Grrrrr! A LEAK!

I went out to change my oil today and I found my bike is leaking oil, and from the worst possible place too, IMO: the inner water pump seal.

To change that seal is a complete engine teardown, from what I understand. I'm about ready to s#!+ because I'm not set up to do an overhaul on this engine, and I don't have the time anyway, and I'm going to end up taking it to the dealer to have it fixed, and then probably selling the bike because I won't trust it after they've worked on it.

I hope this is just a fluke. I remember Mac's 1500 spit out a drop of oil there (the weep tube) but then never did it again. I don't think I could be so lucky at this point.

[radco]

Now that suck.....I had a leak on my Honda Sabre, I was lucky it was a LOOSE hose clamp.. sucks its your pump leaking..... :'(...Rich

It's not really the pump. It's oil from the inner crankcase seal going out the pump. And yeah, it sux.

[coacha]

Mine is leaking from the rear, near where the exhaust exits the engine. I just saw it on Friday but it is worse now.

[tomk]

Bummer, I feel for you guys. I hope you can get them repaired without losing an arm and a leg.

My local dealer charged me $280 for a service. That's what I get for being lazy. To make it worse, there were greasy hand prints on my aircleaner cover and bags.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by CoachA

Mine is leaking from the rear, near where the exhaust exits the engine. I just saw it on Friday but it is worse now.

Do you see oil down by the right rear sparkplug? Is it running out around that spark plug well and down the fins?

[rlfaubion]

sorry to read this one - hope it works out better than it sounds

I thought the engine had used some oil on the ride to Mesquite & back, and this in't unusual on a long hot run. There's a slight possibility that I overfilled it when we got back and it puked out some oil due to that. Slight, but still there. I'm gonna go put the new oil in now, and we shall see what we shall see.

If it's not leaking into the antifreeze, I may put a little catch tube under the weep & see what comes out over the next week of riding to work & back.

I measured the oil, and if I overfilled it it was by maybe 2 ounces max. Not enough to hurt anything, unless a whole lot has leaked out in the past 100 miles. I haven't seen any puddles of oil. Just a little drop here and there until this afternoon, when I noticed what probably amounted to 6 to 8 drops in a tiny puddle.

anyhow, I changed the oil, put in the normal 3.75 qts. and mounted a small plastic vial on that weep tube. Whatever comes out I'll catch it & see if it's leaking enough to make me worry.

I rode the bike until the engine temp came up & parked it. An hour later nothing at all has leaked from the tube. I trimmed the end of the tube a bit short for this, and noticed the end I cut off was rather dirty inside. Perhaps it's been plugged with dirt & collected some random drops that all finally plopped out all at once. I can hope, right?

[lomax]

CaddQ .....I have some instructions on replacing that inner water pump seal without splitting the case. The instructions are in PDF format and I'll be darned if I can get the file to Photobucket and then to here. Would be happy to email it to you if you would like to see it. Also can't seem to remember where I got the info (sucks getting old :)) but will keep working on that. Let me know if you want it!
Mike

Yes, please Mike!
Caddmannq at yahoo dot com is me!

I've been considering ways to patch up that seal without a complete teardown. That would be a boon!

[lomax]

Cadd ... you have mail!!! :) If you can figure out how, perhaps we could share this info on the forum here.
Mike

[audiogooroo]

Originally Posted by lomax

Cadd ... you have mail!!! :) If you can figure out how, perhaps we could share this info on the forum here.
Mike

Definitely! :)

[tomk]

Originally Posted by lomax

Cadd ... you have mail!!! :) If you can figure out how, perhaps we could share this info on the forum here.
Mike

Cadd,

You MUST be able to get to it without splitting the case?

Good luck pal!

[coacha]

Originally Posted by caddmannq

Do you see oil down by the right rear sparkplug? Is it running out around that spark plug well and down the fins?

I looked yesterday when I wiped it down from my ride from Saturday and it doesn't seem to be coming from the spark plug area. I see some on the fins but not really emanating from the spark plug area.