Anti-Drain Tap

tpeever is right, wet sumping really is not that big of a deal.
Did a similar thing to what cash describes yesterday. Hadn't ridden the bike for a month or so, oil tank showed just a couple of inches in the bottom. As always, I made sure that oil was flowing back into the tank right off. I kept the RPM lower than 3000 though, just 2000 for a few minutes. I'm still a little gun shy after blowing the seal last year.
It did not smoke at any point, though.

The oil tank filled to the proper level in about 4-5 minutes at 2000 rpm.

The blown seal was self inflicted, that time I took the RPM up much higher, probably to 6000 after only a minute or so of running.

mwoo said:

Hi Guys - I'm getting fed-up with the wet sumping on my Commando. The engine has been rebuilt and has only 500 miles on the clock. It runs beautifully and burns very little oil however it still wet sumps (I know, I know it shouldn't with a recond oil pump) but what the hell !!.
I don't like the idea of an external anti-drain valve but rather fancy an oil tap (with it's inherent dangers - I intend to cope with this). Have any of you fitted such a tap and where can I get suitable item(s). It needs to be fairly compact to be accessible. Any tips greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Click to expand...

I fitted a large gas cock in the feed line and it has a large handle which is so long it reaches past the kickstart so I cannot kick the bike over without turning the oil on :idea: this may sound crude but in 15 years i have never had any problems with wet sumping when the bike had been left standing..

Hi - thanks for the response - I eventually came up with a tap in line with the oil feed linked to a microswitch that kills all the electrics if i don't turn the tap to the 'open' position - i.e. no electrics - no start. Works a treat.

Cheers,

If you leave the jugs at TDC after riding this helps to slow it down.
I have heard of your mod with a switch. It sounds good. Does it fail to safe mode?
i.e. If the switch failed would the elecrics come on even if the tap was shut?

I heard of one guy that came up with a tap lever that covered his ign switch when shut. That seemed a good idea as well.
I do not like the idea of a check valve.

Stu.

The AMR ball and spring mod works great. No worries about a valve in the intake oil line. Also, the inline spring loaded check valve reduced the oil pressure to zero at idle when hot. I even tried cutting out a few rounds of spring. Chucked that sucker under the bench.

I agree with jimC check valves restrict oilflow at tickover,i have tried 3 or 4 different makes all with the same results but i cannot say if this affects the running/life of the engine etc.I leave my pistons at TDC after every ride and this helps slow down wetsumping................fettle em,ride em,fettle em somemore!!!.............Cheers Andy

Hi Bigstu - ref the oil tap with electrical connection that I fitted - yes it is 'failsafe' in as much that the microswitch attached to the tap doesn't directly control the bike electrics (the microswitch is only rated at 2A thus I've connected it to a 30A relay). Any failure of any part of the system will kill the ignition. Some guys have critisised the fact that these parts are just more parts to fail and possibly fail when you need ignition most e.g. when overtaking in a hurry but I believe that if you use decent quality parts and wire carefully then all should be OK - I've yet to have a problem. A couple of chaps in the UK are proposing to try my idea themselves.

Cheers

Mark Woodward