AJS & Matchless Owners Club

ChrisTheChippy wrote:

ajscomboman wrote:All you L/W owners do is gripe about money and cost of parts! What do you expect when buying a low volume motorcycle, that even in it's day parts were always hard to obtain. The market for repro parts is always going to be low and costs high when compared to the H/W's as the demand simply isn't there in enough volume to make the unit cost similar.

You could do something really radical and go out and find original parts and get them priced up to see if the club would fund production. You'll be shocked at just how hard it is to find companies willing to carry out work for you, especially as you'll be talking low volume.

One Hampshire member has done so recently and that part, although not large, was manufactured and is now in stock.

We're looking at rear sprockets but at £103.50 ea I'm sure you'll not give that a second thought! Unfortunately my friends that is the true cost of producing these parts nowadays in low volume on specialised CNC machines that cost a fortune to buy and staff to run them.

Small engineering companies that we used to use in a cottage style way are no longer in an abundance and is impacting on the unit cost of parts.

That's us told then

I was a little abrupt, however it's frustrating trying to get L/W parts made as owners always seem to think they'll be cheaper than their bigger brother as they were when new. That's sadly isn't true and it's actually the opposite, in some cases it's over double the cost.

Back on topic now, I see no reason why the paper type element shouldn't work. Give it a go and if it's a success maybe it'll be a mod that's worth looking at producing in bulk.

Hi

I'd have reservations using a Trident oil filter, the Trident uses a gear type oil pump producing 75 - 85 psi, (set by the relief valve), it also produces a much higher flow rate.

I'm not sure the AMC plunger type pump will cope with the increased flow restriction produced by the paper element.

Regards Mick

You think the paper will offer MORE restriction than the felt?

Make identical size cones out of felt and the filter paper, put same amount of oil in both and see what happens. My guess is the oil probably won't even run out of the filter paper.

Rob C

Hi Martin

Yes I'm pretty sure it will be considerably more restrictive.

The difference in flow rates between my G3 and T160 is massive.

Regards Mick

I poured some 20/50 through the filter and it came through quite well, I haven't a felt filter to compare but confident enough to try it out when there bike is built.

Just a quick note on the lightweight felt filters ' The Paper ideas need to be approached with care " The original Felt filter is very free flowing and non restrictive ' The return flow does not like pressure " oil will accumulate in the sump and at low revs the engine will wet sump causing smoking 'oiling of the plug ' And exhaust valve stem ' Tickover will cease and revs will be needed to clear the resulting smoking and plug oiling ! The Felt on the outside off the filter restricts the return flow across to the oil tank backing up the oil and causing the wet sumping ' I had a lightweight that someone had spent close to a £1000 having the engine totally rebuilt ! Run in carefully it Came to me smoking like a pig ' With all the above symptoms ' I checked the filter and found a pattern one too fat with felt on the outside ' Once removed a cleaned out a genuine filter was fitted , The engine ran perfectly no smoke and no plug oiling " So the space around the small diameter of the filter is required to fill the void in the filter housing and allow the oil to flow across the front of the engine back into the oil tank unrestricted " If the filter is too restrictive oil will also accumulate in the sump at high revs , This is why AMC made a longer version of the Felt filter in 60/61 to try to stop this on the 350 engine

Agreed - be careful with the oil return circuit because the sump scavenging appears to be marginal (hence the mods on the 350 & CSR).

If I thrash my CSR with the oil level only slightly too high, it will wet sump enough pump oil out of the breather. Not sure if there's a restriction somewhere on my engine, but it illustrates that the oil return can struggle to keep up at high revs...

ajscomboman wrote:We are currently in talks with new manufacturers, trying to get new supplies in soon.

Any updates?