Oil Leak

OK guys, I have a small leak that has developed around where the drive shaft mates with the transmission. Since I recently installed this engine, it has crossed my mind that I damaged a seal.

Can anyone offer me any ideas here?

OK guys, I have a small leak that has developed around where the drive shaft mates with the transmission. Since I recently installed this engine, it has crossed my mind that I damaged a seal.

 

Can anyone offer me any ideas here?

You may want to talk to Friesman and Rocket about a leak in that area.

Hey Gary,

Congrats on getting that new to you engine installed! Get that bike up on the center stand, and make absolutely sure, that the oil level is not past HALF WAY up the sight glass! I'm not talking about 3/4 of the way, or 5/8 of the way, If it is over 1/2 way, drain out some of the oil and see if that stops the leak. One other area to check is, if you didn't put new valve cover gaskets on the engine BEFORE you installed it, look at the back of the rear cylinder head valve cover and see if you have oil dripping from the rear of the valve cover down onto the drive shaft boot. I hope it is something simple like the above items, because changing that seal while the engine is in the bike is a challenge.

Earl

Well, my Ninja needs the oil level to be 3/4 or more on the sight glass and I confess I have been doing the same on the VR.

Why would oil leak if run above 1/2?

Gary,

If you are convinced it is leaking at that point, there are three suspects.

1) O-ring that goes around the middle gear bearing housing.

2) The spacer/expansion seal that goes around the middle drive shaft.

3) The rear differential is leaking through the pinion shaft mating surface and the oil is showing up at the front of the swing arm tube.

Gary

I doubt if this will help BUT you never know. I have a 2nd gen (2001) that was leaking oil in that same area. I found out that it was loose bolts. The bolts that bolt the top engine half to the bottom engine half. I don't remember if there are 6 or 8 bolts and it may not matter because your engine could have 4 or 12 but some of the bolts were just sitting in the holes. I tightened them all up and it cured my oil leak.

When I put the 86 trans in my 83, I used the 86 out drive. It ended up having a leak around the seal where the shaft comes out of the engine right near the universal joint. I took the out drive back out and instead of replacing the seal, I just used my old 83 out drive. After I had proper shimming, it was quieter than before. This was oil that was leaking into the inside of the boot between the swingarm and engine.

RandyA

Hey Gary,

Half way up is plenty of oil for these motors. Any higher, and when the crankcase pressurizes while running, it looks for a place to seep out. That seal being one of the lowest points on the engine allows it to seep there. After you lower the oil level, if you ride regularly, it will take about a week to 10 days for ALL of the oil to stop leaking. But it will. It just happens to be a "Quirk" of these motors.

Earl

Hey Gary,

Half way up is plenty of oil for these motors. Any higher, and when the crankcase pressurizes while running, it looks for a place to seep out. That seal being one of the lowest points on the engine allows it to seep there. After you lower the oil level, if you ride regularly, it will take about a week to 10 days for ALL of the oil to stop leaking. But it will. It just happens to be a "Quirk" of these motors.

Earl

What about the quirk that turns on my oil warning under hard acceleration?

Is this related to running less oil in the crankcase? It sure seems like it . . .

What about the quirk that turns on my oil warning under hard acceleration?

Is this related to running less oil in the crankcase? It sure seems like it . . .

The oil warning is a simply a level switch installed near the front of the pan. When you get on it the oil gets pushed to the rear and the switch can read low for a second. It's the nature of the beast and is more likely with a lower oil level. For what it's worth I run my 89 about 3/4 full and have not had any leaks from that.

The common leak around the stator wires shows up in the same general area. It runs down the wires between the left side cover and the middle gear cover. Mine was dripping off primarily behind the side stand pivot but if your wires are routed differently it might drip off farther back. You might have a look underneath and see if those wires have oil on them where they come down between the covers.

I had a V-max in the shop that was leaking so bad along those wires it'd coated everything from the side stand back with oil.

The common leak around the stator wires shows up in the same general area. It runs down the wires between the left side cover and the middle gear cover. Mine was dripping off primarily behind the side stand pivot but if your wires are routed differently it might drip off farther back. You might have a look underneath and see if those wires have oil on them where they come down between the covers.

 

I had a V-max in the shop that was leaking so bad along those wires it'd coated everything from the side stand back with oil.

This is exactly where oil is still leaking. What will fix it?

This is exactly where oil is still leaking. What will fix it?

My 85 leaked badly out of the rear boot just before the shaft snapped just forward of the ujoint and took out the middle gear assy. You would have to ask Rocket what he thinks happened there as he did the rebuild and I just dont know what caused the thing to fail.

I paid a so called mechanic to change the oil and synch my carbs a couple of days before that and really overfilled my oil so I think that might be what started the oil leak back there.

After Rocket did the middle gear assy rebuild I had a nasty leak on the left lower side coming out on the stator wire through the rubber grommet . What fixed it after a couple of tries was a new grommet, using brake cleaner on the wire and the fabric covering on it to really clean and get all the oil off of it, then letting it dry overnight. Got some good RTV and coated the wire with it on both sides of the grommet and then pull the wire back and forth a couple of times to force the RTV and grommet to get a good seal. then button it back up using a new gasket.

Brian

 

After Rocket did the middle gear assy rebuild I had a nasty leak on the left lower side coming out on the stator wire through the rubber grommet . What fixed it after a couple of tries was a new grommet, using brake fluid on the wire and the fabric covering on it to really clean and get all the oil off of it, then letting it dry overnight. Got some good RTV and coated the wire with it on both sides of the grommet and then pull the wire back and forth a couple of times to force the RTV and grommet to get a good seal. then button it back up using a new gasket.

 

Brian

I don't think the grommets around the pickup coil or the generator wires are available as replacements.

What Brian suggested is about the best way to deal with this. In order to do it completely, you need to pull stator, so you will need a stator & middle drive gasket.

I just put in a rewound stator on mine & the grommet was loose on the wires. I used permatex and coated wires on both sides of grommet and slid it around & repeated.

Also cleaned out slot in stator cover where grommets go through and coated that with permatex also.

While you have middle drive cover off, the gear position switch o-ring could be leaking. Also possible is the shift shaft seal and maybe the clutch rod seal.

Gary

What the last two guys said. I use brake clean to get the oil off.

That grommet we're speaking of goes into a U shaped cut out in the alternator cover. The open end of the U faces the engine case. On my Venture that grommet had shrunk to where it didn't fill the open end of the U and still leaked along the case. Make sure you look for that.

The way I fixed mine was to put a bead of RTV on the flat face of the grommet and install the cover finger tight, then torqued it after an hour.

This all will be pretty obvious after you get in there.