VH bronze head valve lifter

[GraemeLangley]

Thanks for the photos, I will have to take some closer pics of the top of my head, it seems to have the holes but not right through. There is an oil feed from top of the crank case to the rocker box but it is a single union and doesn't push much oil mist out, I've left the tappet covers off so I can manually grease and squirt a bit of oil when necessary! Not the most reliable method but one of the list of jobs to sort out.

Best regards

Graeme

[GraemeLangley]

Thanks for the pictures, starts to make sense now.

This is the best pic I have at the moment of the oil line as, the bike isn't with me at present. The oil line from crank case to head is just visible to the left of the magneto adv/retard cable.
It doesn't seem to put a lot of oil mist anywhere and it is only near the inlet valve! I have left the tappet covers off so I can manually grease and oil when I ride. It is a winter project to sort that out.

Regards
Graeme

[paul.jameson]

The oil line from the crankcase will lubricate the inlet valve guide satisfactorily. To lubricate the exhaust valve guide, you need to use a piston with plain rings so that enough oil escapes past them into the exhaust. The rockers are grease lubricated and again, this works well enough, provided you use high melting point grease. If you use low melting point grease, the consequences end up all over your trousers!
Various tuners used different extra oil feeds around the engine such as to the back of the cylinder. What you need will depend on how hard you intend to ride the bike. I see that you have the single drive side bearing crankcases fitted. These were superseded by the vastly stronger two bearing variety on the Red Hunter for 1935 and for the other models the following year. The consequence of the crankcases flexing too much is usually a broken (tapered) crankpin.