Hitchcocks Forum

Treated the 1966 350 Bullet to an oil change today whilst it was still hot after a longish run. The Youtube video I watched suggested that I should drain the oil from the timing chest by slackening the oil feed quill. So far so good but when i reassembled everything I had a small leak from behind the quill nut and when I tightened it a little more the fibre washer fell apart. In fact there were two quite thin washers present (or one thicker one which had divided in two possibly).

My question is, can I simply pull out the quill bolt to fit a new fibre washer or is there something inside which needs special attention. I did pull on it gently when draining the oil but it felt as though something was trapping it in place and as the oil was flowing out quite nicely, I did not risk pulling it right out. That now of course is not an option.

Sorry to ask such a noddy question, but my (Indian) workshop manual does not go into any practical details about doing an oil change.

Thanks

PeterF

You could have a neoprene insert fitted inside the oil pump drive gear to replace the original cork seal. These can get compressed if too long or the washer is too thin as the bolt seats home and will grip the quill.

That may be the problem, The bolt with the quill feels as though its spring loaded. You can pull it a bit but it then tries to return. I guess if I pull hard, either the seal will release the quill or the seal will be pulled out of the nut. Can I do any harm by puling until one or other happens; other than possibly needing a new seal?

PeterF

You can take it out safely, the seal should come out with it.

I would not bother touching that bolt again. After you get it sorted, leave it alone, seals don`t like being disturbed. There is plenty of clean oil in there after an oil change. These are dirty engines and the oil will usually be black again after a couple of hundred miles.

Should be ok. if the cork/neoprene seal fails, it'll start wet-sumping by leaking oil from the timing chest into the crankcase.

I have a bonded-seal dowty washer under my quill bolt which will (nearly) never fail even when repeatedly loosened/tightened. However, it's a little thicker than a fibre washer so you need to make sure the hole in the quill bolt will still align with the hole in the timing cover so it feeds oil to the big end. If it doesn't, the result would be (literally) catastrophic.

Just to close this thread down and apologise for the tardy response. We had a family crisis which has kept me away from the Enfield for a while but back in circulation again. Based on the helpful advice given I pulled the quill out. It was firm, which obviously means it's a good fit on the seal but freed of ok and did not pull the seal out. New washer fitted which was a bit thicker than the old one to deal with the possibility that I have a neoprene seal and bingo no oil leak and the engine has survived a trip round my test route.

I will consider whether I will keep removing this plug for oil changes but given the low mileage the bike will do it's only going to need one on a time rather basis. There is about 500cc of oil in the timing case which is a fair proportion of the total capacity so not sure I would want to leave it undrained on a regular basis.

Thanks

PeterF

I remove and refit quill bolts frequently on my engines, with no damage to the seals, be they cork or rubber. I also remove and refit timing covers with the quill bolt in situ and have never had a problem. A Dowty washer on the quill bolt is a good idea, I use them on our race engines.