Identify part

Hi Guys.I appear to have developed an oil leak from this area.Can anyone let me know what this is please?

coomo,
I can't seem to get a large enough picture to see it well but it looks like an inline filter that comes with the "oil in airbox" fix kit. I had one that leaked from a hairline crack, barely visible. The part is just black plastic and I believe mine was cracked even before I put it into the oil line, but I had to order a new one. Hope this helps.
Charlie

Thanks Charlie.managed a bigger pic!

It’s a filter, they screw together, try simply tightening it up first...

No stilsons required, should have a rubber gasket inside so ‘hand tight’ is perfectly sufficient.

Speak of the devil oil strainer:

I had sometime today to take a look at my oil strainer that has been leaking for months/years. Not really sure how long it was leaking because I first thought the leak was the sump gasket. Probably leaking since 2016 when I had the oil in airbox fix and the strainer was originally installed.

I must say that the internal design is simple and the single O-ring supplied is problematic at best. The strainer has a 20mm flange at top that sits on the face of the strainer body, without an O ring beneath it. The O ring supplied sits on the top of the strainer cage flange between the flange and the strainer body screw on cap.

The strainer flange is 20mm in dia. The O-ring is larger in outer diameter and perhaps 19mm inside dia. So it is virtually impossible to insure when screwing on the cap that the O-ring will remain in position on the strainer flange. I’m sure the designer thought the design was cool because it only needed 1 O-ring. Hell that must save at least 2 cents.

The O-ring is smaller than the internal diameter of the strainer body, so when you screw the cap back on, the O-ring is free to move out from under the cap in any direction and not seal the strainer flange to the inside of the cap. I suspect this is the problem area.

I reassembled by strainer carefully and hope that that will fix the leak, but there must be a better inline strainer design out there than this one.



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The cheapo after market sintered filters I’ve used in the past had a large flat section rubber washer. Practically impossible to miss assemble.

The one you show there looks significantly less robust than the cheapo ones I used to use!

Good ones look like the pic below. Proper quality, but at a price many consider too high.

Yer gets what yer pays for I say...

That Pingel does look much better.
I'm gonna source a different O-ring that fits the strainer flange and body better, and see how that works.
If it keeps leaking, then I'll look to replace it with something better.
Don't care how much it costs if it prevents oil from slobbering all over the bottom of my ride.

Why does the 961 have this extra filter? Is it to prevent debris from getting to the pump from the airbox oil separator (which should be clean shouldn't it?) whereas the main filter is for the feed from the tank?

It's not a filter, but a micro-screen strainer.
Yes, this prevents small bits traveling from the oil tank getting to the oil pump.
Mine had a few tiny pieces in it when I inspected ans cleaned it.
So it is needed.

BritTwit said:

It's not a filter, but a micro-screen strainer.
Yes, this prevents small bits traveling from the oil tank getting to the oil pump.
Mine had a few tiny pieces in it when I inspected ans cleaned it.
So it is needed.

Click to expand...

So this screens the oil from tank before the pump and the main filter is for oil after it's gone around engine but before pump return to tank?

MxMartin said:

So this screens the oil from tank before the pump and the main filter is for oil after it's gone around engine but before pump return to tank?

Click to expand...

Not quite, oil goes from the pump, through the filter, then to the engine components, then returns to the tank going through the cooler on the way.

I have also wondered about the necessity of the ‘strainer’. But when looking at the oil route it’s clear that dirty (and potentially contaminated) oil goes back to the tank. So the strainer is presumably to protect the oil pump from such contaminants.

Yes.
The boys at Donington must have noticed something, and decided to insert a strainer between the tank and pump.
In wet sump motors, the oil pump in the sump normally has a protective screen in front of the pump induction.
The 961 is a dry sump design, but, I'm assuming Norton decided to do the same type of thing for the 961's pump.
It would have been nicer if the strainer had a better quality O-ring to avoid leaks due to misaligned O-ring.

BritTwit said:

Yes.
The boys at Donington must have noticed something, and decided to insert a strainer between the tank and pump.
In wet sump motors, the oil pump in the sump normally has a protective screen in front of the pump induction.
The 961 is a dry sump design, but, I'm assuming Norton decided to do the same type of thing for the 961's pump.
It would have been nicer if the strainer had a better quality O-ring to avoid leaks due to misaligned O-ring.

Click to expand...

Exactly
The inline screen filter is to catch weld slag, metal shavings, shop rag fibers etc that were missed during fabrication and cleaning. It’s cheap insurance and saves the oil pump.

Ok, got it. On my Sportster the cartridge filter is on the oil return feed to the tank, collecting any debris from the engine. There is no screen between tank and pump so the assumption is that the cartridge filter has collected the debris and the oil tank gets a cleaned return. The outlet from oil tank is raised from the floor of the tank by about 2cm so any contamination in the tank theoretically settles undisturbed in the bottom.

Fast Eddie said:

The cheapo after market sintered filters I’ve used in the past had a large flat section rubber washer. Practically impossible to miss assemble.

The one you show there looks significantly less robust than the cheapo ones I used to use!

Good ones look like the pic below. Proper quality, but at a price many consider too high.

Yer gets what yer pays for I say...


View attachment 9829

Click to expand...

What is the part/model # for this?
Thanks.

Hooligan67 said:

What is the part/model # for this?
Thanks.

Click to expand...

Spied this on the Theil site as well:

BritTwit said:

Yes.
The boys at Donington must have noticed something, and decided to insert a strainer between the tank and pump.
In wet sump motors, the oil pump in the sump normally has a protective screen in front of the pump induction.
The 961 is a dry sump design, but, I'm assuming Norton decided to do the same type of thing for the 961's pump.
It would have been nicer if the strainer had a better quality O-ring to avoid leaks due to misaligned O-ring.

Click to expand...

The problem with these "pre" filters is that they build up sludge on the screens and that robs oil flow from the pump and then ultimately the lifters which can cause all sorts of fun problems. Yes checking them more often may help but remember if the oil pump isn't getting a full flow then neither is all of your components internally. Also on cold starts if those filters are not perfectly clean your cold thick oil wont flow either. Removing the tank hose when doing oil changes is going to be the best solution of seeing if there is any funk in your oil tank.

As covered on almost every motorcycle forum a good magnetic drain plug is also a must.

These were fitted as part of the big tsb#00014 rework, which was subsequently carried on throughout production from around 2017 onwards. The inline filter is to prevent foreign debris from blocking up the tiny orifice of the check valve that was fitted to the oil pumps, in a bid to prevent wet sumping. Generally most the crap is cleared out at the first 500 mile service...and quite a bit you can pull out too. Engine build didnt have a proper parts washer, just brake cleaner sprays and cloths to clean everything prior to assembly......so you often find quite a lot of lint in the metal gauze. You also find the odd bit of crap from the frame production.
Pictured is the worst one Ive ever seen...clearly had never been cleaned before at previous services. Its pretty rare to much of anything in them in the services after.
I was never a fan of that check valve, looked far too small to me. I'll see if Ive got one in the workshop later, take a piccy for you all.

And here's the check valve that the inline filter is there to protect. As you can see, it reduces the original 10mm drilling down to 2mm, with a ball bearing in that 2mm orifice as well. I'm not a fan.
Please excuse my large thumb making the hole look smaller than 10mm.....be assured it is though. Big hands...big gloves (XXXL RST's).