Hi,

I have heard that people will disable the auto lube system in older bikes because of the fear of it failing and the engine seizing up. I wanted to get the advice/experience  you all may have with this, what the pros and cons are of disabling it are.  

And if you keep it what are the best oils to run in an vintage bike auto lube system? To help against white smoke?

hank you

Edited by Yamaha427, 28 May 2012 - 07:35 AM.

OK....I have 3 bikes with autolube - 2 Yam's and a Suzuki.   First, I have yet to hear that the pump actually has failed.  Yes, you could let the tank go empty.  Yes, you could somehow have the pump control cable somehow become inop. and have no oil flow.  Having said that, the actual forces that the pump cable operate  are so light, that unless you're a total goober and let the cable rust through, they last a lifetime.  Be warned!  Some Suzukis will damage main beaings using premix without  splitting the cases.  There is an oil "sheild" or deflector thats on the inside of one of the main bearings.  Oil is injected to the main bearing on the other side of the bearing.  The deflector holds the oil in the bearing a little longer before it gets pulled into the intake flow.  So, if you rely on the oil in the intake charge to lube the main bearing, it won't get as much lubricant because of this deflector.  This deflector can be removed but you gotta split the cases.  I guess for me, unless there is something wrong with the system (pump missing or corroded, cable missing or unavailable, oil tank broke and unavailable), I'd use the system.  If you DO remove the system, you should probably go up one size on the mail jet to compensate for the oil content in the fuel mix.  As to what oil?  Good question!  I spent SEVERAL hours recently on TT trying to find suggestions for injection oil and decided on Lucas semi-synthetic although several TT'ers were happy with the Yamaha injection oil.  You can do your own research but be prepared to spend some time reading old threads.  One thing mentioned a couple of times that made me avoid certain oils is the tendency to form surface rust (like on main bearings!) during storage months and since I'm in Minnnesota, thats AT LEAST  4 months sitting in an unheated area.

Oil injection is EXTREMELY reliable. I have friends that ran both Suzuki and Yamaha shops for over 20 years back in the 70's and 80's and neither ever saw a single oil pump failure.

They saw seizures where folks let the oil tank run dry, but ZERO failures of the system. They did however see many seizures from folks who had 2-strokes without oil injection who either didn't get the ratio right or forgot to add oil to their gas altogether.

I'm sure that out of the millions of 2 stroke injected bikes built there had to be a few where a pump actually failed, but darned few.

Edited by pantera, 29 May 2012 - 05:07 AM.

my brother had a ds 80 that we had to premix because the oil pump stopped working good thing i have a good nose for 2 stroke otherwise we would have never noticed.. the bike was real boggy and didnt smell right it smelled like it was burning up so i looked at the oil injection tank and it was still full after a full tank of fuel. so we mixed to gas and left the oil in there just in case it started working again
i even tried having him start the bike and pulling the oil line off the carb no oil flow at all

Nice article on 2-stroke oil pumps:

http://www.dansmc.co...oke_oilpump.htm

I agree with the other posters, never had an oil pump failure, they have always worked very well and needed little maintenance / adjustment. I have a few dual sport 2- strokes and its much easier getting gas in town with out having to mix.

concur with no failure of oil pumps. At the most check the pump adjustment (cable rigging) by the book. Most have a simple index marl that should alogn with the cable pull when the throttle is full open.  Any of the new oils made specific for injector systems are good and much better than what we had forty years ago.

+1,   track your oil and fuel usuage for a few tanks then tweak the adjuster for a 50:1 average.  Use injector freindly oil.   I've never seen a Mikuni oil pump fail.  Seen the seals swell from certain syntheic oil, causing pump arm to stick (doesn't return to idle position-over oiling).

Friend of mine brought a restored dt175 to a mt trail ride last summer. Riding with various 2 strokepremix bikes, that thing was so sweat to ride behind. ran clean the whole time with no big belches of smoke in the slow goat trails.