[ArmyAirborne]

Bought my bike in Nov, went through the MSF Basic Course last week, got my license today. Rode it home for the first time. All went well, I thought.

As I was pulling in to the neighborhood I thought I smelled burning oil. When I pulled in to the carport I did a walk around, stuck my nose up around it and couldn't smell anything. I did hear a sizzle though. There was a drip coming from the RH Toolbox (filterbox) on to the muffler. I opened the box and around 3/4 of a cup of slightly thick fluid the color of coffee with cream poured out. It looks like it was coming from the small hose that comes in the top.

That hose looks like it runs straight across to the other side to a small black canister with other hoses runing in and out of it.

Do I have a major issue here?

[Ice]

Congrats on your ride brother !


 The coffe stuff sounds like the notorious catch can filling up with "mayo".
Lots of threads about it here.

 The later style crank case breather system is a bodge.
Most folks delete it and re plumb with a duck bill breather.

[Vince]

     That black canister is used to separate the crank case vapor to fluid and vapor. The vapor is recirculated to the air intake, and the fluid flows back into the engine. One or both of the lines from the canister to the engine is clogged with oil mixed with condensation. This causes the fluid to pump into the air box also. The fix is to pull the lines and clean them, and drain the canister. It is a messy job. Put a pan or cardboard pad under the bike before starting.  There is nothing "wrong" , so don't worry. Some people remove this and just run the crankcase vapors through a "duckbill" hose to over the chain. The duckbill is a hose with a rubber flapper that works with the engine pulses.
It opens with a pressure pulse to expel vapor, but closes with negative crank case pressure to keep dirt out of the engine.

[ArmyAirborne]

Thanks guys. I was having visions of gas making it past the rings in to the case, water in the gas/oil. and lots of other bad things.

A fouled line is a lot better than any of those and now that I know what the part is it makes total sense. I should be able to get that cleared pretty easily.

You've put my mind at ease.

Much appreciated.

[UncleErnie]

It would be interesting to see what percentage of people get rid of all that.  I don't think anyone who actualoy rides much keeps their bike stock in that regard.
Another hint is to just fill the oil up to about 3/4 of the dip stick.  The full recommended amount of oil jusyt blows out almost immediately.

[boggy]

Yah - I got that stuff simply from overfilling.  But once it blew out all the excess it had the perfect amount left over!  

I think there is a chapter on it in the Snidal manual titled, "How to cover the entire back half of your Enfield in oil."  

[ArmyAirborne]

Well I took the catch can and all the hoses off yesterday and put them in the solvent tank at work.

It was easier that I expected. I was afraid I would have to remove the tool boxes to get at it, however once I took the battery cover out and moved the battery out of the way it was easy.

The large hose was the only one not clogged, the small and medium ones were both plugged. There was a good 3/8" of gunk in the bottom of the can. I see why everyone calls it "mayo" now. The stuff I had blowing out in to the filter box was more of a creamed coffee color though.

One more question though. What is the purpose of the screens in the lid of the catch can? Seemed kind of strange to me that they were there.

Just to make clear. There was a "plate" mounted on two tabs that were welded to the underside of the catch can lid. There was a circular pattern of holes in this plate. Between the plate and the lid there were two or three round metal mesh screens. I tried to get them out but they didn't just slide out and I figured it wasn't important to take them out to clean so left them alone.

[Ice]

The screens are a sort of separator,,,sort of.

 In theory the oil will condense and collect on the screens and drip downward while allowing gases to pass through and vent out of the system.