New oil filter kit from Onion Jack has today plopped through my letterbox slot and onto the doormat.
The kit comes with a new sump plate for the bottom of the frame backbone tube. This plate is drilled with an extra hole to take a through-bolt that sandwiches the internal oil filter element between the plate and an alloy disc that seals the upper end of the filter.
Yes, I know you could easily make one yourself. After all, Phil Pilgrim easily made this one himself. But sometimes I feel one really ought to show a little support and understanding for the blokes out there with a life-time of acquired knowledge, who spend all day at parts counters answering endless questions from people who then turn out to be too cheap to plunk down their cash and actually buy something. I can show my support by allowing these blokes to make a little money off me from time to time. We must keep them in business.
Back to the Pilgrim Special. Its filter element is necessarily small. In view of its size, should it be changed at every single oil change, or every second change like for the other one?
I got rid of the “TT” external oil filter kit and re-plumbed the oil lines for the internal kit. I can use the “TT” one on my ’61 Bonnie replica project that I’ve been steadily accumulating pre-unit Thunderbird parts for.
Oil line from return (“out”) hose-tail of engine now runs over the engine to the top of the oil cooler, just like it said to do in the original Hyde cooler instructions. To get at this hose-tail, the gearbox end-cover does indeed need to come off. More on that later.
Oil line from bottom of cooler now goes under the engine and up to the frame’s oil-return hose-tail near the seat nose. This is quite a long run of hose, and of course I had chopped mine down shorter to suit the reversed-flow configuration needed for the external spin-on filter kit. So I joined an extra length on, using a short piece of copper pipe as a plain connector with two stainless hose clamps either side of the join.
And naturally the hose-tail at the oil chamber’s bottom plate connects to the suction (“in”) hose-tail at the back of the engine, thus completing the Great Circle of Life.
While the gearbox end cover was off, I noticed something interesting. The nut on the end of the mainshaft, the one that holds the kickstart ratchet on, was loose and turning freely on its threads. Quelle horreur, mes enfants! Famous Canuck motor-bicyclist JB Nicholson notes in his “(Used-to-be) Modern Motorcycle Mechanics” tome that there are several possible causes of missed shifts in Triumph ‘boxes, mostly to do with worn dogs and tired springs. But before you waste any time stripping the entire transmission to check on these, he says, first go and have a look at the nut that holds on the kickstart ratchet. If this is loose, there will be excessive end-float in the gearbox mainshaft. This will have you not only missing shifts, but also flirting with mechanical apocalypse of the “Drivetrain-Locking-Up-At-80mph” variety.
Okay! Onwards, and upwards!
