Oil cooler

[breganzane]

Yes the proper RGS strainer is lower than the 180 ones (because they wisely put the baffle plates which were for some reason absent since the 750's back in the sump) and has a perforated sheet cylinder for the body but it is meant to be covered with a really fine mesh - without measuring one I would guess it would stop particles at least no larger than 0.5mm.  Methinks there's some DPO who's removed it.  No way those bits should have ended up getting as far as the cooler, which is what I thought before I got rivet-sidetracked by the cooler type.

 

[Vince]

How often do you blokes pull the crankcase mesh filter out,its been a while for me.Not saying how long,to embraced.Mine needs the whole exhaust pull to get at it.Painful job.

 

[Terry Dymond]

You can get away with only removing the L/H header, depending how far you have pushed the headers into the collector.
I remove, dismantle and clean the filter every second oil-change.

Terry

 

[Rusty Spokes]

Hi Rusty, my filter doesn't have wire mesh, it is just a can with holes in it, holes you can poke a pencil through. I suppose I should do something about it one day. When I first saw it, I wondered what the Hell it was, 'cause it ain't no filter, that's for sure.

When I first saw a photo of one with wire mesh, I thought, wow, a fancy man's filter, I wouldn't mind one of those! That's when I realised mine was missing something, I'm pretty quick like that.

Mine is nothing like this one, it is about two thirds the height, and where this one has the wire mesh, mine is solid metal with, as I said, holes drilled in it. Next time I have the exhaust off, I'll take it out and take a photo.

I would accept Red's generous offer and get the proper filter installed. Red may have observations concerning your oil pump. I don't know if the plastic bits could damage the pump or not. My guess would be the pump is Okay as the engine still runs..Red or others here would know.

 

[Rusty Spokes]

Rusty,

Looks like an original '74 factory chromed 3C cooler with horn mountings. Chrome made them prone to cracking? and almost impossible to repair.

jacko.

Bingo..and yes the chrome cooler leaked slightly at speed from day one, certainly a crack somewhere. Never a drop off the cooler at idle. I originally thought it was a valve cover leak on the left hand side. The oil leak finally became visible on the oil cooler exterior at about 300 miles. I don't know of a practical way to repair it. I heard most chrome oil coolers were replaced very early. The chrome process may have made them brittle.

 

[AndyW]

I have some hydrochloric acid, I wonder if this would be worth a try? It might eat into the alloy though, I don't know much about hydrochloric acid, I bought it from a pool place to clean oil stains from the concrete floor. It did this job well, and I've got some left over.

Hydrochloric acid really only attacks carbonates with any real vigour: on anything else it's not too different to bleach. I use it in dilute form to clean ferric iron staining (rust) on stainless steel. Cam's probably right to suggest acetone should dissolve the broken plastics however, it'll simply reduce it to a goo which will foul up some oil way and possibly melt other plasticky things too.. If you mix concentrated Hydrochloric with concentrated Sulphuric acids then you've got something to be reckoned with.. Aqua Regia . that should eat it's way through most alloy parts without too much trouble..

 

[Chappo]

  Fuck, NO!  Don't use hydrochloric acid.

You need a plastic solvent that won't hurt aluminium.

Try some solvents on a piece of the plastic.

OK, I won't use hydrochloric acid    I'll try something over the weekend.

we have a few spare ones in stock Chappo if you want a proper one for your RGS, they are slightly different to the one you showed a picture of

cheers
Red

Thanks Red, I might take you up on that. I'm taking the exhaust off on the weekend, (I've got the dreaded oil leak out one of the header pipes)*. I'll have look around for some wire mesh and see if I can make something up, if this doesn't work out, I'll be in touch.

(hijack)
* From what I read on here, some people have sworn they have fixed the problem by stopping a leak at the header, and others have had to replace guides and/or seals. I'm going to check if the exhaust is leaking, then remove it and shine a torch up there and see if I can tell where the dribble is coming from, exhaust or inlet (or both).
I'd done a few things on it over the last twelve months, mainly cosmetic, rechroming and repainting bits, bar end mirror, and a new ignition system, new chains (primary and final) and sprockets, and I was happy with it. I thought, I'm just going to ride it now, and not muck about with it too much for a while. Then I saw the oil leak....

Maybe I need a head job.

 

[Chappo]

I would accept Red's generous offer and get the proper filter installed. Red may have observations concerning your oil pump. I don't know if the plastic bits could damage the pump or not. My guess would be the pump is Okay as the engine still runs..Red or others here would know.

It's been thirteen years, it happened in 2001.

it'll simply reduce it to a goo which will foul up some oil way and possibly melt other plasticky things too..

I'll think I'll just leave it. Get another filter from Red, hang the old oil cooler, and old filter without the mesh on the wall, and turn them into conversation pieces.

 

[mcnicol]

Dichloromethane or toluene might work, but are very toxic and cause cancer, do not get them on your skin. Same with methyl ethyl ketone. Depends on the plastic, though, almost nothing dissolves polyethylene. Grant knows all about this stuff, though, I'm just a humble lipid biochemist.

Ken

 

[Cosi]

Forgot a bit Ken

I'm just a humble SEPPO lipid biochemist.

Ken

 

[Davo]

Maybe I need a head job.

Don't we all 

 

[Grant]

This is what I used to use to dissolve polyethylene when I worked in a plastics company:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decalin

Used to crosslink PE and then dissolve away the uncrosslinked part to measure percentage crosslinking.
Bet they wouldn't let me use it nowadays...

 

[motoddrob]

After totally rebuilding the 1200 I decided to buy a new oil cooler rather than re-use the original not knowing how clean it was internally, plus the fact is looked slightly shitty after years of abuse. I ended up buying a Mocal, made in the UK I believe. Other benefits was the connection were better spaced leaving much more clearance to the header pipes and the fittings were compatible with the Goodridge lines no longer needing the adapter nipple.

Once painted it fitted and looked much better than the original

As for Dichloromethane, is that the same as methylene-dichloride?? of which I spent the best part of 30 years with a small pool of that stuff or methylene-chloride or Chloroform, under my nose and would just slosh it around willy nilly on perspex or styrene sheet when joining them together. We'd have a little dispenser container with a lid that you'd pump a couple of times to fill a little reservoir, using artist type paint brushes to apply it on the perspex to join. When larger quantities were needed a glass syringe would be used. We buy it in 20 litre drums!!
As most of the working day involved gluing bits of plastic together the brush would live conveniently behind my ear as a carpenter's pencil would. After using it and returning to my ear, or sometimes mouth if I was about to use it again I could feel the fumes from the brush with my eye or taste it when in my mouth, quite a sweet taste/smell
In the 70s-80s we didn't know about the carcinogens of it, and the 90s-2006 [retired from modelmaking] didn't take much notice of the warnings.
Was always lead to believe that methylene-dichloride was safer than methylene-chloride to use. I'm amazed that I'm still alive and pretty damn healthy 8)
I used methylene chloride based paint stripper to strip the old powder coat off the Motodd frame. Worked a treat. This time I used gloves!! Better late than never

 

[Dellortoman]

OK. I'm using the oil cooler I got from Henry, but making a new mounting bracket for it.

Does anyone want the original bracket? It's free to anyone who needs it. I'm not sure what model it's for. Probably a 180? later than my '76.

PM me or send an email to cdouglas at netspace dot net dot au