Hitchcocks Forum

Hi Mark M my 59 chief has the hollow type fitting with no discs and a short rubber pipe venting on to the rear drive chain, no one seems to no if it should have the disc version or not, could you tell me which version your two chiefs have Thanks blue.

Bluey, both my Chiefs came in bits so I can't be sure. I have checked some pictures of the Police Chief in the National Motorcycle Museum and that has the steel body/copper pipe breather. The alloy body breather was usually fitted to the Bullets and was designed to work without the discs but fitted with the "duckbill" pipe. However, I also have a 1957 Trailblazer project (basically a 700cc Super Meteor) which does have the alloy body breather on it. I don't see why it shouldn't work at least as well as the disc type. One point, I have found that the hole in the alloy casting is very small probably due to the casting process, it can be enlarged quite a bit by careful use of a drill. I think I got it out to 3/8"th (without breaking through) and that's got to be good!

REgards, Mark

Right o thanks Mark ile just run it with the duck bill set up then and se how it goes as everything on the bike seems to be original, it was spitting a bit of oil out the pipe before I pulled the engine down
Regards blue

Blue if you have the motor apart, have a think about fitting breathers up top through the head steady studs, got nothing to loose and it just might help and it is out of sight up under the tank

Right o thanks norm but the beast is all back together now

The Chiefs parts are all based on the post 58 Trailblazer, of which parts listing and the Chief supplements are applicable. The non disc breather was fitted to the 57 Trailblazer, whilst the Chief was supposed to have the discs. In practice the earlier Duck bill hose proved more successful.


As Norm suggested, fitting breathers off the exhaust rockers makes a noticeable improvement in reducing oil out the duckbill, particularly at speed, it also improves oil service life and reduces the potential of sludge formation.


If you need an electronic copy of the Chief parts listing, I can email you copies, but the files are not exactly small: +500MB for the base parts list and the Chief supplement is 97MB


royalenfield AT clear DOT net DOT NZ

HI, i will be rebuilding the engine on my 57 super meteor in the near future and have read numerous comments on breather probs. Norm when you say take a breather from up top do you mean going through the rocker cover ? New to enfields, any breather advice would be welcome.

Ivan, the subject of breathers on Twins is complex but to cut a long story short you need a large bore pipe exiting from the oil tank "roof" using the fitting (number 48764) which was used on Continental GTs and later Interceptors. Jack Gray wrote an article on this which was re-published in The Gun magazine (REOC mag,) which explains exactly how to do it. Anyone have a link? I can't find it although I have a photocopy. This mod must be done with the engine apart, while it is it's worth doing some other mods to the oil feeds too. There is a group dedicated to the Interceptors (but other Twins are welcome) at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RE_Interceptor/info so come along and introduce yourself!

REgards, Mark

IVAN, if you are rebuilding the motor it is best to follow the mods Mark describes, it is for running motors that people are having breathing problems with that I tapped out the 4 head steady studs to 3/8 whit and made studs with a hole through the middle allowing the top of the motor to breathe through them. Seems to be working ok so far

Thanks, any other engine rebuild advice would be greatly appreciated.