Hitchcocks Forum

Hi there,

I've just become the proud owner of a 1991 Bullet 500 de lux. The person who sold it to me thought that all it needed was a new battery and some petrol ... sadly it seems to need a bit more. My local bike shop has got it through its MOT but they have told me they never want to see it again! (They originally offered to scrap it and have made jokes about it being an 'oil enfield' and saying that I should get a BMW instead. They are lovely blokes but not up for helping me open up this can of worms.)

The symptoms are:
- Low / no compression
- Difficult to start
- Smokes significantly when it does start
- Pisses oil out of the rhs of engine until it is warm

I think I need to take the engine apart to fix it but I've no experience of engines. I would love to learn and I'd really like someone to talk me through the repair process and teach me along the way. I'd be happy to pay with beer, food, or even some money.

I live in Bethnal Green and the bike is off road but not in a garage. I'd be happy to transport it to your garage and work on it there if that was an option.

Can you help? Do you know someone who could?

Thanks!

Richard
[email protected]
020 7377 1918

http://psychicplumbing.com/?attachment_id=1389
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Last try at trying to post some photos:

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I'm too far away to offer practical help, but I wanted to say that I have a year 2000 500 D/Luxe which is very similar. Mine also was a dog when I bought it. (Lots of wine and an Ebay account are a dreadful combination!) After 2 years work, and many parts from Mr H, it is a now very reliable and enjoyable machine to own and ride. It has just sailed through its MOT, and even the tester enjoyed playing with it. It starts easily, runs cleanly and powers along with a lovely exhaust note.

None of this helps you directly I know, but I hope it offer you at least hope. Enfields of this age won't leak any oil once assembled correctly and can be made to work correctly. Best wishes, Midge

A couple of quick checks will help isolate the issues. Get hold of a compression gauge and test the compression as is. You do this by kicking the bike over with the compression gauge screwed or pushed into the spark plug hole with the throttle wide open. Next squirt two or three decent squirts of oil down the plug hole and so it again. If there is a substantial increase in compression you have an issue with the pistion rings. If not then it is likely to be the cylinder head. If it is the piston rings (which I suspect) then before you do anything else take it for a decent run of say twenty miles so that if they are simply stuck from disuse they can free up. If it is the cylinder head then listen to the carburettor mouth as you kink it slowly over the compression stroke. If you hear hissing then the inlet valve is leaking if not listen to the exhaust pipe as someone kicks it over (ignition off obviously!) hissing there suggests exhaust valve issues or a leaking decompression valve. Best solution find a mechanic who isn't a w-nker. Tossers like the crowd you mentioned will say buy a BMW because they don't know a con rod from a tyre iron and only know how to replace parts rather than repair.

Hi Richard, nobody wants to work on these so the MOT place is not unusual, if you want to keep and ride one of these machines then it is time to get your hands dirty and fix it yourself, it is the only practical way. Come here, ask questions as you go, somebody will give you the answer

there is a bike shop called victory motorcycles in camden town that work on all sorts of bikes old brits included donnt know how mutch they gharge an hour but they may be able to sort your bike

--------------you been at the bottle, Steve ??

I lived in Hackney up to 3 years ago. If you do want to know somewhere where they seem happy to work on REs, Morning Lane Motorcycles under the arches on Morning Lane did some work for me. Some of their guys are Indian, so it's a bit of a nostalgia trip for them! Otherwise, it's "Nah mate, 'avent got the right spanners" or similar from the rest. Simon's advice is good; I would say, low compression is not as serious as you think on a Bullet, there are not many things it can be and they are not that difficult to put right -in fact, often it gets better of its own accord!