Good day everyone,
So this weekend my local Air Marshall (Oklahoma) John Marshall, was helping me do the full service on my R45. We did the oil change and we noticed that while cranking it over to check oil delivery to the rocker arms, the left cylinder Inlet rocker took significantly longer to have oil come out. It was also noticed that when oil did come out, it was significantly less than the exhaust. We checked the right hand cylinder rocker arms and they were in just about in line with what the exhaust on the left was. We loosened and removed the inlet rocker arm and we noticed the shaft in which the rocker arm rides on had 2 holes for the oil to come out of. Checked the rest of the rockers arms and all had 2 holes on each shaft. We rebuilt the shafts and ensures the holes were on the top and checked the gap clearance for rocker arms and for the valves. Tried again and same result, delayed oil delivery and low amount.
Question: What am I missing? John thinks maybe someone went ham on the RTV at the base of the cylinder maybe blocking the oil feed cavity. Any run into this issue before on a R45/65? Any suggestions? I've been ridding the bike like this for over 3 years and haven't had issues but then again I don't ride it that often. Thanks
V/R Eric
Can't speak to the R45 specifically, but I will tell you that typically any amount of oil to the rocker arms is enough. They actually require very, very little. This because they are only loaded up once every other crankshaft revolution, and then only for a short duration. So in terms of "Duty Cycle", it's in the 20% range. And remember that, once flowing, the oil is delivered at 100%.
Do not confuse this with Oilheads, post-1970 Nortons, and some others where the rockers are intentionally flooded as a design device to remove excess heat from the cylinder head.
Next time the rocker arms come off you'll probably find where someone added gasket sealant against all better advice. That is usually the case 99.9% of the time. However, I did find a 1968 Royal Enfield 750cc Constellation one time where the factory had never drilled the oil gallery all the way through to supply the crankshaft ! That particular bike made it 19,000 miles, albeit with 3 crankshaft replacements, but still an amazing feat !
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
@wobbly Hi Mr Whatley,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, oil was coming out but not as much as the others. The engine has been running like that since I got it on 2018 and have had no issues. We just needed a second concur we were okay to proceed. Never hurts to ask other fellow airhead owners. Thank you again sir!
V/R
Eric
Mr Whatley died in 2001. I'm simply Richard. ?
There was a post on here maybe a year ago about weird rocker arm behavior, and that turned out to be bad needle bearings and a chewed up rocker shaft. But it sounds like you've already investigated that.
All the best.
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
Clarkesville, GA
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
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