It's the same with Old Bikes and Old caps, Ron and me have just done a Twin, For a Friend of Ron's, We had to swap pushrods around, But still I had to grind the top off and make 2 flats at the top, To turn the adjusters.In keeping with my habit of turning newly assembled engines over by hand, I discovered that the intake adjuster nut was just coming in contact with the ET24 inspection cap. The cap is new from Coventry and I believe they are the same from VOC spares. The new caps are machined differently and have less clearance than the originals. This probably doesn't happen very often, but thought I would mention it. A 5 7/8 pushrod might have cured it as there was a 5 15/16 in there, but it wouldn't have left any room for taking up clearance (the adjuster would have to be turned almost all the way in. I chucked the cap in the lathe and removed some material with a boring bar and cleaned out a bit more with a Dremel. Also took a few thousandths off the top of the adjuster and rummaged around and found a inspection cap gasket that was .040" thinner. The first photo shows the old style cap ..... the area in question is concave and the new cap is just cut on an angle (beveled) between the black and red mark. Mk2 cams and decent vale seats. #fettle
Is this unusual or am I missing something?
I'm fettling my life away.This is what's known as "fettling", a very common pastime with a Vincent!
I did wonder about those adjusters listed on VOC Spares, but wasn't sure they would be any shorter. It seems "fettling" is the preferred route these days. Pretty much everything I order ends up sitting in customs for a month or more. I might have got away with just machining the new cap and a thinner washer, but took some off the adjuster just so there is a little more room when things start thrashing about. I also wondered about the bushel of inspection cap gaskets I have. I don't know their history and they are about .134" thick and as mentioned, I was able to find one hiding in a box that was .040 thinner so used that.It's the same with Old Bikes and Old caps, Ron and me have just done a Twin, For a Friend of Ron's, We had to swap pushrods around, But still I had to grind the top off and make 2 flats at the top, To turn the adjusters.
There are Special adjusters you can buy now, To fix the problem.
We should all make sure we keep the same pushrods, adjusters, followers, etc in the same place as we take them off, When doing work on our Bikes. Cheers Bill.
I would have expected a THICKER washer to give more 'head' room inside the cap.I did wonder about those adjusters listed on VOC Spares, but wasn't sure they would be any shorter. It seems "fettling" is the preferred route these days. Pretty much everything I order ends up sitting in customs for a month or more. I might have got away with just machining the new cap and a thinner washer, but took some off the adjuster just so there is a little more room when things start thrashing about. I also wondered about the bushel of inspection cap gaskets I have. I don't know their history and they are about .134" thick and as mentioned, I was able to find one hiding in a box that was .040 thinner so used that.