Triumph Oil Plumbing, need some serious help

[calebbernabe]

Sorry for two posts in a row, but I have myself in a bit of a situation with my oil setup on this triumph build. Its a 73 oif bike with a full hard tail. I picked up this old santee oil tank assuming it would look good on the bike and wouldn't be to much of an issue to set up. Well I have it mounted, and know that I have to get around to plumbing the system its a nightmare. It has three feeds, I have identified the breather, but I am not sure which of the other two is return and feed. It also does not have the T junction to feed the rocker, so I need a way to get around that/make one out of hose and clamps. But the biggest problem is that both of the feeds on the tank are a much larger diameter than the rest of the lines for the bike, ie. the lines coming from the engine do not fit. This is my first time plumbing a bike from scratch, I need some help here guys. A basic set up of what lines go to where, how to set up a T for the rocker ect. I attached pics of the tank so you can visualize

*on a completely different note, for some reason my rear drum brake ended up being reversed so that it pushes away from the front of the bike to operate the brake instead of a pulling motion, what did i mess up??

Thanks

[Kcarvajal]

I have a similar horseshoe tank. Plumbing is simple…

Oil from your tank to your motor is gravity fed. If you look at the bottom of your tank, is one removable and does it have a screen on the other end that goes inside the tank? If so, that’s your feed. Your return should either be at the top of your tank or have a tall tower inside which will be above the Oil Level so the oil doesn’t run back through the return along with your Feed. The third one will be your breather which you just run a hose towards the back or under the bike somewhere.

You can get a T hose splitter from Home Depot or Ace Hardware. You connect your engine’s Oil Return to this T and the other to your rocker box line. The other connection will be back to your oil tank. VERY IMPORTANT - make sure you restrict the oil to your tank AFTER the T to force the oil up towards your rocker line. What I did was used a short metal rod, about ½ inch in length and drilled a 3/16 hole in the middle. Shoved that in the hose (between the T and the OIL Tank Return). What this does is create pressure to push the oil up to your rockers while still allowing the oil to go back to your oil tank.

Feel free to PM me if you need help and I’ll give you my number if necessary.

Ken

[calebbernabe]

Neither of the spigots are removal or have a screen, I can feel inside that one of them has a long tube that continues to above the oil level so I assume that is the return, the other has no filter though. I was planning on creating the pressure by using a smaller line to feed the rocker? Also, the two feeds from the bottom of the engine, the larger one in front is the feed correct?

[calebbernabe]

also,
what should i do with the big fitting for the breather hose on the left side of the crank case??

[Guest]

you need to restrict the return, to force feed the rockers. If you just use a smaller line for the rocker the oil is just going to go into the tank as thats the bigger hole.

http://www.chopcult.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15598

brake cams work either way.

[Kcarvajal]

Front is Feed (F=F), Rear is Return (R=R).

The smaller oil line will not be enough to create pressure to force the oil up to your rockers. You will need to further restrict it. I’m sure there are other methods, most of what I’ve read online are built in to the actual oil tank return. But shoving a short metal rod or a portion of a large bolt, the same diameter as the inner dia of the hose and drilling the middle with 3/16 bit works well.

As for your oil tank, put a little oil in it and see if it comes out of one or both. Put a cup underneath so you can re-use the oil. The feed should be at the lowest point of the tank and I would expect the oil to pour out of it. The one with the tower inside could be a breather also. Mine has two towers inside and technically I can use either as a return as long as it’s above the oil level. (someone correct me if this isn’t true)

The hose on the left of your crank case, I’ve seen people run that down below the bike which is how mine was setup. The problem I had was the oil would come out of it at highway speeds and get all over my back tire. So using Torch’s suggestion in other posts, I added another spigot at a high point of my oil tank (above the oil level) and ran that engine breather directly to it. Just make sure the breather of your oil tank is sufficient to release all that pressure. As a peace of mind for me, I added one of those NTP breathers on the cap in addition to the tank breather.

Definitely check out that link that SamHain posted or do a search. It's well covered around here and other sites.

[calebbernabe]

thanks guys. think i got it figured out, used clear line so I can verify that it's getting oil. Now just for the wiring