Royal Enfield Timing Cover comes off 

I have a 1999 Bullet 350 Standard. Once sorted out these are reliable bikes. Now have 16000miles with no problems. Even the original tires and rear chain are still good. They are easy to maintain and will last a very long time if well cared for.

@jabgoon this is called oozing. open the Rocker cover & and fasten up all the six head nuts... then kick start the bike & pore fresh oil on the Exhaust valve spring and check the silencer whether your bike is throwing a white smoke, if yes then time for you to replace the Head valves & guides... this is because of bad oil supply.................... Faisal

It doesn't only happen at RE years ago I bought a Lada it had a similar problem not a knock but sometimes the starter wouldn't turn the motor over, what it turned out to be there was a rivet holding the the solenoid plunger probably like you said the worker went to lunch and when he came back forgot to pein the end of the rivet.

@kanakaken I did not ASSUME any thing and for your kind information I did not Moved from using any camels or goats......... I've faced these problems and helped myself from over coming these problems..... if you cannot take any suggestions then it's your problem.... I am sharing this information based on my personal experience, I've three bikes with me which are up and running in good conditions & I do not take my bike to any workshop.... I hope your frustration will calm down........

Nothing wrong inside the timing case. I thought the knock was coming from there, but it was deeper inside. Turns out the nut on the crankshaft was loose. This would never happen during normal wear. Someone at the factory went to lunch and came back and forgot to tighten the nut. I ended up taking the whole engine out to get to the crankcase just to tighten the nut.

After I hit the 'post' button I realized I had covered this subject further down the page. The 'thick spacer washer' I mentioned was a thick thrust washer. All the thrust washers were in place & this was an extra one left in at the factory. I know this for a fact as the only work done on the machine was the replacement of the faulty barrel at 56kms under warranty. The barrel had been machined incorrectly & wouldn't sit right on the crankcase, causing a very fine spray oil leak.

@kanakaken (there WAS an extra thrust washer LEFT IN THE TIMING CASE BY THE FACTORY IN INDIA.) you mean to say that instead of 2 washers there were 3 washers...... generally we use thin washers on the cam wheels sometimes 2 or 3 on each cam wheels..................

@kanakaken :- no my dear friend this washer are used for stopping the clap sound of the cam wheels... before blaming anyone just check your driving skills.... these washers are not responsible for the oil pump failure... it is because of using a high viscosity OIL........ I faced this problem few days back it was due to some carbon deposits blocking the Engine Oil inlet way....

Yet they are so proud of their acheivement. They have achieved nothing except continue the building of a thing they copied & poorly at that. Their quality control leaves much to be desired especially when you consider what they did to my machine in their factory. The misallignment of the machining on my barrel, the leaving of a thick thrust washer in the timing case & a hand print under the gloss on my fuel tank, had nothing to do with me & everything to do with factory their quality control.

I can't argue with you on that,they are crude by today's standards.It's for that very reason that I bought the Bullet,it reeked of nostalgia & reminded me of the bikes my dad rode.Also they were so simple you could work on them yourself, plus I just liked the look.I WAS warned, they were not put together very well, little did I know how true that was.The cost of the UCE model has gone up $1k,so now you'd be nuts to buy one when there are much better machines that look as good but go heaps better

Every thing in there looks ok to me. Always do this check with the motor at top dead centre as the engine weight will be off all the gears then.

A crank nut going loose....thats not good...i see ur bullet has standard timing gear pins...i have recently got myself a adjustable...it works great....i shall upload the video soon...

After stripping down the engine I found the thrust washer left in the timing case was not the cause of the big end going. The oil pump still worked, not perfectly, for some teeth were worn off. The cause was either poor material in the big end, or the OPR valve. Enfield have played around with the OPRV for years because it has given trouble before, so I'm guessing that's where the trouble lies. Only time will tell, the dealers & their mechanics don't know & Enfield HQ, will say nothing.

Slack factory workers in India are not uncommon. When I pulled my timing case cover off, I found an extra spacer washer, one of the thick ones used in the timing case assembly, that had been left in floating around. Eventually it found it's final resting place, up against the pump drive spindle & chewed the teeth off.

@tk409 Dear Friend... My name is Faisal Furruq I am from India.... after seeing the video uploaded by you, I am a user of a bullet too.... I've noticed that the cam wheels have a play. there few reasons of over heating of a Bullet, first remove the spark plug then take the piston position right to the top the your cam wheels will come to the matching point of six dots, then remove the small pinion by removing warm nut, and replace it with the 1 or 2 size pinion.

@faisalfurruq I hope people who read your "advice" are extremely careful in following it for you are a rank amateur. What I wrote were observations & you'll note they changed with further observations, showing I admit if I am wrong, & I correct myself. THRUST washers are used to take up thrust in the idler gears, & note this, there WAS an extra thrust washer LEFT IN THE TIMING CASE BY THE FACTORY IN INDIA. It didn't stop completely the operation of the oil pump but it DID strip some gear teeth.

@kanakaken you mean to say that the oil pump gear or the cam wheels............ kindly clear that.....

Just look at the HORRIBLE thing. If you do not use the right number of very thin steel shims on every shaft inside and outside of the cogs the thing will not work properly. It's 2019 not 1919. Things have changed in the world of engine building. The dream of owning one of these quickly turns into a living very expensive nightmare. Good luck.

One thing, i would have removed the oil "jet" first, it makes it a lot easier and the risk of it breaking is smaller.

plz tell me how to tighten them, in my 1980 royal enfield these gears are loose. and in start position these gears make too much noise. plz help me.

@tk409 I do see that your bike's timing is not proper due to that your engine may be over heating... before opening the engine do follow some steps.. the Gobbling sound may be of a lose clutch chain just adjust it and see.... it may help you in killing the sound.... Faisal Furruq.

When I removed my timing case cover I found a thick thrust washer had been left inside the case during factory assembly, causing the oil pump to fail which cause the big end to blow. Resulting in a major engine rebuild. Bits of bush metal every where. One item of a long list of factory faults on my 2006 Bullet. BUYER BEWARE,,, Indian quality control,,,,,, what's that ??

sir, can you teach me how to repair oil pump bullet 350 (1971) model,&how to check discharge of oil is perfect in head.

Sir, do you have a video of the crank nut tightening? Didn't the timing case have a rubber beading or gasket? I see the oil filter top has no gasket too? But doesn't it leak oil then?

hi sir, I am riding Bullet since last 1 years and I am really feeling so much discomfort due to it's suspension, it gives so much bumps when I ride it to even Little undulating Road, I went to the service centre telling this issue but they have just changed the swing bushes but still the problem is consistent. I tried to observed the reason behind so I found two main problems one there might be manufacturing defect in present shockers and second my weight do not come exactly over the spring present below the Rider seat. as I bend myself to hold the handle during the riding the springs do not pushes completely on the undulating Road and breakers. kindly suggest me 2 things 1 which handle should I change so that I can completely sit straight while riding the bike and in which condition the shockers can be breakdown or is there any other problem would be there in my classic 350. I request you please help because the riding of my bike is becoming horrible day by day for me and it may also cause me back problem in long run.

Just bolt it all together again and try to forget there ever was a thing called Royal Enfield Made in India. Fix yours up and sell it as fast as you can is the BEST advice that you will ever get.

@tk409 I had that knock on my 441 with a key on rotor that was too loose. Wrong size shaft key all bad!

The person on the production line who left the extra thrust washer floating around in my timing case was more suited to doing the following; Dabbawala, lunch box deliverer Auto-wallah, driver of an auto rickshaw Chai-wallah, a boy or young man who serves tea Attar-wallah, seller of perfumes and extracts Not Kulfi-wallah, maker of Kulfi (Ice-cream), too complecated. Bottley-wallah, recycler of printed material, bottles, and these days, electronic gadgets such as TVs, BUT NOT at Enfield factory.

What are you trying show me??

Hello Mate, I am British and proudly so! Is it not a shame that our western world depends in a big way on China, Asia? Another example is the Rover, which gets made in China.... However, i suggest we refrain from getting too personal about putting food on peoples plate, there would hardly be any food on our plates if the Asian sub-continent decided to pull the plug on us... and I am well and truly British, as they say Made in England...

What did you find?

Being proud of where you are born seems rather strange to me. You have no say in who your parents are so how can you be proud of something you have nothing to do with. I'm proud of the fact that I'm a lisenced plumber drainer gasfitter & LPG installer & every installation I have done in 46yrs has been sound without breakdown.Some have been my clients for over 30yrs.The Indians have manufactured the Enfield for 55yrs using British machinery till the copied it & made their own,with NO improvement

@faisalfurruq Another thing, why do you ASSUME that I use the wrong oil? I use the same oil as advised by the Enfield factory 20W50. Did you encounter the 'carbon deposits' in your machine or was it in some poor fool's machine who followed YOUR advices? Just because you have advanced from using camels or goat powered carts to a motorcycle, doesn't mean you have gained any mechanical insights, so please refrain from airing unsolicited your vast banks of 'mechanical' knowledge.

nice bike!

Kanakane - Would you mind being polite on youtube? What exactly did you mean by 'wallah' ?

?????

well i never digged these bikes,In my opinion they are way too crude for today's day and age..Todays Royal Enfield which comes with Twin Spark Ignition and UCE is far more efficient in terms of handling and riding performance..I would wait for them to switch on to Timing Chain mechanism with a chain tensioner for driving the cam shaft which could improve breathing

@faisalfurruq You talk as though you work for Royal Enfield, I find that rather strange as you information & advice seems arse up with care, and I would expect that anyone working for them would have a semblance of knowledge & understanding mixed with basic communication skills. There are 2 idler gears in the timing case. On the inside of each is a thin thrust washer & on the outside of each there is a thick one. An extra outside one was left in the timing case by some wallah during assembly.

I thought if there was one thing all enfield riders did not have as opposed to other bikers, it would be EXTENDED EGO, let alone on someone else's post with the intent to share. Sad...

Good

Idiots like me are the ones who put food on the table for morons like the quality control officer at the Chennai Enfield factory by buying the shit they send out to other countries. I, like a lot of others, are pissed off that such a simple piece of machinery is so efficiently stuffed up, especially when they have been building them since 1955. It's not as if they had to design them, that was already done for them. By the way, I'm not English, I'm Australian, it's on my profile.