GRRRRRR! Stupid oil leak!

[Shocka311]

So I've had a leak from my stator cover and naturally thought it was the oil seal. Replaced the oil seal, I know I did it right and did a good job, it fit perfect. I bolted everything up and it looked like there was no leak but when I rode home, PUDDLE UNDER MY BIKE!!! It really doesn't even look like it has slowed down. I know I'm not supposed to but I wanted to see if it would help at all so I rtv'd the stator cover, waited... waited... waited... took it for a spin, came home, PUDDLE UNDER MY BIKE!!! Hasn't even slowed down. I just rode around for a while, came home and wiped the stator cover where it looks like it is leaking and layed under the bike and let it idle for 15 min and didn't see a drop. It really looks like its coming from the stator cover and I can't see where it would be dripping off anything else. I know my valve cover is leaking on the front cam but it doesn't look like its coming from there down to the stator cover at all. I'm going to replace the valve cover gasket when I get paid on friday but in the mean time, any ideas where else this stupid leak could be coming from? Oh another twilight zone detail, I checked the oil level since I filled it on saturday and it hasn't gone down at all! I've ridden over 100 miles since then and this is not a tiny drip leak. When I park my bike after riding, when I come back, there is a puddle the size of an egg. it doesn't drip at all when its cold, only when its hot so this egg sized puddle happens within the time it takes for the bike to cool down.
On the bright side, I painted the bike and it turned out AWESOME! I'll get some before and after pics tomorrow.

[Dragon]

Did u check the oil pan to see if it's coming from there?
Could be coming from under there and running down on the bottom of the pan towards the stator cover, making u think it's coming from the stator cover.

[reelrazor]

Okay. I am kinda nutty about chain lube.....and often don't follow my own advice and lube it at the END of rides...I end up spraying it beforehand and not letting it 'set'.

I am also a bit nutty about oil leaks.

My bike shows an oil 'leak' on the fairing hole next to the stator cover(and I imagine would srip on the ground if I had the lower fairings off).

The 'leak' I have is chain lube being flung off the front sprocket and coming out of the sprocket cover. It migrates (lower air pressure?) out to the end of the rotor casting.

Just something to think about.

[fzrbrandon]

Hey Shocka,

I realize I'm kind of Johnny-come-lately here but the leak would definitely NOT come from the stator cover itself. There's no oil in there to drip out. There's not even a stator gasket (that I'm aware of). As Dragon mentioned, if it IS indeed an actual puddle that's forming, I'd be looking around the oil pan. Regardless, I would think it would fairly easy to trace from the ground up.

Good luck!
Brandon

[Shocka311]

There is an oil seal between the motor and the stator housing, and I know it could be coming from there but with everything i've done I don't think so. The oil pan is a great idea and I'll check there next. Thanks for the help.

[fzrbrandon]

There is an oil seal between the motor and the stator housing, and I know it could be coming from there but with everything i've done I don't think so. The oil pan is a great idea and I'll check there next. Thanks for the help.

Gotcha. I thought you were referring to the stator cover itself. I'll have to look at this a little closer for myself now!

[Luke-a-Tron]

Pull your sprocket cover off and clean up the mess that's in there. It will take some serious effort as there's probably a solid 1/2 inch of thickened up chain lube and road grime caked on everything. Go do some riding and remove the sprocket cover again when you get back. My guess is it's coming from the seal around the clutch push rod. It may be that the oil is leaking out when you're riding and then then drips down when the bike is left leaned over on the stand. Or it could be that hot oil is thinner and sneaks past the seal more readily.

That seal fails frequently because as the shaft moves in and out, the seal has to scrape off all that gritty road junk and it gets torn up. Every other oil seal is for a rotating shaft which doesn't have to deal with debris trying to be forced through it. The good news is this is the easiest seal on the whole bike to replace. Maybe a 5 minute job.

It should be easy enough to tell after everything is cleaned out from the cover. It will probably be nearly impossible before to see without doing so. I'd recommend some rubber gloves for the cleaning as chain lube is difficult to get off your hands. Mineral or cooking oil can help with that.

[Genesis]

Pull your sprocket cover off and clean up the mess that's in there. It will take some serious effort as there's probably a solid 1/2 inch of thickened up chain lube and road grime caked on everything. Go do some riding and remove the sprocket cover again when you get back. My guess is it's coming from the seal around the clutch push rod. It may be that the oil is leaking out when you're riding and then then drips down when the bike is left leaned over on the stand. Or it could be that hot oil is thinner and sneaks past the seal more readily.

That seal fails frequently because as the shaft moves in and out, the seal has to scrape off all that gritty road junk and it gets torn up. Every other oil seal is for a rotating shaft which doesn't have to deal with debris trying to be forced through it. The good news is this is the easiest seal on the whole bike to replace. Maybe a 5 minute job.

It should be easy enough to tell after everything is cleaned out from the cover. It will probably be nearly impossible before to see without doing so. I'd recommend some rubber gloves for the cleaning as chain lube is difficult to get off your hands. Mineral or cooking oil can help with that.

Where is that picture of that guy from the archives that found a tie wrapped around that area?

[fzrbrandon]

Pull your sprocket cover off and clean up the mess that's in there. It will take some serious effort as there's probably a solid 1/2 inch of thickened up chain lube and road grime caked on everything. Go do some riding and remove the sprocket cover again when you get back. My guess is it's coming from the seal around the clutch push rod. It may be that the oil is leaking out when you're riding and then then drips down when the bike is left leaned over on the stand. Or it could be that hot oil is thinner and sneaks past the seal more readily.

That seal fails frequently because as the shaft moves in and out, the seal has to scrape off all that gritty road junk and it gets torn up. Every other oil seal is for a rotating shaft which doesn't have to deal with debris trying to be forced through it. The good news is this is the easiest seal on the whole bike to replace. Maybe a 5 minute job.

It should be easy enough to tell after everything is cleaned out from the cover. It will probably be nearly impossible before to see without doing so. I'd recommend some rubber gloves for the cleaning as chain lube is difficult to get off your hands. Mineral or cooking oil can help with that.

Yep. Here's a couple before & after pics from when I cleaned up my front sprocket area:

http://www.fzrarchives.com/ipb/index.ph ... ost&id=799

http://www.fzrarchives.com/ipb/index.ph ... ost&id=800

Brandon

[reelrazor]

Yep. Here's a couple before & after pics from when I cleaned up my front sprocket area:

http://www.fzrarchives.com/ipb/index.ph ... ost&id=799

http://www.fzrarchives.com/ipb/index.ph ... ost&id=800

Brandon

And keep in mind that Brandon's was waaay over on the fairly clean side to start with! Like Luke-A Tron said...it's prolly a half inch thick in there and yeah, that pushrod seal is very failure prone.

[Shocka311]

Pull your sprocket cover off and clean up the mess that's in there. It will take some serious effort as there's probably a solid 1/2 inch of thickened up chain lube and road grime caked on everything. Go do some riding and remove the sprocket cover again when you get back. My guess is it's coming from the seal around the clutch push rod. It may be that the oil is leaking out when you're riding and then then drips down when the bike is left leaned over on the stand. Or it could be that hot oil is thinner and sneaks past the seal more readily.

That seal fails frequently because as the shaft moves in and out, the seal has to scrape off all that gritty road junk and it gets torn up. Every other oil seal is for a rotating shaft which doesn't have to deal with debris trying to be forced through it. The good news is this is the easiest seal on the whole bike to replace. Maybe a 5 minute job.

It should be easy enough to tell after everything is cleaned out from the cover. It will probably be nearly impossible before to see without doing so. I'd recommend some rubber gloves for the cleaning as chain lube is difficult to get off your hands. Mineral or cooking oil can help with that.

Awesome, that's extremely helpful and that gives me somewhere to start. Thanks alot

[zero9243]

HOLY SHNIKE! Luke's BACK!?

[mxryder21]

dude, i have like 3 oil leaks on my bike... valve cover, pushrod seal and the damn oil level sight glass. as far as i know there's nothing that can be done about the sight glass except to try and seal it with ultra black or something but you might wanna scope yours out...

[Shocka311]

good call, I'll check that out.