Britbike forum Forums British motorcycles in general The competition forum Caveat Emptor Redline VTwin Gear Oil?

Apologies in advance for an Oil thread.

I'm into the transmission on the missbehaving Hornet today. One thing I noticed was all the bronze in the box was black or becoming black which I have never seen before. I thought that from past conversations this was an indication of heated oil attacking the bronze.

Is this so or am I mistaken? Has anybody else seen this?

In fairness to Redline - could this also be too much heat on the oil as the box was binding and the oil that came out after I noticed it binding was quite stinky.

Are there any 'blue' parts in there? Years ago my shim was clearly overheated!

Maybe hot oil with additives in the oil that attack yellow metals?

Yes Tom - One of the shift forks was toasted and worn. Also when I went to remove the transmission, I had to tap it with a soft mallet at first. It seemed that the counter shaft bush had a grip on the Transmission main shaft. there was brown crud on the shaft which i cleaned off. I also cleaned the counter shaft bush surface out.

Before installing again I re-shimmed the layshaft. I'm currently using 10-12 thousands on the advise of Ed V. I've had really good luck with another synthetic oil in my other BSA's. They that told me their oil was yellow metal safe. I will go with that for now.

I've got an email into Redline asking questions. Perhaps I'm using the wrong Redline oil in the racebike. A friend is using the Redline Heavyweight in his Triumph with no ill affects so. I've heard that the V-Twin is the same as the Heavyweight but I'd like to hear it from Redline.

Quite possibly. Like I say I've sent an email to Redline and hope to talk with them next week. It's possible I just "cooked" the oil.

I use Redline MT 90 in my Triumph LSR bike..It’s a GL4…..The oil has been in there for years, but LSR is short duration racing

If one of the forks has been hot it means it's that which is trying
to hold it in gear. Set the box up on the bench in a vise and ensure
you are getting full engagement of the gears as the cam plate is
indexed. 12 thou endfloat on an a65 layshaft is a recipe for disaster
if you are racing it. Once warmed up that will become more like 20 thou
but then iv'e only talked to Chris Vincent about these boxes so what do
i know.

Thanks Nick I'll go back and look and see which one.

I like Nicks statements. Closer to .005 would not be too tight. Also the 'full engagement' is key. It may involve shimming the main shaft and the layshaft at the door side to achieve this and then rechecking the shim on the drive side. It is fiddly. Sort of a zen, wax on wax off process.

I like Nicks statements. Closer to .005 would not be too tight. Also the 'full engagement' is key. It may involve shimming the main shaft and the layshaft at the door side to achieve this and then rechecking the shim on the drive side. It is fiddly. Sort of a zen, wax on wax off process.

I recently put one together and the layshaft top was oversize making
the box bind. Replaced that gear and all is well. (Both were brand new
still wrapped in greased paper from the same supplier.)
Just an example, you don't know if these old parts are out of the scrap
bin or not, so much of it was over the wall and sold on. I garentee many
of the change quadrants sold are sub standard and don't work without
a bit of dressing. Cam plates can be all over the place when you come to
fitting them, genuine or not. Treat all the parts as one off's and take your
time assembling it as if it was experimental.
My own street bike has zero endfloat on the layshaft, it's tight until the motor
is warm. BUT it changes well and has never kicked out of gear and i can find
neutral at a standstill.
Just my tuppence worth
Nick

BTW, if you are not using an outrigger, all bets are off for racing.