Repair-Chat
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Ian Soady¹ said :-
They are indeed about 2cm long (or 1.125" to be precise).
As I say I was surprised not to find someone local although I'm sure there will be a bloke in a draughty shed somewhere. I have a copy of Kelly's Directory for Birmingham dating back to the 1950s and it includes a comprehensive listing of all businesses by type. Yell / checkatrade etc are useless in comparison, and search engines only work if the company has a website which many of these people don't.
18/07/2025 10:03:47 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
You will have to furnish us with an image of the pawls installed Ian so I can understand why such large pawls are being used. I was expecting something akin to the pawls in a bicycle freewheel.
18/07/2025 13:48:24 UTC
Ian Soady¹ said :-
There are only 3 of them to drive a 400cc twin so need to be substantial. I can do a write up on how it works (now I've worked it all out) if you're interested. One of the several weak points is the lack of backfire protection which I suspect has been the issue on one or two occasions.
18/07/2025 16:53:31 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
Some kind of an explanation is required Ian - I need to know!
21/07/2025 07:46:16 UTC
nab301 said :-
Ian , great that you could get someone willing to attempt a repair .
My not so classic '03 Enfield Bullet 500 slowed to a complete halt recently 30 odd miles from home and while I was thinking did I remember to charge my phone the kickstart revealed a complete lack of compression..
Removing the tappet cover with the engine at TDC the valve clearances seemed fine ( but in hindsight the Exhaust was very slightly slack) and the decompressor seemed to be sealing ok.
After a while compression was somewhat restored , the engine spluttered into life and rode home as normal .
Removing the head later on as a precaution revealed that my super duper ugraded pulsed plasma nitride treated slippery valve stem was indeed a little sticky, the piston is a bit like a pea in a pod and while the head is ok the surface of the exhaust valve after lapping to remove "glazed carbon" revealed it is a bit moon crater ish, all within approx 10 k miles (inlet valve is fine) .I wonder would the cratering just be carbon related ( the original oe valve isn't as bad with a lot more mileage ) and would E10 have any part to play? Also the exhaust header was leaking for a while..
Nigel
21/07/2025 14:35:46 UTC
Ian Soady¹ said :-
That's pretty shocking for 10K miles Nigel. What's the valve seat like? That sort of damage looks like "micro welding" where there is instantaneous heat welding between the valve and seat. Where did you get the valve?
I'm not convinced that ethanol in petrol is the hprror that some people think. In the 1960s we used to have Cleveland Discol which was up to 20% ethanol and it was a premium product. No apparent problems. Having said that modern fuel is a cocktail of weird and often carcinogenic stuff and I wonder whether reported problems are in fact due to these additives.
Yes I was lucky to get my pawls rebuilt. Not fitted yet as other non-bike problems have raised their heads a bit like Cerberus.
22/07/2025 10:22:39 UTC
nab301 said :-
Thanks for the comment Ian , The bike had started surging earlier in the day a bit like an early badly sorted fuel injected bike, whether that was fuel or ignition issues I don't know . The plug looked a little lean at the roadside , but after the restart on arriving home the plug looked richer.
The micro-welding is interesting and at the time when I stopped I thought the engine had a sort of different hotter smell than usual but was fine on the trip home and air temps were on the cool side of normal.
The valve seat looks fine and the valve was purchased from a UK supplier p/no 90053 (Hitchcocks),even in its current state (lightly lapped) it bounces off the seat with a nice thunk suggesting all is reasonably ok . It's a larger than OE upgrade fitted after a rebore to help reliability... and I see the hardened upper end on the improved pushrods has come loose....
I guess I'll replace the valve and maybe send a photo to the supplier, see if I can sort the pushrods and hope for the best!
I pulled out the Enfield factory service manual and despite owning a Bullet on and off for 25 yrs I didn't realise that a decoke is recommended every 8k kms ( 5K miles!) Maybe it's a maintenance issue.
Nigel
https://accessories.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/20788?cont_page=Shop-Engine-Upgrad...
22/07/2025 15:27:14 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
Help me out here nab301. Does the bike itself only have 10,000 miles on the clock and for some reason you have a random aftermarket valve fitted... or more likely the bike has way more than 10k on it but the valve itself was fitted 10k miles ago?
What does "the piston is a bit like a pea in a pod" mean? Tight, loose, small?
I get the feeling this bike has had and requires a lot of attention.
23/07/2025 07:30:45 UTC
nab301 said :-
Ren , , the valve was fitted after a rebore and general top end overhaul 10 k mile ago, I purchased the bike in 2015 with approx 15k miles recorded but it had spent much of its previous life unused and chained to a lamp post outdoors. The speedo fails regularly but by my calculation the bike has now covered near 30k miles . ( if you're stuck for material over the winter (unlikely!) I can submit a warts and all story with some photos "10 yrs with an'03 Enfield"
As for the pea in a pod description , in my head I meant rattling / or loose , maybe I was thinking frozen peas in a bag....
At the same time I had to replace the rocker sets ( inlet and exh rocker arms and blocks) , the new valve and seat was sitting a little high which needed a longer than standard pushrod , and the new piston I'd supplied to the machine shop for the rebore fell out the bottom of its box as I was leaving with the rebored barrel , the rings were smashed and the piston looked a bit secondhand so I had to reorder a replacement!
The rebore was needed possibly due to water ingress during non use so I'm wondering at this stage should I completely strip the engine to check/ replace main bearings etc .
The bike only does about 2k miles per year , rebore was in 2018 but sometimes when I lose interest I declare it off road for a year at a time!
Nigel
27/07/2025 15:34:53 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
I can see why you'd only do 2k per year on it nab301 - it sounds rather untrustworthy. That bike has endured a hard life, 30,000 miles ain't much and it's required a lot of work. Is it worth the effort or do you enjoy the tinkering and excitement of wondering what'll break next.
28/07/2025 07:14:22 UTC
Ian Soady¹ said :-
Not sure what that pic is, Nigel, is it the valve seat?
28/07/2025 09:54:25 UTC
Upt'North ¹ said :-
I was thinking a very bad cylinder Ian.
Sorry to be a bore.....
I'm here all week.
Upt.
28/07/2025 18:49:53 UTC
Ian Soady¹ said :-
I'm sure Ren will give you clearance....
29/07/2025 12:17:49 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
I dare not say owt. Upt' will just come back with another terrible pun.
30/07/2025 08:00:47 UTC
Upt'North ¹ said :-
I think I'm addicted to brake fluid, but it’s OK because I can stop at any time.
Drum roll, symbols.
02/08/2025 10:10:42 UTC
nab301 said :-
Ian , Upt is on the ball there, that's a photo of the original very poor bore (long since rebored) , the carbon at the top is just the unused spigot but the tide mark below was presumably caused by
water ingress when laid up .
@ Ren , the Enfield has stopped occasionally over the years but always managed to get me home , the low mileage is more to do with me having too many bikes ... I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet but looking closely at the piston , while ok there is almost imperceptible wear on the left rear and right front top ring land which to my pea-sized brain suggests some sort of misalignment (crankshaft related/ main bearings?) and the ring gaps are between 22 and 18 thou, piston manufacturer recommends 11 to 15 thou , Enfield recommend a new parts gap of 15 thou with a 39 thou max gap when worn...
So it's either sell as is , rebuild top end and sell as is or complete rebuild , not really financially justifiable ( especially since Brexit). ( where's the for sale section?)
Nigel
02/08/2025 13:26:30 UTC
Upt'North ¹ said :-
Ed, do you hear that, I'm on the ball.
Pffffffftttttt.
Nidger in my experience, spend as little as possible and sell it for as much as possible.
02/08/2025 18:49:56 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
You're on the ball Upt'? I'm envisioning a sea lion balancing a ball on it's nose like a cartoon from the 60's.
The question is nab301 is do you enjoy the tinkering or are you trying to minimalise expenditure on your seemingly extensive motorcycle collection? If you're happy tinkering - tinker away! Otherwise get shut of the thing and cut your losses.
I have considered a "for sale" section. I don't think I have the visitor numbers to really warrant it, I'm curious what the legal implications are too.
04/08/2025 08:32:47 UTC
nab301 said :-
Ren , I was only joking about the for sale section !
I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do , the bike was a very cheap(3 figure) purchase originally but just out of interest I priced up the minimum in "hard" parts(excl gaskets)that I might need if the crankshaft needs repair and it comes to approx £400 excl the engineering services to split the crank and reassemble + balance.
Nigel
04/08/2025 17:05:35 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
You might have been joking nab301 - I wasn't!
The question remains - would you enjoy stripping the motor and getting the crank rebuilt etc etc or would it be a chore?
04/08/2025 18:54:03 UTC
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