Forum

[Lord-Toady]

I did the first oil change since owning my enfield for a little less than a year the other day since I have probably done 2000 miles on it by now, I should really have done it alot sooner but I have been busy as well as wanting to ride it rather than working on it. Anyway it was easy enough and I drained the oil and replaced with Comma 20w50 mineral oil. I made couple of observations, the oil was pretty dirty but there were no signs of metal whatsoever which was good, it looked a little milky in places, especially when I tipped the bike over to get the last dregs out of the quill bolt opening. I have had a cork quill bolt seal soaking in a jar of above oil for a few months now along with a filter element, but my quill oil feed did not have a cork, it has a rubber thing on it not too unlike a valve stem seal to look at. It looked a bit hardened with age but I left it as it was as it looked better than a cork but maybe I should replace that. The parts book shows my bike 1991 iron barrel should have a cork and not a rubber seal.


The other thing I tried to do is seal an annoying seap of gearbox oil from the drain plug on the gearbox. When I bought the bike there was a white nylon washer on there and it leaked a bit. I replaced with a fibre washer from our hosts and it leaked more. In desperation I tried a big rubber tap washer thing but it distorted when doing the bolt up but slowed down the seeping. I just fitted a brand new sump plug from our hosts and a dowty washer and low and behold I still have a drip on the drain plug and a patch on the garage floor. I am thinking do they do metal washers that have thick say 3mm rubber side bonded to the metal? I think the bottom of the gearbox drain hole is finished badly and wont make a seal with a normal washer. I am looking for a fix that wont involve taking off the gearbox for now and addressing that. Maybe I could use a thick rubber washer with a metal washer on top?









Now that I have done it once it will be easy to do my oil on a more regular basis.

[Jamesy]

Consider a suitable size copper washer.Its what I have just received to fit to my Kawasaki W800.

[PeteF]

If a Dowty washer doesn't seal then something is probably finished badly (on an Enfield! surely not
A copper washer could work but be sure to anneal it first. The copper washers are stamped out which hardens the copper.
DON'T overtighten the drain plug! Thery strip rather easily and then you do have a problem.

[Lord-Toady]

I have seen hollow copper washers available, but this is why I am thinking maybe a thick rubber washer with a metal washer on top. So the metal washer will stop the rubber one from deforming too badly and getting mashed up by the head of the drain bolt but at the same time the rubber will be able to squash down into the gaps where the oil is leaking. All without having to use too much torque on the drain plug. I am worried about stripping the thread so have not been wrenching it up tight, just hand tight with an 18mm spanner. Its odd I will have to try and get a photo but there is a raised block of aluminium that the drain plug sits in it almost looks like there has been a repair in the past but I am not sure if they have that raised square bit normally.

[Lord-Toady]

I took a close up do you see what I mean that raised section the drain hole is in.

[papasmurf]

I suggest identifying the thread size of the drain plug and buying an oil drain plug washer seat resurfacing tool kit for that thread.

[ric]

I've solved a leak problem in the past where the raised boss cracked after the drain plug hit something solid whilst going cross country. I drilled and tapped a smaller thread through the center of the drain plug and then after cleaning all the oil off both sets of threads glued the drain plug in place with Araldite which stopped the leaking.
Future oil changes just took a bit longer through the new stronger smaller drain hole. An 8mm button head would almost be invisible under there!

[John L]

The o.d. of your washer looks a bit oversize for the hex. of the drain plug ; how well (flat) does it sit on its seating area on the g/box case ? An annealed copper washer would be my choice for this application. I abhor oil leaks too - even on an Enfield !

[ric]

With regards to the neoprene seal you have, they were brought out as a push-in upgrade to the cork seal and later supplied bonded into the pinion itself.
However whilst providing a better seal the downside is they are not as forgiving as cork should at some point the tip of the timing shaft start to oscillate, then the quill can shear off the main body of the feed bolt. If the quill is still a nice resistive sliding fit into the seal and still looks fine without any annular rings just before it thickens into the main body of the bolt there's no reason not to continue using either it or the same quill bolt.

[Lord-Toady]

Thanks I think I will try a copper washer 14mm id by 18 od, heat it up with a blow torch till its red hot and let it cool down before I use it.