Of Oil Leaks

Hmm, the XS650 appears to have a small weep of oil. It's coming down the
barrels and over the case on the left. I *think* it may be weeping from
the cam end cover on that side. Didn't you have this trouble TOG?

Well, had my first offer on the XS today. Local dealer, for himself.
Good.....but not good enough ;o)

 

He did indeed.
Advance & retard side or 'points' side of the cam? Both sides have a
camshaft oil seal in the housing and an o-ring & gasket between the mating
face of the housing and the head/rocker-box interface. They are known to
leak quite often.

Makes you feel like you got a good'un when dealers want it for themselves.


JB

 

Yup. Replaced the oil seal. Looks like it needs replacing again. I told
you I wasn't 100% sure it was in square. I've got a new spare in that
box of bits - I'll bung that off in the post if you want.

Replacement is a piece of piss. Undo the tinplate cover, undo the three
screws that hold on the empty points housing, knock out seal, replace
seal, replace housing and cover. The camshaft is supported in the four
ball races, not the end housings, so no worries.

Or just wipe it clean every 500 miles.

How much, out of interest?

 

Yup. It's one of the FAQs on some US site I saw.... But it's a 15-minute
job to fix on bikes that have electronic ignition and thus empty points
and auto advance housings.

True

 

Please, it looses a bit if sitting on the sidestand

What I paid for the bike and spares. Anyway, you have 1st dibs.

I *really* enjoyed riding it around Belfast today.

 

<snip>

OK, I'll bung off the box of assorted parts in the post tomorrow. The
aftermarket cans can come over with Richard next month.

If that's an offer from a *dealer*, you know you can do better
privately. Nice to know it's been valued like that, though.

Heh. Now it's in Belfast, I can't see myself getting it....

It's a lovely bike around town and suburbs. That low gearing comes into
its own.

 

The advance-retard on my first one (the one we left our wedding on!)
disassembled itself one night, in the middle of winter. It chewed up its
mounting plate in so doing.

The bike pulled away from the lights, farted and popped, and stopped
dead. I checked the plugs for a spark, but it seemed rather
intermittent, so I pulled off the points cover and discovered I could
rotate the points cam through 360 degrees with my fingers....

Had a look at the other end, viewed the carnage, and realised it wasn't
going to be a roadside repair.

AA lifted us home, and the next day a friend and I hammered the mounting
plate straight-ish again, reassembled the bugger, and it behaved after
that.

 

I had a similar experience the first time an XS A/R unit exploded. I had
sooooo convinced myself that the camchain had snapped, I'd actually bought
the spares, taken a day off work and got the engine out of the frame and on
the bench and started stripping it before I realised it was the bloody A/R
unit!
We live and learn....

JB

 

The message <>

My BSA ZB31 was known locally as the Torrey Canyon.

 

The day my Royal Enfield decided to set free one of its cylinder heads
was the day I discovered how much boiling oil a pair of trousers and
boots can absorb.

 

Heh. many moons ago, a friend bought a brand new XS1100, one of the
first Jap bikes to be fitted as standard with an oil cooler. He was
sitting at the lights when the bloke in the car next to him rolled won
his window and yelled: "Oi! Look what you're doing to my car!"

He looked down, and there was a fault in the hose to the oil cooler -
just a pinhole, really - but the pressure was enough to send a lovely
jet of oil arcing across the gap between the bike and the car, and it
was splashing all over the car door.

Get to side of road sharpish, shut off engine, call AA, new oil cooler
hose under warranty....

 

!
(Dreams of Police car, Cabinet Ministers car, etc)

 

Thus spake Roger Hunt () unto the assembled multitudes:

The cyl.head oil feed pipe on my C15 fractured close to the T-join once and
spurted oil all over the engine and my boots (didn't make a lot of
difference to appearance . Fixed it with a small piece
of plastic pipe from a garden sprayer and two small jubilee clips. Lasted
for months until I got around to a proper repair of the feed pipe.

 

The oil feed pipe to my T90 head has fractured more than once, and I
discovered that Araldite can be dead messy and not very effective as
a repair.

 

Chewing gum and duct tape, that's what you need.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2
`\|/`
`

 

Mmmm - I don't chew gum - hows about an old condom and duct tape?

 

Doesn't taste anywhere near as nice....

 

Wotcha

No - that could never happen - could it ?

http://www.moonshiners.org.uk/images/oilfield.jpg

OOPS

 

message
Wotcha.

....Please tell me that ain't the voice of experience ?

 

Use a Strawberry flavoured one and remember not to swallow.