Skip to main content
English French German Italian Spanish

38 ES2 rocker box distance piece grease nipple ?

Forums

While cleaning the grunge off the rocker box and distance pieces I noticed one distance piece has a grease nipple the other does not.

No where in my 38 handbook does it talk about greasing the valves.

I assume the rocker box distant piece was on the exhaust was on the exhaust

That might explain all the dirty thick goo around the exhaust valve.I thought the valves were lubricated by oil mist from the pushrod tubes to rockers

Permalink

Hi Ian,

Yes you are correct with your description, the 1938 to '47 OHV engines never had grease nipples on the rocker box and I would guess a previous owner has fitted this. These engines suffer from burnt on oil around the exhaust valve well as any oil collecting there gets cooked and turns to gunge. This was rectified when the engines were re-designed for 1948 and the rockers had a positive oil feed which drained down holes through the head and barrel which, by default, cooled the head as it moved through the valve wells.

What you might want to do is take out the grease nipple and make the hole bigger for a breather pipe which can bedirected to somewhere like the rear chain. If you fit this on the exhaust valve you should have a constant oil mist going over the hottest area and this will also help with bottom end oil leaks.

Regards, Richard.

Permalink

No problem Ian. By the way, did you find out any more about the piston size or number?

Richard.

 



© 2024 Norton Owners Club Website by 2Toucans