Skip to main content
English French German Italian Spanish

Oil pumps and wet sumping

Forums

Hi Nortoneers

                       I've recently refurbed my oil pump and it has certainly made a difference although, if I don't leave the pistons at TDC oil still migrates to the sump all be it a lot slower than it was doing.  The scavenge side is also returning Castrol's XL40 finest quicker than before, it is now a constant strong stream as apposed to a weak one which works well for me as I tackle wet sumping by keeping the engine on a fast idle when starting which soon scavenges the oil from the sump.  This method has always worked well for me and more importantly its what I have always defaulted to from being told a fast idle takes the loads off the engine internals many many moons ago.  I've read others ideas about combating wet sumping, none of which I'm temped to try, which is down to me not wanting to plumb a valve between the oil tank and the oil pump , however, in the INOA tech notes they have put in a solution after the pump yet I never have read about anyone doing this.  What's involved still doesn't convince me its a sound solution however has anyone here taken the plunge and carried out this mod? 

 

Cheers.....Ady

Permalink

What I do is machine the body to take 2 X rings, one on each shaft. This removes the leak from the feedside to the return side via the shafts inside the pump. Once it gets to the return side is has an easy route to the sump. I couple this with a machined timing side cover to include a non return ball, similar to the MK3 cover but with a ball not a plunger and block off a gallery in the crankcase to revert to the pre-Commando state again as MK3.

This package is a copy of the AMR of Tucson mods, I use X rings not the O rings they use in the pump for extra sealing surfaces. 

http://www.amr-tucson.com/nortech.html

It helps to have a Vertical milling machine to do the machining.

Permalink

The typical reconditioning only address 1 of the 4 leak paths. It is WAY over rated.

The scavenge can only wet sump the hose and oil filter volume of oil. It does however pass oil through the shaft from the feed side.

The AMR(JH) mod does address the second of four failure modes which I have addressed several times previously.

Permalink

A few years ago I met a chap who had machined a recess in the back of the drive shaft end plate. This being just large enough to hold a thin O' ring. I wasn't too sure that this was the best solution to his wet-sumping problems as it reduced the shaft bearing surface area and also the position of the seal would stop the shaft from receiving any lubrication from the inside of the pump.

On many Commando oil pumps the face machining is extremely poor and must be one of Dave's four sources of leaks.There is no way this kind of finnish is going keep in hot oil. Example in attached photo.

Thanks for the picture John

                                            I have access to a milling machine so can do the seal mod, these seals, i'm assuming, go in on the (smaller gears) feed side, alos  i'm not familiar with the mk3 timing cover, is your mod similar to the one in the INOA tech book?

Thanks for your time......Ady

 

Hi David

              Thanks for your imput, I do appreciate it along with other members advice on all things.  Can you tell me what all four issues are, if i'm going to do something I like to do it properly.

 

Thanks.....Ady

Permalink

hello Now we have had all these topics before  and their  is lots of infortion on the site  to cover all this you only have  fill in the bar with your question  and answer will be there from the Techinacl team  yours anna j

Permalink

Yes, the INOA timing cover mod reads like mine but does not mention the blocking of the crankcase galley that feeds the excess oil coming from the OPRV back to the feed side of the pump and the reopening of the timing cover OPRV to sump route for an alternative route for this oil. Bit in italics may be wrong way round

The seal can go on the feed or return side just as long as its only one side and not both, doing both will reduce the running surface for the shaft in the body too much.

I will post the seal dimensions tomorrow sometime.

Hello Anna

                   Using the search bar tends to give me LOTS of information I wasn't asking about and, me being a bit old fashioned prefer conversing with people personally even if it means email/ messaging etc due to geographics, not, generically on search bars, if that's the right spelling, probably not.  Even better in person due to my gregarious nature, i've had some cracking conversations with people in our club in person and not once has use the search bar come up in the conversation just plenty of their personal experience, we all have our fobiles, mine is I  like to learn from peoples personal experience, always have and always will,l however Anna, are  becoming increasingly more interested in pre-commando twins so theres a good chance, if i pursue that avenue, i will be, should you respond in the first place, to the topic I post be asking of your thoughts and experience, assuming you wish to share.

kind regards......Ady    

Permalink

Or the more fun route to cure wet sumping, just ride. But the figures from the survey says many don't ride much. 

Thanks again John

                               I will go for the feed side and the seal dimensions will be appreciated, I haven't totally got my head around the galley mod you mention but will do so.

Again many thanks John......Ady

Permalink

The X ring is size 012 in buna shore 70, you need an 1/2" end mill. The X ring is 0.070" cross section, its compressed by both the shaft and OD of the slot so the extra 0.020" depth of the slot, to give a total of 0.090", takes the side expansion of the X ring.

Permalink

I worked in machine shops for 50 years, never heard of an x-ring. Why not flat the faces of the pump on a surface plate with fine wet and dry glued on it? I have a couple of pumps, so will use your information to look at a better solution. I thought the covers were supposed to be half a thou wider than the gears, so not leaking. My N15cs never wet sumped, when new. Thinking, you must be using a double lip seal in the back of the gear recess?

Permalink

Paul's point about x-rings...it's easy to find suppliers of o-ring kits, metric and imperial, but x-ring kits seem to be unavailable (or they were last time I looked).

Permalink

X rings are harder to find because using X in the search term finds X section and so you get all the O rings. But they are out there and if you use Quad seals as the search term instead then you home in more.

Last lot I got from here

https://maydayseals.co.uk/35-quad-rings-

X ring chains are available and are thinner than the same sized chain in O ring form.

As X rings are designed to fit the same sized O ring groove they work well as direct alternatives, as on the Gearbox outer cover hole for the kickstart shaft on a Commando.

 


Norton Owners Club Website by 2Toucans