Oil pressure check

Sometime in the 1990's I installed an oil pressure gauge on my P11. I took it off after a few rides because it always did the same thing and I had good oil pressure. Plus even then a few people were handing out the warning that it was a bad idea. Besides, the way I mounted it looks darn funny. Look at it. Redamndickulous, right? Anyway, I reinstalled it again yesterday to see if I had a reasonable amount blow off oil pressure after letting the bike sit in the corner of the garage for almost 3 decades. Why would it change? Hell, I don't know, but I wanted to check it anyway, because my oil pressure relief valve does not have any shims in it. It's a newer buffed out stainless piece and a little deeper than the original P11 oil pressure relief valve boxed up and in my original P11 timing cover.

Start up pressure is around 57psi and it dropped down to around 40 psi after idling for 10 minutes and before I shut off the motor. If I'd taken it for a ride it probably would have dropped a little more as the oil thinned out. I get the oil pressure off the left side exhaust rocker.

I posted this for no good reason other than to show the goofy mount on my resto-mod P11 SSS and hear some horror stories about using oil pressure gauges on a rattling old Norton.






Also working on getting an old steering damper I've had for years on the P11. Not as easy as I thought it would be. The geometry and required frame bracket fabrication and placement is stretching the capacity of my one remaining brain cell. Fortunately, I have a bracket that clamps on the 35mm fork tube as a starting point.

I need to get those header pipes black ceramic coated. Rattle can paint doesn't last long.