Where's my oil pressure??

Ugh, to the trapped bit in oil ways, slightly jammed in by oil flow, but fully jammed in when cases cool and contract around them, to point even stiff wire may not dislodge until cases swollen again almost too hot to handle, ugh.
A screen over the sump passage would of saved untold too soon failures.

comnoz said:

Take the lower banjo bolt out and install a spacer in place of the banjo or use a short bolt if you have a 5/16-22 bolt laying around.

Click to expand...

If I simply blank the lower banjo, I don't have a gauge reading. On my bike, the oil goes from the banjo by the relief valve up to the RH side of the head then over the top to the LH side where there's a two-banjo stack, the outer of which goes to the gauge. This gauge banjo is slightly larger in ID than the rocker banjo, and comes with a "special" bolt that has a step to seal between the two banjo faces and is crossdrilled in two places, one for each banjo, and is center drilled (natch). The problem is, a) I have to block oil flow to both RH and LH sides of the head. On the side without the gauge, I could hot swap a plain bolt and nut; but where the gauge connects, a plain bolt might not work too well due to the mismatch in banjo diameters. b) I could remove the gauge from the triple tree and connect it at the lower banjo - the hose to it will only go so far - but I'd have to do it fast enough that the engine was still as hot as before. Same goes for scenario a). c) If I could come up with a way to put something into the holes in the head to blank them AND RELIABLY GET IT OUT AGAIN, that would be the way to go. What I really need is duplicates of the upper banjo bolts, but without the center holes. I guess I could buy same (the "special" might be pricey or unobtainable) and braze them up, but that's time and money (mostly time). I'm not sure there's a quick and dirty way to do this test.

comnoz said:

With a Norton you will not hear a rod bearing that is loose until the piston begins to hit the head or the rod exits the front of the cases. Jim

Click to expand...

Actually, I was wondering about a noise associated with loose rocker spindles.

pvisseriii said:

How is the flow at the return to the tank.

Click to expand...

It was good.

pvisseriii said:

Loosen the banjo upper left head and see if it runs well (messy, but do it). Do these things warm when the pressure drops. Report back.

Click to expand...

Will do.

On the possibility of blocked passages, I think this is highly unlikely, since the pressure is fine for the first few miles, then drops off. It's done this consistently, if you can call twice consistent. Also, I've drained the sump a couple of times and no metal to speak of came out, and nothing was on the filter in the drain plug. I did squint into the holes behind the pump with a flashlight, and saw nothing, but that's not saying much. Hopefully I don't have this problem.

pvisseriii said:

Good luck, keep us posted.

Click to expand...

Righto.

I thought of a way to plug the rocker feeds: a 6d nail just fits in the RH banjo screw center hole, a #6 or #8 screw (didn't check for sure which it was) just fits in the slightly larger center hole of the "special" on the LH side. So, I cut to length and stack with o-rings so that when the banjo screws are tightened the o-rings squeeze to seal the flow. The head of the nail/screw pulls them out afterwards. I got a plan.

1up3down said:

since you are not going to reuse it, can you cut it open and see how it is built, any evidence the spring or ball may have suddenly failed and not opened somehow?

Click to expand...

No need to cut it open - it easily disassembles with a vice and spanner. It's simply a check valve with a weak spring. The ball is 3/8 dia. No apparent faults.

kartiste said:

I thought of a way to plug the rocker feeds: a 6d nail just fits in the RH banjo screw center hole, a #6 or #8 screw (didn't check for sure which it was) just fits in the slightly larger center hole of the "special" on the LH side. So, I cut to length and stack with o-rings so that when the banjo screws are tightened the o-rings squeeze to seal the flow. The head of the nail/screw pulls them out afterwards. I got a plan.

Click to expand...

Today I prepped temporary plugs as outlined above. However, assembly of the LH connection, with the stacked banjos, is difficult even cold, due not to the temporary plug but due to the need to wrangle the various bits to line up so the banjo screw goes in without cross-threading in the head. I concluded it was not feasible to do it hot, being as how I do not have heat resistant fingers. So no experiment today.

pvisseriii said:

How is the flow at the return to the tank. Loosen the banjo upper left head and see if it runs well (messy, but do it). Do these things warm when the pressure drops. Report back. ... Good luck, keep us posted.

Click to expand...

Wearing a Bushy's Ale of Man t-shirt for luck, I took it out for a ride. Same story: after warming up it drops to a fairly stable 8 psi (and who knows what it really is, since that's so low in the gauge range and hence likely inaccurate).

When I got back, I checked the level in the oil tank. It was about 3/8" below L, so I brought it up to L. Then I cranked it up. Goosing the throttle, it spits oil out the return pipe, but precious little - maybe 4 or 5 droplets per second. It's white and foamy as it dribbles down the wall of the tank. Cracking the rocker banjos, they leak pretty good (but no white foamy).

So are there any new clues in this?

Seems normal for bike not run up to full heat soaked state so oil still moisture filled. If some seal blown then not likely to show normal PSI when cold each time.
So part of the Commando hobby is when not finding anything to fix, ride it till it does, often as long as anyone else gets away with it. Again remember official Norton Notice to ignore and remove oil gauge, so folks like you would leave em alone.

hobot said:

Again remember official Norton Notice to ignore and remove oil gauge, so folks like you would leave em alone.

Click to expand...

Oh, you wound me - hey, I LIKED that song "Don't Worry, Be Happy"! If this is normal, I can handle that - I'd rather ride it than work on it any day. I just want to know. Still, I haven't looked at the isolastics yet. And there's this catch in the kickstart sometimes. And it seems to take an inordinate amount of tickling to get it started. And I have the parts for the TLS brake upgrade and the remote oil filter, and I got some stock to fab a headsteady, and ...

Ugh kartiste, half my seeming cavalier remarks is I'm also pensive of oiling failure. I'd have to know too, so I'd disconnect the oil tank hose and see for sure. Its kinda hard to see the oil return in tank as it spreads out on tank wall but in my 2 Combats one with the sump hole moved and the other factory, both spray oil out the cap opening on blip ups, especially on first start up with extra oil in sump.

These things do blow up w/o any fault or help from ourselves. I've spent the majority of my Commando life recovering them way more than enjoying them.
I'm giving both my Commando's one more chance or I must admit I'm not man enough or lucky enough to be a Commando owner.