Titan oil dam thoughts

Post by **Suzsmokeyallan** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 12:33 pm

After reading the bulletin it makes a good case in point for the oil dam..
However, after looking at this for a while i cant for the life of me see what this is really doing besides stopping the oil from leaving the kickstarter well.
It would make a lot more sense if that wide metal deflector plate right in front of it wasnt there.
That plate and the top guide plate over the gears looks like they keep the oil contained and stop it from flinging into the kickstarter well.

Zook-e · Post by **Zook-e** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 1:09 pm

The top plate catches slung oil and drips it back on to the gears via the holes and the back plate returns the oil that slings of the gears back to the gears.

Post by **Suzsmokeyallan** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 1:48 pm

Thanks Eric, i can see that part quite clearly but being the oil dam is right up against the back side of the lower plate it seems kind of redundant.
By this i mean retaining a slightly higher level of the oil in the kickstarter well really doesnt have anything to do with the oil in the gearbox section.

Zook-e · Post by **Zook-e** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 1:54 pm

With the dam I agree with you . John Goodpaster an old AHRMA race official and Suzuki Dealer also agreed with me. Most of the gear failure was do to low oil in the transmission and it burning up on long rides without being checked. Kind of hard to do without a dipstick. Hence people not doing it.

I have had many long miles done, but always checked the level and have taken dozens of high milage T500s apart with no 4th or 5th gear failures.

I put 1500cc in all my T500s with or without oil dams.

Zook-e · Post by **Zook-e** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 1:55 pm

On another note, the 68 T500 does not have the plate over the gears like the 69 on.

Post by **Suzsmokeyallan** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 2:02 pm

Eric thanks again for your input on this, youre confirming my thoughts about the oil dams purpose.
Being the level is more critical than it appears for the Titan, its obvious they slightly miscalculated the 'set level' when the engine was running in high gear.
From the damage ive seen on photos of gears, the oil was pooling into other parts of the cases and leaving the high gears to run in a low level situation.
Either way fitting it and running the 1400cc of oil will guarantee no failures, but i suspect its the higher level thats really saving the gears more so than the little dam.

Whit · Post by **Whit** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:02 pm

Speaking of Oil Dams ... Has anyone heard from Jughead lately. I'm looking for an oil dam and one of his reproduction side covers.

TLRam1 · Post by **TLRam1** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 11:06 pm

Thanks for asking the question Allan, I wondered the same as you.

parksie · Post by **parksie** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 11:29 pm

I was under the impression that the dam reduced the amount of oil going into the Kick start well. From the kickstart well it drains into the clutch housing which is then picked up by the clutch and flung back into the transmission. Without the dam wall the extra oil would just end up in the kick start well which would eventually end up in the clutch housing. The dam keeps the level of oil in the transmission area up to the level of 4th and fifth gear

Post by **Suzsmokeyallan** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 8:55 am

Actually by placing the dam into the side of the kickstarter well you make it hold MORE oil, not reducing it, since you are raising the section of the wall with the dam where its lowest.

H2RICK · Post by **H2RICK** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 5:35 pm

Well, I think the whole "dam" thing is some kind of Japanese plot to drive us roundeyes crazy.....because some 35+ years have elapsed since the last bike needing this mod rolled off the assembly line.....and here we are....still discussing the design logic....or lack thereof.