Hi Matthias and Olaf,

Unless exhaust gas it actually coming out between the cylinder barrel and head, don't worry. Pretty much all Enfields leak a little bit from there even from new. If it is leaking gas you can either get a new gasket (get one made locally from solid copper) or lap the barrel and head together (go to an engineer shop to do it if you're not confident yourselves) and then the bikes will run fine without a head gasket.

The steering bearing looseing problem could be that the lock bolt is loose - they usually don't bother to tighten it on India. Look under the handlebar clamp on the right and you will see a large allen bolt, check that it is tight. If it isn't adjust the bearings with the large central nut and then tighten the allen bolt to lock it all up.

Rear wheel bearings shouldn't wear out like this. It sounds like the spacing may be wrong. Check that when you tighten the rear wheel up you are not clamping down on the bearings. If you are they will fail quick. To remedy just taken it along to an engineer shop with a lathe and get them to measure up and make some new spacers. The bearings should be easy to find anywhere - just check the code on the bearing (6203 I think from memory) and go to a bearing shop for new ones.

As for the stands - could be anything but probably wrong spacers and bolts used? Any good mechanic should be able to fix. You'll find that most in major places in Turkey and Iran are pretty competant.

Finally, good luck!

Cheers

Richard

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