Leaking 850 (For bwringer)

[Anonymous]

I finally got around to trying to finalize the leak from the mystery hole that turned out to be the drain below the starter.

I pulled out the starter and it was dry and dusty in there. But I noticed a small tube that ran into the drain hole. It came from what looks like a little canister on top of the forward drive gear on the upper engine case. Also, I pulled the gear oil plug there at the forward drive gear just to inspect the gasket, etc.

As it turned out, gear oil came flowing out, and I let it out until it pretty much stopped. I also noticed that the drain plug is located just below the seam where the top and bottom engine cases come together.

I wonder if a prior owner or mechanic overfilled the gear oil and it was coming through that tube and then through the starter drain hole. The only other option I could think of is that there might be a leak between the engine halves right where that drain hole is below the starter. The latter seems pretty remote though.

I guess the best test will be to see if the accumulation on the pipe via the starter drain hole stops now. But I still wanted to run this past anyone interested and see if they had anything to add.

Thanks

[bwringer]

Thanks for the update -- sometimes you throw out some advice and you never know if it helped.

On my parts fiche, the small canister with the small tube is indeed listed as a "bevel gear vent", so an overfilled gearbox could push gear oil out this tube as it got warm.

However, you may have the opposite problem -- I believe it is possible for engine oil to leak into the gearbox area, leading to overfilling. You definitely want to keep an eye on the gearbox oil level for a while. If it is mysteriously rising, engine oil is getting into the bevel gearbox.

There's an o-ring and a seal on the parts fiche, but it's not clear which is responsible for keeping engine and gear oil separate. It's also not clear from the manuals if either can be replaced without splitting the cases. I'd be happy to experiment on my scrap GS850 engine, but I won't have time for a while.

Has anyone else out there dealt with a similar problem on a GS shaftie?

[SqDancerLynn1]

Keep an eye on it...... IF the gear oil is being contamanated by the engine oil IT will require splitting the cases

[focus frenzy]

I have had a even more bizzar problem with the secondary gear box.
mine was making water!!!

I had noticed oil leaking from the vent and i checked the level via the check plug and it was to high.
I asumed oil was leaking from the transmission into the secondary gear box so I decided to drain it, I was shocked when I got a considerable amount of water when I pulled the drain plug.
I flushed it out good and refilled with fresh gear lube and a few months later the leaking from the vent returned. I pulled the drain plug and once again there was water in the gearbox!

once again i cleaned it out but i kept a close eye on it and all apeared to be normal when several months later the output seal failed.
when I replaced the seal i checked and there was no water, and this spring when I was doing the spring service to get ready for our spring ride I changed the gear lub and there was still no water.
the only differance is that when I found water in the secondary gear box, i had riden in the rain.
my vent line is run down the back of the transmission and some how it was drawing rain water in.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies and information. Could the fact that fuel had gotten into the crankcase have any bearing on this--like causing or exacerbating a seal to deteriorate?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Focus Frenzy:

Was your high gear oil level high because of the water that was getting in, or something else? In other words, was the output seal that eventually failed related to your problem of high oil levels, or was it just the water that was coming into the vent tube?

Thanks