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Post by pmcburney on Nov 15, 2015 16:28:04 GMT -5
Well, it would seem I'm going to get good at removing and replacing that clutch cover...
Got everything back together yesterday afternoon and the old girl started up straight away. No water leaks and nothing left over!
But... I notice a puddle of oil beneath the bike right about where the oil-pump cover is.
It would seem that the o-ring between the points housing and the oil pump isn't sealing properly and oil seeps out under pressure when the bike is running. There's only one way to get to that o-ring.
A question to the board - if I put the bike on its sidestand to remove the clutch cover, how likely is it that I won't have to drain the gearbox and engine oil given that it should (mostly) be in the LH side of the gearbox and engine oil reservoir?
Has anyone tried this?
Is there an optimal angle to prevent having to drain the oils?
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Post by wayne on Nov 15, 2015 20:24:04 GMT -5
That's a very interesting concept. I wish I'd thought of it when I had to do 5 odd clutch cover removals in a few days.
If no one comes up with an answer, I look forward to your own findings (and visiting, so you can show me your permanently oil stained shed floor when I get up there).
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Post by goandy on Nov 15, 2015 20:55:11 GMT -5
We used to lean the bikes all the way over onto a beanbag or similar-on the sidestand you'll lose a heap of oil. You will still have to drain the coolant though as you will get coolant mixing with your oil otherwise when you take the cover off. It may still happen!
To be honest, it's easy enough to drain the oil..... oh and bummer about the leak!
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Post by pmcburney on Nov 15, 2015 22:08:51 GMT -5
We used to lean the bikes all the way over onto a beanbag or similar-on the sidestand you'll lose a heap of oil. You will still have to drain the coolant though as you will get coolant mixing with your oil otherwise when you take the cover off. It may still happen! To be honest, it's easy enough to drain the oil..... oh and bummer about the leak! Yes... I thought I was sorted - I wouldn't have minded a water leak as it would be relatively easy to sort. I reckon I'll still do the work with the bike on the sidestand and just drain the engine oil. With only 1.6 litres in the gearbox I'm reasonably confident it will all remain in the gear case on that much of an angle, and all the oil will be drained from the clutch cover so I shouldn't have a massive gush when it comes off. I feel a tersely-worded email to Suzuki coming out of all of this for their impractical points housing/oil pump design . Mind you, I probably shouldn't have fallen off and destroyed the points housing in the first place.
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Post by pmcburney on Nov 16, 2015 18:29:05 GMT -5
So, for information...
Yes, you can mitigate gearbox/engine oil loss by removing the clutch cover with the bike on the sidestand. I put an oil drain pan under the cover and it collected less than a litre of oil, with there being much more gearbox than engine oil.
I'd recommend this method over a full fluid dump if you're just wanting to remove the clutch cover and not do a full oil change/service.
You could reuse the oil if you use the same in both areas, but as I'm using gear oil in my gearbox I'll have to refill with new when it's all back together. I don't envisage it will take too much to refill it...
And as it turns out, I don't think my points housing o-ring was the culprit of my leak. Looking carefully at the sealing edge on the points housing against the o-ring, there was a significant dent and ridge in the outside edge which corresponded to exactly where the leak was.
I reckon the o-ring may have eventually deformed enough to accommodate the imperfection, but I'll replace it and de-burr the sealing surface just to be doubly sure. Wish me luck...
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Post by goandy on Nov 16, 2015 23:20:04 GMT -5
Good luck! Just be prepared for other leaks when this one's fixed!
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Post by pmcburney on Nov 19, 2015 19:12:26 GMT -5
Well... I couldn't source a new o-ring in the correct size, so I put everything back together and guess what? It still leaks It's not actually that bad. I might leave it as it is for a while and monitor how much oil is lost. I mean, you should check the sump before every ride anyway, yes?
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Post by Jess on Nov 19, 2015 21:21:25 GMT -5
McB,
I have the orings for the sump and the base of the breaker housing.
I had them made so they are correct.
Best
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