The Knowledge - Velocette Owners Club

information. As to viscosity, gear oil with 90 wt rating is ostensibly the same as motor oil in the 40 and
50 wt range. The following URL may help clear up some myths or misconceptions, or may simply add
to the confusion. Your call. www.repairfaq.org/filipg/AUTO/F_oil_facts.html#OILFACTS_003
# 5687 On the subject of red book recommendations, after last year's forum query about bronze in
gearbox oil I corresponded with local technical guru Norm Trigg and advised him: "On the subject of
gearbox oil recommendations my red book (publication no. 434/12R) definitely lists Castrol GTX for
gearbox. In other brands it's a mixture of straight grades and multi grades - eg BP Energol SAE40,
Duckhams Q20/50, Mobil GX90, Filtrate Plus 20/50. In all cases except Mobil the recommendation is
the same as engine 'summer' so for us Aussies the message was to pour the same stuff in the oil tank
and the gearbox." And then Norm (who used to work for Shell, but not as an oil technologist - he's an
electrical engineer) replied: "John, Interesting that your red book lists the oils you mentioned. A 484/5R
of Nov '62 gives all monograde oils of sae 40 except that in the case of Mobil, Mobiloil B.B. or Mobilube
GX90 is recommended, the latter being a gear oil. I can't believe the factory would have recommended
multigrade for the gearbox and wonder if a mistake occurred. I agree with you, straight 50 should be
used, or an equivalent gear oil, but certainly not an EP gear oil." Obviously opinions vary. My current
thoughts are heavy monograde or a non-damaging gear oil is required to minimize the wear on gear
teeth. The bronze bushes and ball races appear to survive nicely as long as there is enough oil to
splash around and wet the shafts and internals. And a distributor cap boot over the clutch cable entry is
a must to prevent water entering and turning your lube into milk.
# 5674 Both Mobil and Amsoil, and perhaps others, make Synthetic 80W90 Gear Lubes that are
"Yellow Metal Friendly" in that they don't contain any ingredients that will dissolve bronze or brass
bushings. Since these lubes are expressly designed for gears one can presume they will do a better
long-term job than engine oil in protecting the components
L # 6007 Hello All, Anybody out there using the Quaife 5 speed gear cluster in a road going
Venom? I have had a look at it, but would like to hear from someone who has fitted one and is using it.
# 6009 I have had a Quaife 5-speed in my VMT for several years and it is superb. With the 4-speed it
was difficult in city traffic because of the high 1st gear and I did not want to lose the top speed by
changing gearing. The 5-speed makes it usable in town and still gives the good top speed.
# 6010 For information, 5 and 6 speed boxes are being manufactured by Graham Dyson at Nova
Motors whose work I can commend highly. Graham is the man responsible for manufacturing most of
the close ratio racing boxes for the modern Supersport racers amongst his wide range of products, and
was half of the Barton company who produced the Phoenix machine raced by Geoff Barry until his
untimely death in the late 70s. Details of the boxes, ratios, prices, etc. can be found at
www.novaracing.co.uk/velocette.htm - It would appear that the 5 speed box can be used with or without
a kickstart but the 6 speed is for bump or electric start use only!
L # VOCNA 361 Putting the VMT back together for the rally and trying to get all the bits back
that I robbed over the last year. Before I carve yet another kick start housing out for an o-ring, didn't
someone come up with an external seal of some sort?
# VOCNA 362 There is a lip seal which can be fitted in a recess machined on the outside. I don't have
the number handy right now, but Ed has some here. It's what we've been fitting recently – it's a bit
easier than machining an O-ring groove, and seems to work at least as well.
# VOCNA 363 I have a single lip seal on my Venom, was made by National. I had the box laying
around in my office for years, but of course I can't find it right now. My local bearing shop had it, all I
did was give them dimensions. You still have to machine a recess for it in the kickstart housing. It
works pretty well. Found a neat part last week - a 2' length of ignition wire, copper core, with 90
degree spark plug caps on each end. It includes two coil caps that are a perfect fit for the clutch cable
entrance as well as the K1F. They are thick and new and won't split like the manual advance boot so
226