| Author | Message | ||
     Mudshuvel319 |
I rode the X1 to work this morning and then took it to get some lunch. I came back to work and parked it and came out four hours later at the end of the day to find a nice puddle of oil under the bike. Upon closer inspection, the oil looks like it's leaking from the engine onto the muffler and then dripping on the ground. I've only owned the bike for a couple months now so I'm not very familiar with the behavior of the X1. Obviously this sort of leak isn't normal, but what are the possible causes? It hasn't leaked a drop of oil since I bought it and my ride at lunch was only a couple uneventful miles of around-town traffic. I assume it's primary oil, but I can't tell for sure. If anyone has any advice I'd appreciate it. Here are some pics of the offending leak.      | ||
| Bhillberg |
drain plug tight? | ||
| Lowroad |
was gonna say...loose drain plug perhaps. | ||
| Hughlysses |
That's the drain plug for the primary/transmission. It probably needs a new O-ring; the plug shouldn't have to be super-tight to seal. Looks like you'll have to drop the muffler to make room to remove it. Many people "dimple" the top of the muffler so they don't have to drop the muffler to change the primary oil. Not sure that can be done with your aftermarket muffler. As long as you've got to pull the plug and replace the O-ring, you might as well change the primary oil. Formula+ is good stuff. | ||
| Mudshuvel319 |
Thanks for the suggestions. I should have mentioned that I checked the plug and I snugged it a little bit but I didn't think it was loose enough before to warrant the leak. I was hoping there was an O-ring or gasket on the plug. I'm just a little surprised at how quickly it went bad. And since I'll be draining the oil anyway, I'll definitely throw some new oil in there. I'll look around for the Formula+ | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
look at the gasket on the starter. Mine has started leaking before and dripped down leaving oil in the same location as in your pics. | ||
| Lowroad |
formula+ at the local HD dealer. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
My starter gasket failed and puked all over back there too. look on the top of your tranny from the right side and see if it's all oily. | ||
| Mudshuvel319 |
Does anyone know if I would be able to get the o-ring from a HD (non-Buell) dealer? It seems like a logical part to carry over from the Harley design. Hannum's HD is less than two miles from my house so I'd like to get the o-ring there if they would have it in stock. I found the assembly on page 6-3 of the 99/00 service manual but there isn't a part number listed. | ||
| Essmjay |
Just tell them you need it for a '99 Sportster... | ||
| Brettx1 |
This has happened to me when I over filled the oil res. Obviously an easy fix. It also happened when my primary gasket went bad, more labor intensive but not that difficult to replace. Good luck! | ||
| Bookyoh |
Have you recently added oil? I trust you checked the obvious and made sure the dip stick did not blow out. Another thing to check is where the alternator wire exits from the primary case. My S3 was leaking from there last year and it left a small puddle on the ground. Mark | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
DON'T buy the o-ring from H-D My dealer wanted $5 for one. I took my sample to home depot and bought TEN for $1.20. | ||
| Mudshuvel319 |
Thanks for the help. I checked it out closely and the oil seems to be coming from the drain plug. I was hoping it was the o-ring so I called the local HD dealer and they had one in stock for 90 cents. I bought it and some oil and tomorrow morning I'm going to replace the ring and hope that stops the leak. If not, I may need to replace the primary case gasket but I'll find out for sure tomorrow. | ||
| Mudshuvel319 |
Outdated Thread Update Alert!!! I know this is an old thread and likely no one cares, but I did resolve this issue. The o-ring wasn't the problem so I went ahead and bought a new gasket. When i popped the cover off it became pretty clear that I had unearthed the cause of the leak. This is what the old gasket looked like:   With the new gasket, the Buell is now leak-free! | ||
| Buellistic |
Mudshuvel319: Looks like you are running your primary chain too tight ... Want my HOW TO "INFO", e-mail me and it is yours ... MAY THE LONG LASTING BUELL BE WITH YOU !!! |
