Anti Wet Sump Valve

jms

jms

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Hi
This anti wet sump valve has been on my Commando for 5-6 years. The bike has seen very few miles. Is this the valve that has a history of separating at the glued joints? It's primarily made of plastic. The thing that originally caught my eye was that you could see the oil through the clear plastic but obviously not worth having it on if it could break and then engine failure in the event I didn't happen to notice
 

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jms said:
Hi
This anti wet sump valve has been on my Commando for 5-6 years. The bike has seen very few miles. Is this the valve that has a history of separating at the glued joints? It's primarily made of plastic. The thing that originally caught my eye was that you could see the oil through the clear plastic but obviously not worth having it on if it could break and then engine failure in the event I didn't happen to notice
Click to expand...
Dunno about the falling to bits aspect, but any sort of valve in the oil feed to the engine is a recipe for disaster, Unless it has an electrical cutout to isolate the ignition when in the shut position.
 
Here's my homemade AWS vavle with ign shutoff switch....A Dahl "PEX" type batyhrrom water tap with stainless ball and brass body. A "NO" momentary microswitch actuated by the tap handle...held in the closed switch contact positiion while tap is in the open position. <$20 in bits to cobble together. Working great for 7 yrs.

Anti Wet Sump Valve
 
If you don't ride your bike much with lots of time sitting, I rather let the oil migrate to the bottom end just to keep everything lubed, takes 5 minutes out of your life to drain the sump, best thing just ride the Norton regularly then you have no problems with wet sumping, unless it does it badly.
 
Manu said:
How often should it be started? Monthly? I just like hearing it run!
Click to expand...
That depends on how rapidly tank oil finds its way down into sump..some report months before significant sumping. Some a qeek or so. My bike will loose nearly all oil in tank within 2 or three weeks. Hence the oil tap solution. I did take some advice on here originally, just ignoring it and one day after a short ride found rear tire heavily oiled up...the wetsump oil caused the pressure build up with piston move.ent to blew the crank seal at the primary case in half...and then proceeded to over fill primary and spew excess out the back. Could have resulted in a crash.

So best advice, determine how much oil level in tank drops from immediately after shutdown to days/weeks before next fire up. Drain sump if in doubt, measure how much is there...more than 200 to 300 ml tells you it is wet sumping more than ideal. Choose how you will deal with it.
 
Manu said:
How often should it be started? Monthly? I just like hearing it run!
Click to expand...
Why own a bike you don't ride, isn't that the reasons we own bikes, even in retirement I rode my Norton regularly, when working it was every day, if you going to not ride it regularly and let it sit for long periods of time then drain the sump before you take it out again while checking everything else out, it's not that hard to do, a sump full of oil means the cam and bearings are all lubed.
 
If I let my evo Harley sit for a couple weeks I know I need to catch the oil coming out of the breather pipe into a bottle so my1970 commando, when finished will be no big deal draining the sump, and I have the Andover drain plug for that.
 
Or spend the money for the timing case mod then it should sump very slowly like a MKIII. Eventually even they will wet sump. As others have said, it makes sure everything in the lower end is well preserved like for over-winter.
The cheapest way without any band-aid valves and switches is just to spend the few minutes it takes to drain and pour back. It gets you time to check the tires and make sure nothing is falling off.
 
JimNH said:
Or spend the money for the timing case mod then it should sump very slowly like a MKIII. Eventually even they will wet sump. As others have said, it makes sure everything in the lower end is well preserved like for over-winter.
The cheapest way without any band-aid valves and switches is just to spend the few minutes it takes to drain and pour back. It gets you time to check the tires and make sure nothing is falling off.
Click to expand...
Yep... and take the time to gently kick it to TDC when you park it. Makes the vertical distance from oil tank to major point of "leakage" a fair bit smaller.
I have found it is worth it.
 
Tornado said:
That depends on how rapidly tank oil finds its way down into sump..some report months before significant sumping. Some a qeek or so. My bike will loose nearly all oil in tank within 2 or three weeks. Hence the oil tap solution. I did take some advice on here originally, just ignoring it and one day after a short ride found rear tire heavily oiled up...the wetsump oil caused the pressure build up with piston move.ent to blew the crank seal at the primary case in half...and then proceeded to over fill primary and spew excess out the back. Could have resulted in a crash.

So best advice, determine how much oil level in tank drops from immediately after shutdown to days/weeks before next fire up. Drain sump if in doubt, measure how much is there...more than 200 to 300 ml tells you it is wet sumping more than ideal. Choose how you will deal with it.
Click to expand...
This is exactly why I offer an Oring to prevent tho main oil seal from blowing out. It only costs $1. And adding a sump reed valve lets that pressure blow the oil out instead of overpressuring your main seal.
 
I use an anti-sump valve with an ignition cutoff and a reed valve and a vent in the left side exhaust valve cover that goes through a check valve up to the oil tank. Works better than any other solution I've tried. I run a dry belt clutch without a hint of oil in my primary due to a blown out main seal. Draining the sump never crosses my mind anymore either. Draining the sump is not all that much fun on my Norton. The exhaust headers run under the sump plug with very little clearance and I don't like removing the headers just to drain the sump before firing up the little beast.

Is this muther sumpin horse whipped dead yet? :)
 
I like Valvoline 20W50 VR. Supposedly it is a higher zinc, which flat tappets appreciate for the extra lubing.....much like leaded gas in the days of old and cast iron guides. Worked great.....but LEAD is evil....Castrol 20W50 dinosaur oil is another choice.....IMHO. 50W Harley oil was good when you could get it...wet sumped slightly less. Synthetic oil finds its way out easier in Nortons and Harley EVOs ans Shovelheads
 
Peter Restaino said:
If I let my evo Harley sit for a couple weeks I know I need to catch the oil coming out of the breather pipe into a bottle so my1970 commando, when finished will be no big deal draining the sump, and I have the Andover drain plug for that.
Click to expand...
Just curious, what year EVO? Sportster or Big Twin? I've owned my 1996 FXSTC Softail Custom Big Twin, since new. It has over 60,000 miles on it and I never had a sumping problem. Plus I leave it sit over the winter 5-6 months. Not a drop of anything anywhere.
 
Just gonna note that velos from the factory had an anti-sump ball valve and have been very reliable. Question, one of my bikes has a switch wired into the starter solenoid. Anyone know who sells these switches with integral electrical contacts ?
 

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