[Noodlees]

Hi fellows!
Here I'm, again, boring you with another set of questions!
I read about people that are worried about checking the lubrication system of the Bullet while running. I've the same fear, after read some horrible stories about lubrication system failure.
I saw some device that owners tell are good to keep an eye on the spot. I wanna talk with you about that, because I don't know if they're helpful or not.

1. Oil Circulation Sight Glass

I read about that in this thread https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.php/topic,14842.0.html
here there's a video of the device https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0QGZ6_wFEw

Others, reccomend to use a plexiglass tappet cover that allow to see the oil dripping down, proof of a working lubrication.



2. Oil Pressure Gauge

I read about that here, https://forum.classicmotorworks.com/index.php/topic,655.0.html
I understood the pressure it's not a good parameter to check, due to the low working pressure of the Bullet Classic Engine.
In this video, you can see this kind of gauge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNNPKzxs56E
 In the comment we have: "It seems like the pressure gauge location is too close to the pump, and only reading the pump pulses. A oil temp gauge would e helpful too. "
I think it's good to know our pumps are working...

3. Oil Temperature Gauge

Simple. You can buy one of that device, and fix it like an oil dipstick. Many users said that oil temperature is a much better parameter to check, to build up an idea about the situation. What's the range of operating temperature?



Am I too much worry about that or it's good to mod my bike with one of these device?

[Bullet Whisperer]

You could use the clear tappet cover, to see oil already pumped into the engine on its return journey [difficult to see while riding, though]. An oil pressure gauge could be fitted with a bit of fiddling about, I suppose, and an oil temparature gauge is going to tell you what, exactly? - Just that it has reached whatever temperature is displayed, that's all. I have never seen a Bullet make the oil 'too hot' and some of our R.E.'s get pretty hot on the race track.
 Perhaps my answer may not be very helpful, but there is a lot of scaremongering around regarding these machines and what might go wrong with them. Just pop the timing cover off at oil change time, or every couple of thousand miles and check the condition of the oil pump drive gears - if these are ok, that is probably all you need to know 
 B.W.

[Noodlees]

Hi Bullet Whisperer!!!
Thanks a lot for the reply!
Yes, there's a lot of scaremongering (woah! I'm learning a lot of new words in these 2 days here) over these bikes. I will assure you, it's not only in this place. Also in many italian forum, It's really difficult talk about the classic engine, without people who say to throw away the bike and buy something other!
I will follow your advices...I also bought the pete snidal book (the version improved with the 500 and AVL engine), so I hope the services will be more easy to take!

[Adrian II]

With a running engine you can check the rocker oil feed by slackening off one of the rocker feed banjo nuts, then seeing how quickly you can tighten it up again before you are drenched in oil...

At least that's the case with the AVL engine and the high capacity gear pumps, I suspect a healthy scavenge pump on the classic engine will make a similar mess. 

A.

[hpwaco]

Bought a oil pressure gauge from CMS back then for my 02ES.   After installing it, it never showed more then 2 - 3 psi.  Happily the bike ran for 8k + miles before I sold it.

[Arizoni]

That  low 2-3 psi is pretty typical of the RE's piston pump and although the engine is using a metal sleeve bushing that needs a good flow of oil in the big end of the rod, it seems to be enough.
I think the engine is using the centrifugal force made by the rotating crankshaft to increase the oil pressure thru that  sleeve bearing.

As for the rocker arms and the scavenged oil that lubes them, back in the 1920's and 30's when that pump was designed a lot of motorcycles didn't have any oil at all lubing them except for the oil the rider squirted on the exposed rockers before he started the engine.
Royal Enfield's and some other brands enclosed rocker arms were pretty advanced concepts for motorcycle engines at the time.

Roller bearings don't need much oil for lubrication so the oil mist thrown off of the connecting rod is good enough for the crankshaft main bearings.

All that said, I still like the higher oil pressure from the gear pump and the gerotor pump in the AVL and the UCE engines.

[Bilgemaster]

Some years back someone going by the handle "Baird444" posted to these forums about a homemade mod to his older-style (non-threaded) oil filler cap using an inexpensive little meat thermometer that looked awfully sensible to me.

Since my own 2005 seems to have a case of the occasional "crankcase breather spews" as described here, whereby the contents of my oil tank may suddenly sploodge out the breather hose onto the roadway at any moment without warning, at least such a thermometer might visually alert me when there's not enough oil left in the tank to even keep its temperature up.  Sadly, I have a later-style screw-in type filler cap that would make such a simple drill-and-glue mod as Baird444's more of a proper machinist's affair.  Still, I might just toddle on down to the hardware store tomorrow in search of a pipe or something with a suitable thread to cobble together something. A threaded German one for sale for 30 Euros is mentioned in that thread of yore, but the direct link given is deader than Cleopatra's singing chicken.  Nowadays one finds it here. But before I fork over at least 50 Yankee Semolians after int'l shipping to splurge on all that finely-engineered Teutonic Celsius splendor, I think I might want to explore that homespun $5 Fahrenheit meat thermometer path more fully.