Forum

[Bullet Whisperer]

Sorry, Tim, I could have sworn it was km when I posted, but I was clearly wrong and that makes your machine's mileage even more impressive and opens the durability gap of these engines even further. Regards, Paul.

[Adrian]

In many respects the design of the 500 AVL engine was pretty much on the money, though spoilt by silly things like poor assembly/quality control/finishing. But three features of the actual design as opposed to the construction of these engines do bug me. These are the reduced diameter of the cam followers (making a previously reliable component more failure-prone), as well as that hopeless valve-lifter thingy in the tappet chamber (though there is a cure for that), and the fact that the oil pump bodies aren't replaceable, if one gets badly scored up through some bearing failure you have to replace the whole timing cover. It might be possible to machine a scored oil pump cavity to take an oval bronze or steel sleeve to reclaim a knackered item, but I don't know if anyone has tried it.



A.

[Jojje]

2005 Electra. Though no symptoms whatsoever fitted our host's con rod kit and new main bearings at approx 40,000 km's - originals were as new. 54.000 km's and counting.

[Norm]

Paul, every Electra I know of or had anything to do with in Aus has had the big end replaced, earlier this year one was replaced at 20,000ks, nothing wrong with it but it was going on a long trip and the owner wasn't prepared to get stuck half way. Ks on them vary from about 10,000 to the 30,000's. The whole issue was the hardening on the crank was done to the very high Indian standards so it failed early and then there was the issue of pushing gudgeon pins out because the cranks were not trued properly. In theory they should have been a good motor, just let down by shoddy workmanship. This also means that by some fluke a few ended up being quite good by Indian standards

[Tim NZ]

Not true cranks?


Rubbish, Norm!


I am still sitting on two new AVL cranks, and I have checked out two other: ZERO run out every one.


One of the reasons why EVERY Electra X crank IS 100% true is that the final finishing of the bearing seat for the timing side main bearing was done AFTER the crank was pressed-up and initially trued.


If you have experienced dislodged circlips, then they clips and the grooves were not compatible (I Have encountered such!!!) or there was a detonation problem...

[Leon Novello]

Beware of water in the oil, if it gets into the big end bearing it will start to boil, expand and push the oil out, leaving metal to metal contact causing a double whammy to the big end bearing.

[Adrian]

Possibly, but the Electra-X has a high capacity gear pump, and the big end is needle roller, so the oil being pumped through (and any steam generated) should be able to escape more easily than with the plain floating bush. Don't make too much of this, Leon, or we'll have to start getting boiler insurance! A.

[Norm]

Tim you can't be serious, Indian rubbish, you can try and convince me but another problem with mine was that the top of the piston was 1mm lower than the other, greaterst pile of shit I have ever bought in my life

[Tim NZ]

I fully understand your frustrations, Norm.


There is no denying that RE 'build quality' left a lot to be desired. (Still does) Not helped with a 'parts department' that was not being kept up to date with production line changes and was ordering and suppling superseded parts!


Nor any updated parts book post 2003...


A seriously out of date workshop manual...


I feel a bit sorry for any owner of a post 2003 Bullet, as there were (are) so many mechanical changes that next to NO BODY knows of!




Like the lower deck height piston you encountered; initially supplied as a stop gap, (did yours have the wrong circlips supplied with it? Was the piston casting porus and a matrix of tiny Blow-holes?) Then they tried changing case deck height, and the final variant was the barrel machined .7mm higher from engine No 8LS5 03157 A


In theory, all Electra X barrels supplied post 2008 should be taller, but with old stock around who can say for certain?


I know the factory did not advise EVERY Agent or dealer of most of the ongoing changes, and they still dont...

[DickC]

DickC
Hi Paul
My 2005 Electra X has done 15,500 miles and although I never met the previous owner as he was deceased I think it is all original,no rebuild receipts etc. When I first bought it it had a large breather tank that sat on top of the crankcase and drained oil from the breather system back into the tank, this and the oil filler was full of mayonaise so I replaced it with a pipe from the top of tank to the rear chain and blanked the rear of timing cover off as recommended by our hosts and it is now perfect, doesnt use oil and is very clean.

I like my bike , it is standard other than a free flowing silencer, softer springs in forks, right hand gearchange and the lean burn pipe stuff blanked of, I too dislike the valve lifter arrangement and hope to do the Adrian recommended mod and maybe another carb sometime, the sprag is original but I do shy away from using it as every now and then it does make a very scary metallic noise, if my knee and back were better I would kick start all the time and dump the electric starter, I do confess to having an eye on the EFI Bullets as they seem to be a bit more user friendly but do lack that certain character.

Thanks for Paul and everyone for all your interesting information, hope to see the racer again in 2016 at the Historic Racing meetings.