Hitchcocks Forum

I decided to service my Electra X (ish) myself this year. Is there a stronger set of tappet adjusters available. I had no idea the factory fitted ones were that flimsy. (Fortunately nothing needed adjusting, as it looked as if all my spanners are too chunky for the job.)

Mr H sells a set of slim spanners for the job. Accessory shop/timing side.

PeteF not for the Electra X I checked with our hosts recently.

Grind some spanners thinner?

Or, can you find some bicycle cone spanners to fit?

I found the job much easier when using smaller spanners with their jaws files wider.

Now I have another puzzle, before I changed the oil and filter the Electra X (ish) would wet sump very quickly.
24 hours later it has not wet sumped at all.
I got 1.5 litres of oil out and put 1.5 litres back at the oil and filter change. (200cc through the tappet adjusting door, and 1.3 litres into the oil tank.

Ref the tappet adjusters, Mr H. does sell an alternative set for the Electra-X, these are shrouded to prevent them jumping off the cam followers. I don't know exactly what they're made from, I would hope high-tensile steel was used. For the life of me I have no idea why it was felt necessary to re-design that part of the valve train for the AVL engines when the original design had worked perfectly well on the classic Bullet engine, but hey...



When a pre-UCE Bullet engine of any description FAILS to wet-sump it's usually more a case of celebration than concern. Unless yours has been modified, there's no 30x20x7 oil seal behind the crankshaft timing pinion, the theory being that those nice fat gears in the scavenge pump will slurp up the contents of a wetted sump so quickly that it won't be an issue, and this seems to have worked fine on my non-(ish) Electra-X, which definitely does wet sump. So why has yours stopped? POSSIBLY a slight variation on the shape/size of the replacement filter has blocked off a crack, pinhole or some other porous casting defect in the timing cover, which has allowed leakage between the feed circuit and the timing chest. The oil seal that sits in the timing cover and fits over the end of the crankshaft would normally prevent this. Hmmm...

As for the spanners, just look at a few on-line tool catalogues and fleabay for slim M8, M10 and M13 open enders, they are out there.

A.

Adrian, the new gasket from our hosts I fitted to the tappet adjuster "door" was much more substantial that the one fitted previously. I also am very belt and braces with gaskets and use a non hardening sealant.
That may be what has thus far cured the wet sumping problem. I just did another check after moving the piston away from TDC yesterday and again 24 hours on from that no wet sumping.

Perhaps it is because the new oil is cold. Maybe after a run it will be business as usual?