valve and there was a lump of rubber stuck in behind the OPR. It is about8mm long and an oval shape between 8/10mm across the oval. This motor had obviously failed previously because it had been rebuilt because when I originally pulled it down it had mismatched cases and the rockers were filled solid with whitemetal.The new owner only rode the bike a few ks before the scavenge pump seal blew out so I sugested we look at the rockers and sure enough blocked solid. This rubber doesn't appear to have come from the worm nut so my only thoughts are that this has been maliciously put in through the quill bolt, so if you plan on upsetting somebody, keep an eye on your quill bolt lol

Hi Norm,

There may be a simple explanation for this, rather than any malicious action.

Some of the cheap Indian home market gasket sets include a quill seal made of rubber. It's to be used in place of the cork seals that the Redditch bikes use. These rubber seals are very poor quality and disintegrate, they are not like the neoprene used in the neoprene worm gears. I would suggest they are never used if you value your motor!
What could have happened is that maybe the PO fitted one of these rubbish seals and then it broke up and wrecked the motor, starving it of oil. The PO then rebuilt it with a neoprene worm gear instead, but didn't clear all the remains out of the old rubber seal.

*BTW, the modern neoprene worm gear fits nicely onto the old WDCO/Model G type motor*

Best wishes

Paul.

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interesting to read about these cheap home market quill seals ,i run a home market bullet with the said cheap quality quill seal ,quite a few thousand miles on the clock with none of the suggested problems (quill always removed for draining timing cases)it always amazes me to read about poor quality home market products (see classic bike guide this month)india the home market is also the largest market so i would assume that there are poor quality home market bikes dead allover india it makes me wonder if the british importers spread these rumours because i would say that to build different quality of bikes depending on country or destination is pure fiction ,think this way if the indian market machines were of such a low quality the company probably wouldn,t exist as unreliable products don,t usually sell,sorry to get on my high horse but i,ve run an indian market bike for over 2 years and i,ve seen many (uk) bikes quality is the same with the exception of stainless spokes on uk bikes the only apparent difference ,i also run a 1990 350 bullet also supposed to be a lemon according to cbg just go,s to show the proof of the pudding is in the eating and i like custard on mine all the best paul enfield owner and rider extraordinaire.

Paul,
No way known this is rubber from a quill seal it really looks like it has been punched out with a hole punch. I'm taking it to the dinner tonight for the vegibike man to see what others think it might be. The bike was bought from a bike shop through ebay and my belief is that this happened to the previous owner because when I split the cases I noticed mismatched cases which probably indicates it had thrown a rod as a result of all this. I would have eventually found it because once I had assembled the crank and then found I could,'t get oil through the bush I would have had to split the crank and look deeper. Luckily it had an OPR so I could push the rubber out

Grunda 12, I couldn't agree with you more, I've been riding my Indian Enfield (my third)for 7yrs as a commuter and for weekend leisure, this has been during all seasons.
Bar the odd rear puncture, it has never once let me down (42,000 miles). If Indian quality was so poor, how is this so?.
As you say, the bikes would not be so admired and revered in India if they were so hopeless in quality.
Yes, there can always problems with any machine, but to say it is so because it's "Indian made" is just not correct.
I am a great believer that the less you mess with them,service them correctly and ride it in a way that it was designed to be ridden, the more reliable and trouble free they are.
Same could be said of many bikes in my experience.

Good words Grunda, well put!

I took the offending rubber to our meeting last night so other eyes could look at it. Only 2 explanations are possible. 1 the previous owner had put it in there in a vain attempt to block the OPR. 2 it was put in there by somebody after revenge. Interestingly it had a pressure gauge fitted in the quill bolt, but sadly it would have shown good oil pressure, just the oil was not going through the big end bush. It is too hard to trace the owner because it would be good to know the history, but it was traded in at a Harley dealership, who then offloaded it to a second hand bike dealer, then put on ebay

Hi Grunda 12,
These gasket sets are made by many various different suppliers in India, not RE, so quality varies of course. I'm glad you seem to have had better results.

Picture of the seal in situ breaking up:
http://oi46.tinypic.com/xcu5xg.jpg

Picture of the seal beside a jar full of cork seals I used to use, soaking in oil, obtained from Hitchcocks:
http://oi48.tinypic.com/zo7u3p.jpg

I since fitted a neoprene worm gear . No problems last 3 years.
"Proof of the pudding is in the eating" as you say.

REgards
Paul.