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By DickC
#83920
After replacing the regulator/rectifier all seems great so was miffed to find after a short ride that there was oil all over the rear of the bike, pulled the breather pipe off and it was pressurised and blowing oil out, the level was at the very bottom of the stick with it screwed in.
The bike has been quite noisey mechanically for a while with a light rattle from the top end, its 2005 and done 16900 (gentle) miles and what with all the hooha about big end failures etc I decided to take the barrel off and see.
Well the bottom end is ok, I cant see anything wrong with the bore, piston and rings,..as in damage /bits missing. I don't know if the rings wear much at such a reasonably low mileage but we have to realise what we are dealing with here!... build quality etc.
So not sure what the rattle is , or what to do next as there is nothing too obvious.
Does the Electra X have the oil pump scavenge issues that can cause similar problems I wonder.
Well I am off to the Southern 100 tomorrow so I shall have to sleep on it for a while, never a dull moment with the Royal Enfields !
Cheers Dick C
By puffin666
#83924
Had the same problem with mine after a 200km ride, oil all over the back end. its that silly oil collector breather cylinder thing. I think its located by the battery area, I seem to remember the majority of breather pipes go to it. Its a rubbish thing. and i re routed the main breather pipe to the back of the bike to lube the chain, well that was the idea. Fixed the problem though. Chucked the PAV rubbish as well and re jetted, and Kn N filter.. I will have to have a look and see what I did as my memory is bad. Like most other old style engines the oil can collect in the sump area if not used for a while and the scavenger will not cope, blows out the crankcase breather, my BSA does same thing..Also i think there are some posts on the breather issues subject.
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By Adrian
#83925
[Edit - this crossed with the previous post]

I don't know how much of your original breather set up is intact but you could start be checking that whatever hoses are on there and making sure they're not clogged or kinked.

Otherwise if the oil tank is becoming over-pressurised that suggests excess blow-by is getting past the piston rings, it might be time to hone the barrel and fit a new set. The scavenge pump on these is usually pretty good, to the extent that the factory never bothered with the oil seal behind the crankshaft timing pinion, unlike the classic 500 Bullet engine. My old Electra-X (same year as yours) wet-sumped heavily fron the timing chest into the sump, but the pump always cleared it on start-up before any white smoke started. You could also check the at scavenge side sump plug is clear of the sump drain hole into its housing.

If there's no obvious sign of damage to the valve train, then your rattle could be due to a bit of slop in the cam gear teeth. The camshafts are on adjustable spindles, you might be able to play with these and quieten things down a bit.

A.
By DickC
#83933
Thank you chaps, well at the moment I think I shall try some new rings and a light glaze removal, the bore looks perfect so with that and attention to the breather pipes we shall see what transpires.
By DickC
#84183
I have now returned from having my road racing "fix" in the IOM to further inspect my piston and bore.
There is nothing amiss to my way of thinking so I shall fit the new rings (£60!) etc and see what happens then.
The bottom end feels solid so that's a result. I never met the previous owner so am unsure if anything mechanically was done to the bike, I think there would have been receipts if that was the case.
The con rod has MACO cast and 5075 etched on it so I can only assume that's the original Indian fitment.
DickC
By Beezabryan
#84199
Before spending ££s why not check the ring gaps against the spec for your model.
If the rings a knacked I would expect the engine to be down on compression and to burn oil
If possible a photo of the piston would give us some ideas.
By DickC
#84209
Regarding the breather, it has a rubber hose from the top of the oil tank that is routed along to the chain. The breather from rear of timing chest is blanked off.
When I first had the bike it had some oil tank breather valve arrangement screwed into the top of the oil tank that was clagged up with emulsified oil and didn't breath, so that was all ditched and I have never had any problems since, oil nice and clean.
If the bike has been standing for long periods I turn it over a dozen or so times to get the oil pumped round a bit using the decompressor and all has been ok in the 4000 + miles I have done since.
As I cannot see anything iffy as yet and its nice to see the bottom end sound, I think I shall fit the new rings and go from there.
I already have the new rings so shall gap qnd fit them and see how things are after a nice bedding in.
All this may take a while as there are assorted domestic issues on the horizon, baby sitting, funerals, hospitals, + racing etc... such is life.
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By Adrian
#84214
Honing the cylinder and fitting new rings ought to help if the breather set-up is OK, there has been quite a bit posted about alternative Electra-X breather set-ups on this forum. I found on my old Electra that running a short-ish right-angled section of the original breather hose from the oil tank top breather union, with the short duck bill out of the old catch can pointed over the gearbox sprocket was fine, just as long as I didn't overfill the tank or - more annoyingly - ride the bike with any kind of enthusiasm. The latter saw the back end plastered with oil without fail.

As this was not really satisfactory I ditched the duckbill, put a proper non-return valve on the short bit of hose and ran another longer bit from the valve along to the back of the rear chainguard. Apart from the occasional dribble of grey mayonnaise (usually while in Morrisons' car park, for some reason!) that worked pretty well.

My current Electra has the weird Watsonian-Squire can arrangement mounted over the oil tank, I'm tempted to ditch this in favour of the above, though I might not be allowed to park it at Morrisons'...

A.
By ericpode
#84229
If you have removed the PAV contraption DickC. Don't dump it as you have a very good one-way valve there that can be used on the breather to maintain negative crankcase pressure . (Well it worked for me anyway).

Also as an aside, my Electra X had a pronounced rattle until I removed the starter sprag clutch.

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