Hitchcocks Forum

Hi there!

I'm new around here so let me do a little presentation before explain my doubt. My name is Giuliano, I'm from Italy and I've a Bullet 500 ES (like a Sixty-5, with 5 gear but with a standard look). My bike is pretty new: it's from 2004 but she's (yes, when I speak about my bike I use the third person!) only 3600 Kilometers. I was away from my home, so my bike was in the garage for a long time (I was able to start her, every two weeks, just for keep the bike efficient...). Now I'm back and I start driving for some short trip up to my mountains (I'm from Abruzzo).

Let's start with questions:

1) Some days ago I spotted a little ooze of oil from the bolt that you can view in this figure:

http://i65.tinypic.com/ws48h.jpg

And I realize the copper whaser was damaged: I don't know how, but it was cutted by the thread of the bolt (I'm sorry...My english is so bad...I don't know how to explain...). I bought in a local store a new copper washer but, is a little bit thicker than the original one. Is this a problem?

2) Wanna make a complete service before spring time and I've read about a quill seal (the one that was in cork some times ago), that it's really important for the healt of the bike. How can I check if it's ok? What kind of problem I can meet if I drive with a damaged one? Is there some warnings produced by a broken seal (I mean weird sound, high heat...) I can feel, before it's too late?

3)When I replaced the new copper whaser and screwed the quill bolt in his seat I felt some kind of resistance when screwing. Is this normal?

I'm so very sorry for my english. Is a little bit rusty. I hope my english is understandable...

Best Regards!!!

I'm sorry...I don't know why the 3d is a plain text...I wrote using paragraph!

You have to use html code here. Bit of a pain but.......
To do paragraphs type ""
For photos, you need the html embed code which you should get from Tinypic.

Let's Try!!!
Hi there! I'm new around here so let me do a little presentation before explain my doubt. My name is Giuliano, I'm from Italy and I've a Bullet 500 ES (like a Sixty-5, with 5 gear but with a standard look). My bike is pretty new: it's from 2004 but she's (yes, when I speak about my bike I use the third person!) only 3600 Kilometers. I was away from my home, so my bike was in the garage for a long time (I was able to start her, every two weeks, just for keep the bike efficient...). Now I'm back and I start driving for some short trip up to my mountains (I'm from Abruzzo).
Let's start with questions:

1) Some days ago I spotted a little ooze of oil from the bolt that you can view in this figure:



And I realize the copper whaser was damaged: I don't know how, but it was cutted by the thread of the bolt (I'm sorry...My english is so bad...I don't know how to explain...). I bought in a local store a new copper washer but, is a little bit thicker than the original one. Is this a problem?

2) Wanna make a complete service before spring time and I've read about a quill seal (the one that was in cork some times ago), that it's really important for the healt of the bike. How can I check if it's ok? What kind of problem I can meet if I drive with a damaged one? Is there some warnings produced by a broken seal (I mean weird sound, high heat...) I can feel, before it's too late?

3)When I replaced the new copper whaser and screwed the quill bolt in his seat I felt some kind of resistance when screwing. Is this normal?
I'm so very sorry for my english. Is a little bit rusty. I hope my english is understandable... Best Regards!!!

The seal you are referring to will be a viton one on your bike, not cork. If it leaks/becomes damaged, it can allow oil to leak into the crankcase when the bike is parked causing "wet sumping". The symptoms of this are a lot of smoke coming out of the exhaust when the bike is first started.



If you see this, allow the bike to idle until the smoke has cleared before increasing the revs to avoid over-stressing the oil pump.



Another way of diagnosing wet sumping is to remove the front engine drain plug after it has been parked up for a while. There should be no more than 30ml of oil that drains out.



Your bike should be fine though, it will have to modern oil seal but in any case, if you park the bike with the engine up to compression, it won't wet sump. I make it a habit to turn the kick start up to compression when I kill the engine.



Our hosts have a good article on the subject here: http://hitchcocks.sincordia.co.uk/pictu ... umping.pdf



In terms of your leaking washer. I replaced mine with a bonded seal (dowty) washer. Just make sure the oil channels line up with the slightly thicker washer in place. These washers will not leak, even when tightened quite gently.

Hi! and thank you for the answer! I also have the habit to put the piston near the top dead center after killing the engine. I never spotted the wet-sumping symptoms at my bike, so i will assume everything it's ok with the "viton" seal.
I just need to make a service and enjoy some ride...
By the way I've some toruble to understand "Just make sure the oil channels line up with the slightly thicker washer in place": it's some kind difficult to translate in italian.
Thanks a lot for the help! Best regards!

If you decide to use a bonded seal washer, it is slightly thicker than the copper one. With the quill bolt removed, you will see a small hole through the threads in the engine casing. This supplies oil into the side of the quill bolt and from there, into the crank.



You need to make certain that small hole is not obstructed when using a thicker sealing washer. It should align with a "gap" in the side of the quill bolt. All was fine with my bike but there are individual variations.

My rubber quill seal became detached so I replaced it with a cork one, problem solved. Sometimes the old tech is the best tech.

Ciao abruzzese ---- Uso il traduttore di Google quando parlo con persone al di fuori dell'Inghilterra ..... È molto facile da usare --------- Ecco il link} ----- https: // www .google.co.uk / search? q = google + traduttore e oq = google + traduttore & aqs = chrome..69i57j0l5.9014j0j8 & sourceid = chrome & ie = UTF-8 ------- Perché non provarci ?? .... ..Alan R