[Nitrowing]

Nipped up the tappet cover and crack 
Now it's lubricating the whole right side of the bike.

[ace.cafe]

It's a good gentle learning experience.

Most people learn about the quality of RE metallurgy by stripping the threads out of the head stud holes in the engine case, or similar more difficult experience.

[Adrian II]

Yes, really!

The cover on my old Electra-X did exactly that, as the twiddly thingy never worked for me I replaced it with a plain tappet cover. Get one with a rectangular rubber seal and you needn't worry about using a gasket. Remove the now redundant cable and feeble plastic lever from the l/h switch cluster, more weight saved! If those bits go, you can lose the top-hat collar off the exhaust valve lifter too, it's held on by a circlip.

A.

[Nitrowing]

Yes, really!

The cover on my old Electra-X did exactly that, as the twiddly thingy never worked for me I replaced it with a plain tappet cover. Get one with a rectangular rubber seal and you needn't worry about using a gasket. Remove the now redundant cable and feeble plastic lever from the l/h switch cluster, more weight saved! If those bits go, you can lose the top-hat collar off the exhaust valve lifter too, it's held on by a circlip.

A.

Reading forums has led me to use the decompressor to turn off the engine. 
I've ordered a replacement cover, I already replaced the gasket with a rubber one.
Lools like silicone gasket in the meanwhile. 

[Adrian II]

I managed to get seven or eight years' use of the plain tappet cover before the sprag went bang-crunch (fortunately I was only 15/20 minutes push from home), but if you can get the tappet lifter to work in your case, you probably would do best to stick with it.

A.

[tooseevee]

It's a good gentle learning experience.

Most people learn about the quality of RE metallurgy by stripping the threads out of the head stud holes in the engine case, or similar more difficult experience.

     When I removed all the "decompressor" components from my '08 a couple years ago I ordered a plain black one and was amazed (well, not really) at how unflat the gasket surface was. A few minutes tweaking on a flat surface solved that quite easily. I can't remember if a rubber or fiber gasket came with it, but it's never leaked a drop.  And go just tight enough to make a good seal. It's not like it's a nut and bolt on a rock-crusher 

[Nitrowing]

I did a forum search and it seems to be quite common and in the exact same place. Poor engineering. 

[Adrian II]

What amuses me is that Hitchcocks' sell a valve-lifter conversion kit using the exact same tappet cover for people who (might) actually want to retro-fit these to their iron barrel Bullets. I wonder how many they sell. 

As we know, there is an alternative for the AVL/Electra-X...

A.

[Nitrowing]

As we know, there is an alternative for the AVL/Electra-X...

A.

Ooo! Ooo! Is it titanium?

 

[Adrian II]

You wish...