AJS & Matchless Owners Club

Thanks all for your comments so far. I'll try knocking the bush out and see how the pump assembles with it removed. I'll come back and post the result later. Any further suggestions still welcome. Thanks. David

"how the pump assembles" now I really am confused I thought we were discussing the filter!

Yes, I meant the filter. Sorry for confusion.

As the consensus of opinion was that the bush between the crankcase halves was a rogue modification, I decided to bite the bullet and take it out. It wasn't too difficult; just a bit of heat and persuasion with a drift and it's out. All the filter parts fit ok now; but I can't help wondering why it was there in the first place, which must have been the reason there was no filter. Clive's suggestion that it might have been to overcome a crankcase oil leak from the tunnel would make sense; there was certainly no evidence of one. I'm just hoping that, when I assemble it all and get it running, I don't inherit the leak that seems to have plagued other owners in other threads on this site (e.g. G9's). In due course, I'll post a follow up to this; but don't hold your breath, as I'm still looking at many more weeks of work to get the beast operational. Thanks for all the help and advice.