Oil Pressure Gauge or light?

[leswaller]

Yes this is the iron john unit. He phoned me a couple of months ago when I was after a crankshaft and was trying to sell me one of his units.
I will post a photo of my unit tomorrow

[clive]

Would you trust a light or gauge, which could go wrong. Our old bikes will sump oil when standing, some more than others. So having an oil tap does help prevent this. You have a petrol tap you have to remember to turn on. Put a key ring on the tap below the tank. You will feel this as a reminder to turn oil on & off also.

I have at least 4 friends whose fail safe systems to remind them to switch on the oil have failed, wrecking their twin engines. If you have ever ridden off forgetting to turn on the petrol then forgetting the oil tap is significantly worse than coming to a temporary halt.

[Rob Harknett]

Would you trust a light or gauge, which could go wrong. Our old bikes will sump oil when standing, some more than others. So having an oil tap does help prevent this. You have a petrol tap you have to remember to turn on. Put a key ring on the tap below the tank. You will feel this as a reminder to turn oil on & off also.

I have at least 4 friends whose fail safe systems to remind them to switch on the oil have failed, wrecking their twin engines. If you have ever ridden off forgetting to turn on the petrol then forgetting the oil tap is significantly worse than coming to a temporary halt.

Yes these fail safe systems are all very clever until they go wrong. I always remember to turn the petrol on before I start my bike, why not the oil tap also. I may sometimes forget to turn them off, even if its some time before I discover this, at least oil going in my engine has caused no harm. Do make sure you fit an oil tap with an I/S dia. same as the pipe. I have been told some cheap ones have small dia holes.

[leswaller]

Here is the photo of my system. As the tap is designed to feed water to a washing machine the inside bore is big. There is no way of starting the bike with the tap off as the default position on the courtesy light plunger is 'continuity' which earths out the mag. You can see the plunger above and to the left of the red ear on the switch. Turning the tap on (ear vertical) depresses the plunger and breaks the earth connection allowing the mag to work.

[SPRIDDLER]

[JimFitz]

Hi Les

Thanks for the pic - difficult to see much detail on method of construction. Did you use a 90 degree angled valve with a wallplate and then mount an angled plate on the wallplate with a hole in for the push switch?

Jim

[leswaller]

Hi Jim
There is a short rigid copper pipe silver soldered into the outlet pipe from the oil tank. This connects via an olive fitting to a straight inline tap (no mounting bracket). The outlet of the tap goes to a 90 degree olive fitting elbow and then to the conventional flexible oil pipe to the pump.

The switch is mounted on an L shaped fabricated bracket that is bolted through a convenient hole in the frame which I think would have originally been part of the arrangement for fitting a side car. The electrical earth is provided by this bracket. One connection goes to the mag cut out and another connection on the same terminal goes to the engine kill button. When the tap is turned off the switch is spring loaded in the default position and all connections are earthed. When the tap is turned on the earth is disconnected from the mag but the mag can be earthed by pressing the kill button.

I have also fitted a full flow oil filter in the return from the pump. This is hidden in the top of the frame behind the spine tube under the seat. It is cartridge based (2CV type) and the cartridge is easily unscrewed for changing by removing the seat.

[JimFitz]

Thanks Les. Job for me over the winter together with an oil filter.

Jim

[sunnybob]

Still working on the idiot light idea. I have a question about pressure. Is the inlet oil pressure the same of the outlet?
Thank you.

Roberto

[leswaller]

No, the principles of any pump rely on creating a lower pressure on the inlet side caused either by piston suction or gear rotation