2003 Royal Enfield 500 Deluxe

Today I foresee meself sittin' on a stool to the right of the bike, fiddlin' with the change mech and using left hand to turn the back wheel while muttering the litany 1st, neutral, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.

Or more likely, 1st, neutral, neutral again, bugger, 2nd, 'nother neutral, blast, bugger again, will I ever get this working right . . .

The plank, RE Tool #1, holds the rear wheel that vital few millimetres clear of the ground otherwise you can't turn it.
 
Ho hum.

This has been my day so far.


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Looking at the first picture, you have the gear lever lower right and the operator shaft, square, at upper left. The stop plate, secured by two nuts, sits over the operator shaft and hides the ratchet mechanism which is more clearer in the second picture. The outer ratchet plate - like a hollow circle with two small ratchets - is hinged at top left and swung to and fro by the gear lever. It is supposed to move the black inner ratchet which turns the operator shaft.

Problems, we read, result from the outer ratchet plate moving too far, so the gearbox goes past the intended gear and arrives at a false neutral, or the outer ratchet plate doesn't move far enough so the required gear is not selected.

It is slightly more complicated, neither end of the outer ratchet plate is a fixed hinge, both ends have pins which sit in spring clips. You can see the upper spring in the third picture. The other pin on the outer ratchet goes into a spring clip which is hidden by the fork on the gear lever arm. The outer ratchet isn't fixed in place and with the stop plate removed it can sort of fall out.

The adjustment plate is the inner plate which has slotted holes under the pillar bolts. Adjustment is done by loosening the pillars and moving the inner plate slightly.

The problem I found yesterday was the upper gears, 3rd & 4th, not available. If I turn the operator shaft with a spanner (I've moved on from using mole grips, so crude) then I can move the gearbox to all gears. And several neutrals, of which you can never have too many . . .

But shifting with the gear lever, I seem to get 1st, neutral and 2nd. And I cannot see why.

Leaving it for today, hoping for a 3am insight.
 
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No 3am insight. But I have had encouragement from the Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum - they say, basically, it takes a lot of patience. Uhm.

Today, further playing with the change mech. Then, went out to test the results of my playing and was pleasantly surprised to find I could change gear! Not good, but with a couple of tries it was possible to change UP so I extended my test ride to the nearby village of Bowden. Which gave me a long enough run to select top gear. All four gears work!

Changes down the box more fraught but with care and a couple of tries was able to make changes. An observation on the modified gearbox - 1st, 2nd and 3rd are definitely higher than before. Can quite comfortably ride around at village speeds in second. Third does not feel like over-revving when you get to 50 mph. Looking forward to when I can make smooth, easy changes third to fourth without the huge drop in revs.

Back from that ride:

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The rest of the day has mainly been short test ride, back yard, take the end cover off the gearbox, mess about with change mech, reassemble, test ride. The first ride was the best - after further adjustment, the change was worse, so went back towards what it was like before and got to well, slightly better.

Trouble is, there is nothing like a nice threaded adjuster so you can make small, controlled changes.

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No obvious may to mark the present position and move things a measurable small amount. So what you do is loosen the screws that hold the change mech, attempt to twist or swivel the mechanism one way or the other, just a little bit, oops is that too much? Put it back together and go for a test ride.

That's the method. It's not right yet, I'm hoping to make the gearchange better but that might take a few more attempts. So the gentlemen on the Unofficial Community are quite right - it takes a lot of patience.

But at least I've been out on the Slug. Four times now since rebuilding the gearbox. And on the way back from Bowden, found myself laughing out loud - had almost forgotten the Slug does that to you.

Onwards and upwards.
 
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Onwards and upwards.
Brilliant! All progress is good progress! 😃
No obvious way to mark the present position and move things a measurable small amount.

I was wondering if there was any place you could make a little hash mark with a fine tip felt pen, across two adjoining plates? To use as a reference line. 🤔
 
I was wondering if there was any place you could make a little hash mark with a fine tip felt pen, across two adjoining plates? To use as a reference line. 🤔
Yes, I was wondering that as well. Mrs suggested something similar. But looking at the change mechanism and how it fits in the gearbox cover I couldn't find anywhere to make a mark. The pillar bolts that secure the rear plate sit on little bosses, so there's a space under the innermost plate. Just about visible in the last photo.
 
More pictures of the gearbox. Still playing the same game as Wednesday, trying to adjust the change mech.

It would be useful to see what the ratchets are doing as the gear lever - foot controller in Albion speak - is moved up or down. The stop plate at the front which holds it all together blocks the view, so tried leaving it off. But as you move the gear lever, the outer and inner ratchets both make a break for freedom. Even phantasised about making a see-through acrylic copy of the stop plate.

Instead, been trying to hold the outer ratchet in place with finger tips while also moving the gear lever and turning the back wheel - not easy with only two hands so usually the ratchets fall out. But then I thought it might help if I took the neutral finder apart and used its bolt to hold the inner ratchet. Hopefully you can see the central part of the N finder doing that job in the third picture:


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Makes fiddling with the gear-lever and watching the ratchets a bit easier.

And I have found a way to move the adjuster plate - the one at the back - by just a smidgeon. This picture shows the inner and outer ratchets, the two pillar bolts which hold the adjuster plate slotted holes, and method for moving the plate by turning a screwdriver gently between the plate and the side of the gearbox.


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Second attempt today has led to a definite measure of success. On the test ride, was able to shift both up and down,. Made me bold enough to venture out onto the village bypass, where at last I had the delight of accelerating to 50-55 mph in 3rd gear and making a smooth change into top! Without the huge drop in revs.

Not perfect, but it works. Not sure if I'll try further adjustment, well not right away. The way the gear shift now is certainly good enough to live with.
 
Congratulations Raymond! All of that makes me wonder how these bikes were originally set at the factory. 🤔
There is a frustrating side to these old Bullets. I don't count the one in that video as old coz it has the unit gearbox and that's probably a big improvement over the Albion on pre-unit bikes.

The delight is having a proper 1940's motorbike, a simple, crude, charming, requires owner involvement time machine. Chuff Chuff Chuff The frustrations are variable build quality and sometimes not the best components. But then there's another upside - the problems are mostly well-known and the fixes mostly aren't too expensive. But then again, there's downside to owner involvement, some bikes will have been neglected and all will have had POs mussing em about.

Bullet ownership, if you fully commit as you should in any relationship, teaches you important life lessons. Just how much of a giggle you can have on a slow motorbike. Involvement - the more you put in etc. Slow down and relax your inputs - gear changes are an art not to be hurried - still probably takes under half a second though. Select your line in advance, plan your braking.

Another life lesson - patience as needed trying to adjust the flippin' gear change mechanism . . .

I won't blame that one on the factory. The mech can be adjusted to give good reliable changes so we'll give Chennai the benefit and say it's likely the mechanism has been fiddled with by other idiots before me.
 
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I'm also guessing the laughing/joy is partly relief on a successful conclusion
Thank you for your kind words, Skull. I put the laughter down to the sheer improbability that a museum piece is actually a functioning vehicle.

Fully equipped - both a side stand and a centre stand.
 
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Cool but dry day, gotta take the Slug out, but will that be pottering about locally to assess the gear-change or will it be a useful trip? The re-building confidence stage. Didn't make up me mind, but I did take a rucksack and shopping list.

The gears were going in, the bike felt good and we ended up going to Galashiels. Picked up some provisions so that was the first proper outing since last October. Did about 18 miles round trip.

One upshift, 3rd-4th, went into a false neutral and it took three prods to find the gear. But TBH that was probably my fault for not being positive with the lever in the first place. Otherwise, all changes up and down snicked in correctly.

No need to have another look inside that gearbox cover, not just yet anyway. Here we are back home after the run.

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Wish you could smell the hot oil and hear the quiet tinkling.
 
Thank you! I love the IB Bullets too and for me, visually this is the main act:


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That lovely tall single, the intricate engineering, the esoteric shapes which hint at what lies inside.

Today, in addition to riding the Slug, also gave the new chain its first adjustment, wiped off the wheel rims and gave the engine cases a quick wipe over too. I know it's Indian metallurgy, but the cases do come up nice. For me, that's all part of what the Bullet gives.
 
That's very generous, Sly, but international postage would probably scupper that idea. I am gradually collecting special tools for the Bullet including a clutch holding tool. What is the fork tool?

The forks is one of the areas on the Slug I've not reached yet. The others are the crankshaft - though I've seen it and tugged manfully on the con rod to assess the big end, seems good - and the timing chest & oil pump.

Made a special tool for the Bullet yesterday. The battery terminals sit close to, almost under, the top frame tube. Obviously, any electrical work I'll disconnect the battery earth and to remove the battery undo both, with shocking results, well sparks, if the screwdriver touches the frame. So I've put a sleeve of shrink wrap over a cross-head and added to the RE tool collection.

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Out riding along the A68 this morning, for some reason got it in my head that the primary drive chain might be too tight. Supposed to be 1/4" slack on the top run, but how hard do you pull to measure the slack? There could be a big difference between 6 mm of easy movement and the same if you use a bit of force? Funny how things can prey on one's mind.

But when we got home it occurred to me that it's easy to check. Well, it is now with a primary drain plug. First pic shows the primary having a pee.


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Well, the top run moves about 6mm with finger pressure so it should be alright, but others might say that's as tight as a bowstring. So I loosened the tensioner by about 1/6 of a turn. Still moves about 6mm but must be a smidgeon looser now.

However, I was surprised by the colour of the fluid. It's only about fifty miles since new red ATF was put in there, but it's gone very dark already. Apologies for the out-of-focus picture but you can see the colour. There's no metal pieces but the fluid appears to be full of something very fine that gives it the dark hue. Stirring gives a pearlescent effect. Magnet not interested, but I don't know if steel ground down to a dust and mixed with oil would be attracted to a magnet?

Think I'm probably worrying about nuffin so put it back together and filled with new ATF. To hell with the expense (that's a joke BTW).
 
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