How serious is it

[saddlebum]

How serious is it to leave out a rubber plug on the top of the camshaft bearing. It looks like the plug I found inside the clutch cover http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=77398 is from the camshaft bearing cap. Obviously it some how popped out and found its way into the cover. Looking at an engine that Carl has sitting on his garage floor with the valve covers removed it really does not appear to do much other than maybe keep oil from coming up through the hole in the upper bearing cap but to do that it would still have to go around the cam journal and lubricate it. Unless the journal bearing has a groove around the middle of the bearing, in which case the oile would just travel through the groove and exit through the unplugged hole and not lubricate the bearing and cam.

[Peder_y2k]

Not knowing, I hesitate to answer. I suspect leaving the plug out will result in lower oil pressure and flow rate to the required areas. To begin with, the oil pump does not produce high pressure.

-Pete, in Tacoma WA USA

'83,88

[dingy]

The cam journals are fed by the metal 'Y' tube that bolts to the twinkie. The cams are drilled lengthwise to feed the other three journals from the ones the main feed intersects. If this rubber cap is not in place, the oil will seek the path of least resistance and exit the uncapped hole. This will cause the others in that head to not receive adequate pressure.

 

Picture of valve cover shows a cross that presses against each one of these rubbers to keep them seated.

 

The service manual has the oil flow diagrams in the appendices section.

 

Gary

[MiCarl]

To paraphrase Dingy, it's important.

 

Might as well check the valve lash while you're looking for its home.

[saddlebum]

That's what I was afraid of. Thanks for the answers

[dacheedah]

put together cinderellie, take apart cinderellie,:cool10: now do that cinderellie . . .

[saddlebum]

put together cinderellie, take apart cinderellie,:cool10: now do that cinderellie . . .

Your directions Abdul are impeckable.....Makes me wonder why I ever wasted cash on a manual.

[Marcarl]

Now I'm thinking, how long since that valve cover has been off, or the clutch cover for that matter, because the only real way for that to get there is if both were to be off at the same time, and if it's been a long time then you would have had problems long before now,,,, I'm thinking,,,,,, PO took stuff apart, lost the plug, then found another and put that in,,, but then I was only thinking and that doesn't always work the best, but sometimes even amazes me.

[saddlebum]

That or when I replaced the valve cover gasket in 2007 I caught it with the edge of the valve cover while slipping it back in.

[Black Owl]

Nahhhh.. Oil pressure and lubrication are highly over-rated. :rotfl: