TALES FROM THE SHED
Oil, oil everywhere, most of it leaking. Frank is feeling non-poetic about a few things…
The AJS 16 which has been unexpectedly occupying both these pages and the bench in The Shed is actually very pleasant to ride. While we’re thudding along, delighting in the steady beat of the original (made in Slovakia) silencer and admiring the neat handling on the new (made in two separate faraway countries) tyres, I find myself oddly reluctant to return to RCHQ, where the customary practice is that I am greeted by the Better Third with displays of unlimited admiration, compliments, and things previously familiar only to the conquering hero, whoever he was.
These delights of course still happen, as is only right. However, the fulsome praise falters when that considerably Better Third first observes and then unkindly points towards the pool of oil forming beneath the bike’s gearbox. ‘Isn’t this puddle getting bigger?’ she suggested. Huh. I distracted her with suggestions that we might pop out to the local Indian restaurant for a decent Korma. She pointed out that it was still closed. I was just getting ahead of myself, as is only right. Shrug.
I dislike oil leaks. I truly and vastly hate big oil leaks which persist in failing to cure themselves. Being an optimistic sort of soul, I always tell myself that after a few miles things will settle down and whatever is causing the leak will sort itself out and normal service – only a few minor and predictable leaks – will re-establish itself. Sadly, even amateur observation suggested that the post-ride puddle was increasing in size every ride, not fading away. It really does look like the gearbox, too. I mean, what else is there around there to leak?
Apart from the oil pipes themselves, but they’re made of some ferocious 1960s black plastic, maybe neoprene, and are under no real stress, so why would they leak? I buy a set of gearbox gaskets.
Further observation revealed that although the oil level in the gearbox fell after a ride and after I’d topped it up, but also that it didn’t fall by much, and it stopped falling after reaching a consistent level. Hmmm.
I mailed Steven at AMC Classic Spares and asked whether he had any spare oil pipes – or just the scavenge, which is the only pipe under pump pressure – and whether he’d ever heard of leaking oil pipes? A lunatic idea, I suggested, wisely. I mean; neoprene?
Wisdom comes before a fall. Steven’s reply revealed two things. Firstly that he had no