| Author | Message | ||
     Gmaan03 |
I was riding home from work on Friday, when I noticed my right foot was slipping of the peg to easy. I looked down and my boot was covered in oil! I made it home and the right side of my bike is an oily mess. I am trying to figure out where the oil is coming from but not to sure. I tried to start my bike but it back fires through the intake and will not start now. The oil filter and hoses are all dry, It looks like the oil might be coming out of one of my lower push rod tubes? Also when I look into the drive belt area under the alum cover it looks oily. I am not sure if that oil is from the main leak........... And my bike was running so sweet! no error codes, every thing was working,,,,,,, now this. I tell you me and this bike have a love hate relationship! | ||
| Fahren |
Time to wash the bike, put a light coating of talcum powder, baby powder, spray-on foot powder, whatever, then crank the bike. If oil comes out somewhere, the location will be way clearer than it is now. Oil slides all over the place once it leaks, and can give you a wrong idea of where it is leaking from unless you pinpoint the original source like this. Could easily be a pushrod area leak, but better to check. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
Sounds like he won't need the talcum powder trick with the volume he's talking about. Might be a good idea to take a peek up under where the oil pump lives too. | ||
| Gmaan03 |
Yeah, I hope it is an easy fix. | ||
| Harleyelf |
The air cleaner has oil in it? Could you have overfilled it, causing it to sump? If not, you may have a bent pushrod from a stuck valve. Hope it was just a breather burp. | ||
| Thejosh |
I agree with elf, you probably overfilled it. Did you add oil before your ride? | ||
| Ratbuell |
Every time I put a new oil filter on, I tighten it...and I put a mark on it and the filter mating surface with touchup paint. That way I can see if its turning / removing itself. I do the same thing on all my critical fasteners - caliper bolts, fork pinch bolts, axle pinch bolts, shifter bolts, clutch cover bolts...it's a lot of little orange dots, but it makes pre-ride checks go much more quickly. Check your filter. But if you have OEM pushrod bases, my money's there, too. | ||
| Gmaan03 |
No I did not add oil | ||
| Sportyeric |
My money's on rocker box gasket. When they go, they go messy. | ||
| Fahren |
Yeah, clean it up, try cranking without the powder, and see if you see the leak - once it's out, the oil gets all over the place and makes you think things have gone bad that are just fine. So pinpoint the source. | ||
| Gmaan03 |
Well I found the problem! The side cover gasket broke out at the top! I cleaned it up and got it started, oil was gushing out. At least it will be a simple fix..... I swear if I did not love this bike I would sell it! We have a dysfunctional relationship. But I keep coming back for more! | ||
| Buell_bert |
I have had Honda,Kawasaki,Harley and of course Buell. Such a fine place to ask questions is here. Wish I had it in the 70's.B | ||
| Ratbuell |
Side cover gasket, right side...cam cover? That means you get to pull rockerboxes and pull rockers to unload the pushrods. DO NOT REMOVE THE COVER WITH PRESSURE ON THE PUSHRODS. Your cams are in there. The outer end of the cam rides in a bushing...in the cover. Pushrod pressure "side-loads" the cam, pushing them down - fine if the cover is bolted in place, but loosen the cover? Cams go crooked and inner bushings get hosed. Now, once you remove the pushrods and go to remove the cover...MAKE SURE NO CAMS FALL OUT. Some folks put the engine at TDC before they remove this cover, in case they do fall out...makes it easier to reinstall, you can just use the marks. Get a bronze oil pump gear and put it in while you're in there. | ||
| Gmaan03 |
Thanks for the information! I did not read the manual yet to see what was involved. | ||
| Harleyelf |
Remember to remove all the oil before cracking that case. It will make a serious mess if you trust it to stay in the oil tank. | ||
| Littlebuggles |
Doesn't the oil sump into the engine case, not the cam chest? When I had my cam cover off there was some oil in there but it wasn't close to full, and I don't recall seeing much flow into the chest over the weeks the cover was off. 'Course in retrospect I can't recall if I drained the oil prior either... which is why I ask. I wonder if something inside the chest blew out the cover or if it was a stress or casting failure. Take pictures please | ||
| Alfau |
Buell Motorcycles are a spare parts salesman's dream. Everything keeps wearing out real quick. As long as you keep buying parts your everybody's friend. The good news is there is no better place to come for answers. Bad news is you are hooked! | ||
| Harleyelf |
Oil sumping is the accumulation of excess oil around the crankshaft during periods of inaction, filling the void that should be clear air for the crank to spin through. It returns harmlessly to the oil tank unless the tank is overfilled, in which case it rises to the heads and exits the motor through the engine vent tube. The factory routes vent tubes to the air cleaner to make the motor burn cleaner. Many riders choose to re-route the vent tube, but with a stock setup it is quite possible for the oil to fill the air cleaner during a sumping event. The cam cover area is not pressurized, but oil can gravity feed to it if there is a break in the gasket. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
You bring up a good point: If the breather has been blocked off, the blow-by pressure will build up and escape "Somewhere" "Somewhere" being a gasket or the oil tank cap popping off. | ||
| Buellistic |
CHECK YOUR ENGINE OIL Class 101 and CHECK YOUR PRIMARY OIL LEVEL Class 101, just PM me for your copys ... | ||
| Akbuell |
Having had the gearcase cover off on my '01 X-1 before, some thoughts: To avoid creating an oil leak from the primary cover gasket when the shift shaft bolt is removed (been there, done that w/the OE gasket), I just loosened the right-hand side of the chin fairing and let it hang. Since the exhaust header needs to come off, now is the time to have it coated or wrapped if you have considered that. I chose to wrap mine, and my right leg is markedly cooler now. You can put one cyl on TDC, remove the rocker box and pushrods, then put the other cyl on TDC and remove the gearcase cover. In my case, I found (confirmed) that I had the two-piece gaskets, so I removed both rocker boxes and installed the new one-piece gasket at re-assembly. I was already in there .... I drilled out just the rivet heads to the CPS sensor, then removed the rest of the rivets when I put the inner cover on the bench. At reassembly, I chose to thread the holes and put in allen head bolts. You only get 2 or less threads in the inner cover, but the bolts only hold on the decorative cover, so that's enough. You can always put the 'blind' OE rivets back in. A drain pan and an aluminum foil funnel helps keep the mess contained when the cover first comes loose. And I just left the gearcase cover hanging (carefully) by the CPS harness. Since all of the pushrods are out, I took the cams out and set them on the bench. That way I didn't have to worry about one falling out and getting damaged. They are easy to install correctly w/the front cyl on TDC. You may have to reach in and move a lifter up out of the way on reinstallation, but that saves removing the lifters. My purpose on getting in there was to install the upgraded oil pump drive gear. Might be a good time for you to consider doing that. And if you do, the crankshaft-holding tool from Al at American Sport Bike is worth the investment. Finally, there is every chance that one or more of the lifters will have 'bled down', causing excess valve clearance. So at start-up, the engine will make A Lot Of Noise. A gentle, sub 3K RPM cruise around the block will fix that. Take your time, label stuff carefully, and refer to the manual for torque settings and tightening sequences, and you'll be fine. In my case, I managed to cram 4-5hrs of work into a couple of weeks, but hey, it was winter. Hope this helps, Dave | ||
| Gmaan03 |
Upgraded oil pump gear? wasn't the 01 oil pump already built with the upgraded oil pump gear? I am going to start to do the work this weekend. Working today, so it will be this evening or tomorrow. | ||
| Akbuell |
FWIW, my '01 X-1 parts book shows the oil pump drive gear to be p/n 26318-88A. The hi-performance drive gear is p/n 26391-06, so they are not the same. I replaced mine for peace of mind, not because I had issues. And the gearcase gasket is/was p/n 25263-90D. Same number, different suffix from the parts book. Hope this helps, Dave | ||
| Harleyelf |
While you have it in your hands, you might want to inspect the cam position sensor harness for heat damage, chafing, and cracked or brittle insulation. It's in the heat flow of the front pipe and your spark depends on it. Not saying yours has failed like mine did, just mentioning that it is a thing that sometimes fails and now is a great time to check it out. Like the oil hoses. They fail after five years or so and you're exposing the oil pump to easy inspection. It's a wasted opportunity if you don't at least look. (Message edited by harleyelf on November 19, 2011) | ||
| Buellistic |
Gmaan03: You got mail !!! | ||
| Gmaan03 |
Thanks for the information | ||
| Littlebuggles |
All tube frame Buells were built with the early oil pump drive gear. Part may have been available, but would have been as an accessory, pro series part in 01. I'm not sure when they started offering it as an accessory though... ...or what year they began installing them in the XB bikes. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
I think the gold gear was first put out is in the 2006 bikes. In 2008, they went mental and changed the whole thing out to direct drive off of the cams. | ||
| Buellistic |
Zippers had it as a RACING PART ... XB's came with the -06 gear for the 2006 MODEL YEAR ... In 2008 the XB's went to the XBRR style oil pump system as did the SPORTSTERS ... |
