After my bikes been sitting for a few weeks about 3/4 of the oil in the tank settles into the bottom of the crankcase making kicking over and starting quite a challenge. It then gets pumped back into the tank ok. Is this normal? If not, what is the cause?
it's a 47 Chief with a scraper return (not a sump valve).
Hi,
It,s not normal; I found the answer on the AMCA Forum:
Hi Marty,
The oil scraper is what you described (suction at the bottom, three fillister screws, not recessed). At some point, Indian casted this into the cases, but for '46 and '47, I KNOW this was the part you described. The scraper works fine! (If you ever pull your engine, you're free to pull it out and look at it ... it's all one piece, no biggie deal).
The wet sumping is due to too much clearance between the oil plunger and its bore. Oil leaks past the pluger into the sump. The fix is very simple, but you'll need some help from a local hard chromer.
1. Drain the oil.
2. Remove the plug on top of the oil pump, toward the front of your bike.
3. Remove the plunger (I don't remember if this is possible at this point ... you may need to pull the whole pump off for disassembly ... I'm traveling right now and don't have my references at hand either).
4. Mic the plunger bore, and have the hard chromer build up and grind down the plunger to a clearance of 0.0005" to 0.0015".
There's a guy in Oakland, CA that has done this for me before. The cost was maybe $100. You may want to take in the pump body and plunger so he gets the right fit. Send me your email address and I'll forward you the contact information later this week.
mailto: brian_groff@msn.com
Old Indians never die!
Wim
if you have and aluminium oil pump it could be the check ball you might have to tap the ball lightly with a ball peen hammer to stake it.
when chiefs sit for a while they have a tendency to leak down.
if it's cast iron pump there are people who make oversize shafts.
<FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
size=3> While you have your oil pump
apart, take the bottom off. Buy new gears for
it. You will probably see wear on the bottom
cover. You could have this machined down
flat. I bought a brand new wet stone and
finished it with the fine stone. You will receive
gaskets with two different thicknesses. Use the
thinnest one you can get by with and still turn
the gears when put together. This is your sump
pump. It pumps the oil from the crankcase
back to the oil tank.<
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