oil change questions

[McTrucky]

Hi all,

Newbie here... and I just went to look under the bike with a view to swapping oil in the box and engine tomorrow morning. (1960 350 lightweight single )
But it does not look as obvious as I expected:

I think I found two drain plugs underneath, through holes in the frame beneath the engine. There are also what look like drains on each side of the bike - one under the gear lever and one on the other side - which I guess is a primary drive oil bath?

I cant find an oil tank - so presume the underneath drain at the front will allow all engine oil to drain - and not just whatever has collected in a dry sump?
The rear drain underneath is the Gearbox?

The gearbox I know to fill up to the bottom of the inspection plate. But the engine oil? Is there a level? a dip stick? a sight glass?

Also on the engine, I read another thread about changing the filter - not sure I have a filter...? If I open the cap on front right with the engine running I can see oil gently squirting - which is good, but the other thread talked about a filter and a spring behind this cap.

As the bike is still running fine after 60+ years, I am not too worried about retro-fitting filters if it doesn't already have them - but all advice would be gratefully received.

I have tried to read the manual - but there seems to be more information on how to re-grind the crank shaft than on day to day maintenance. Or maybe I missed the 'Dummy's Guide' section.

So my questions are:

• Where are the Drain Plugs for Engine and Gearbox?

• How do I know how much oil to put back in the engine?

• I presume the oil to top up goes in through the cap on the front right (where I see the oil pump squirting) and not into a tank I have not yet found?

• Is there a dipstick or similar I should be checking pre-ride.

Many thanks in advance.

[Andy G]

Hi, and welcome.
Have you found the documents archive yet?..
This link is for the owner's manual:
http://archives.jampot.dk/book/Owners_m ... Manual.pdf

[McTrucky]

Hi, and welcome.
Have you found the documents archive yet?..
This link is for the owner's manual:
http://archives.jampot.dk/book/Owners_m ... Manual.pdf

Hi thanks, yes I have the manual.

I just need some sanity checks....
I am assuming the oil tank is integral to the casing.
And the cap I remove and see the oil return is into the oil tank? Fill height is to 1 inch below this cap?
Filter is on the opposite side of the engine on the front?
The underside drain plugs are sump and gearbox? - but where is the oil tank drain?

My AF spanners arrived yesterday - so ready to crack on today

[Red Gauntlet]

The oil tank drain is the forward one, you will need BSF / Whitworth spanners not AF and a BSF socket set with some AF hex keys.
The tank is integral and fill to about 1/2" below the small return hole, a spoke or bent coat hanger is an ideal tool to remove the filter but be careful with it, if you are replacing the filter make sure the felt is on the inside as some are the wrong way round. There are plenty of exploded views of the engine on the web to see how the thing goes together. The gearbox drain is seperate and is located at the bottom of the round face of the box below the kickstarter and gear lever in the middle, keep it topped up as the gears are at the top of the box and easiliy run dry. While you are at it, the chaincase also has seperate oil and is filled through the lower of the two big screw caps, the drain is at the rear of the chaincase, but be very careful the threads do strip easily on this one. Top it up until the oil just touches the bottom of the chain. Have fun.

[McTrucky]

Ahh perfect - many thanks. It was probably the gearbox drain that had me confused. If it is that bolt on the face plate under the gear leaver, that leaves two sump plugs underneath which equal crank and oil tank.

The filter... I'll gingerly take off the big alloy bolt and decide what to do next.... I understand there will be sludge traps as well - but are these hidden inside and not normally serviceable? I have non detergent oil, so should be safe enough.

whitworth/Af / BSF - different sockets... Arrghh!!!! I understand different threads, but surely a 3/8th socket is a 3/8th socket?

[Duncan]

whitworth/Af / BSF - different sockets... Arrghh!!!! I understand different threads, but surely a 3/8th socket is a 3/8th socket?

This is a quite useful reference to Whitworth hex sizes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_S ... _Whitworth

[McTrucky]

So.... my 1/2 is too small and my 9/16 too big...

More shopping required.

[McTrucky]

Another £50 worth of spanners and sockets ordered on Amazon for delivery tomorrow.

I took the drain plugs out with metric 'wall drivers' but wouldn't want to put them back in that way as they lock on, not quite being the right size.

Anyhow....

Fibre washers. Any reason not to replace with aluminium crush washers? And if so, can I use plumber's washers or do I need automotive fibre washers?

[limeyrob]

You can use plumbers hard fibre washers but they tend to be different sizes and not fit very well.

[Duncan]

Fibre washers. Any reason not to replace with aluminium crush washers? And if so, can I use plumber's washers or do I need automotive fibre washers?

Aluminium or copper will all do the same job as fibre, with copper you can anneal and reuse several times, the challenge tends to be with metric and imperial sizes, many advertised on line as imperial are just the nearest metric ones.