AJS & Matchless Owners Club

Just fitting the cylinder barrel to my 61 g80cs ,the oil rings at the cylinder base appear to be rather to deep ,I haven't tried fitting the head ,maybe will compress enough when the head is tightened.The gasket set is from the club so assume its ok,but no cylinder head gasket or other o ring seals .There are 2 paper cylinder base gaskets ,one without holes enclosing the push rod apertures, and one that does.Should there be 4 push rod o rings,or just 2 for the head and just the paper one for the cylinder /crankcase joint. any advice appriciated.

Much easier to refer to the parts list for your bike and manual as to how to assemble the parts. If you do not have these items you should had got them before you did anything on the bike. Its all there in words and pictures at your finger tips. Check them out before fitting the head & rocker box, damage can result if not correct and at least cost you new seals and push rod tubes. Theresa only one O ring at the bottom as seen tube plus metal disc washer and cup at the top of the tube. All named in the parts list etc so you know what you are talking about. One should not assume you even have the correct parts on your bike to advise you.

The short stroke scrambler engines, 1956-up did not have a had gasket, sealing compression with a ground joint. The bottom of the pushrod tunnels is sealed by the same fat o-ring as the touring motors & the top with a thin o-ring. I have found the top o-ring to leak soon so replace them with x-rings which last much longer. Places that service hydraulic cylinders have a wide selection on all types of sealing rings. Cheers, Don.

Thanks for that Rob & Don, The engine is the short stroke with integeral push rod tunnels my parts list doesn't show an exploded view.I had forgotten about no head gasket,I used to scramble one in the 60s so would have known once upon a time !!! Funny the gasket set does not contain any of the thinner ones for the head,but as you advise against fitting these I will use hydraulic ones as suggested.Meanwhile its remove the barrel lap the head in .Glad I asked the questions it will save me a job later.

A lot of later parts lists are supplements, or parts that differ from ?? supplements , to be used with an earlier illustrated parts list, So go back a year or two. Check the part number for your bike against the illustrated part number pictures in the earlier list.

Ok Rob I see the parts and Nos in the catalog but unfortunately the gasket set doesn't give any identifying Nos. I can conclude however that the lower O ring is common to all engines and it is therefore the fat one for my engine.Thanks again .

Try going to the club home page, click on spares, now search what the club have got listed, just type gasket, in description, then search, you'll come up with the gasket list