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Drive sprocket oil leak + damage questions

E

eldevigo

Forum Apprentice
Hi folks, I was poking around in my '83 1100E today, trying to find the source of an engine oil leak. I took off the front sprocket cover for the first time (bought from PO last summer) and found about the worst mess I've ever seen in my life.
I cleaned out several cubic inches of fibrous tarry sludge from around the front sprocket. After scraping out enough muck that I could see more or less what components were in there, I found a few things that I'm curious about:
  1. the front sprocket compartment cover (the piece I took off to get inside) appears to have been factory lined with some kind of squishy, fairly thick open-cell foam. I think it's orange, but it's saturated with oil and that might just be what color it is now. What is the purpose of this foam lining? Should I try to clean it up? Replace it? Just peel it out and throw it away?
  2. I had to remove five #8 bolts from around the outside perimeter of the cover to open up the compartment (as well as the shifter lever linkage). A sixth, larger bolt head in the middle of the cover didn't want to come out, so I left it alone and the cover came off fine without removing it. After taking the cover off and cleaning up the mess a bit, I found that it appears that the sixth, larger bolt was intended to seat into a threaded riser that was cast into the engine case and also help hold the cover on. In my case, it appears that something in the previous years of the bike's history hit the cover (or the cast bolt anchor riser) with enough force to shear the bolt anchor off from the rest of the engine case. The large bolt is bent about 70 degrees, and the remains of the bolt anchor are still threaded on the end of it. Does this thing serve any special purpose? Should I just leave it alone, or try to remove it?
  3. There's some sort of electrical component with epoxy-cast wire leads embedded in it that's bolted into the engine housing sort of behind the front sprocket. Based on where it is and where the wires head, my guess is that this is the transmission gear indicator. Can anyone confirm?
  4. It looks like my oil leak is certainly coming from in here. My best guess is that it's coming from the sprocket shaft seal where it passes in to the transmission case, but it could possibly also be the bolted-in electrical component mentioned in question 3. Are leaks here common? Are they worth trying to repair? How much work/time/money would it take to fix it?
  5. I'm also chasing an issue with the bike not starting reliably, and I'm unsure where the starter motor and AC generator are located on this engine. Next to the front sprocket compartment, there's another compartment cast into the engine casing, which contains a component that looks like a starter motor. It appears to be wired directly to the R/R however, with three wires. Is this thing actually the AC generator? If so, where's the starter motor?
I am including some photos I took with marks to show what I'm talking about in each of the above questions. Google drive link follows with the photos (they're too big to attach here).

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1b-XyNfB8tHiur5L1UKAeAplWtJc9j16C?usp=sharing

Any info on any of these topics would be much appreciated. Thanks for reading!
 
GET A REPAIR MANUAL... Foam under sprocket cover is for noise dampning, Always nastiest part of bike due to chain oil, I didn't go look at mine, but just sitting here I don't remember a bigger bolt on the sprocket cover, elect wires, under there, are gear position wires, Hard to imagine you can't find starter motor, your picture has the cover removed and the motor in plain sight... Again, GET A REPAIR MANUAL.
 
The broken screw is unfortunate, but not critical. Get yourself a spray can of Brakleen, some eye-pro and an old tooth brush. Clean it up so you can see what you’re looking at. You can only clean up the foam bit so much. Don’t worry about it. It will always look gross. Can’t see it when the cover is reinstalled. I will reiterate GET A REPAIR MANUAL​. Factory Service Manuals for many models are available as a free download on BikeCliff’s website. See link in my signature. If you can’t see signatures, let me know, I can help you with that. Your bike is covered here.
https://gsarchive.bwringer.com/mtsac/~cliff/storage/gs/80-83_GS1100T-LT-EX-1000SZ-EZ-SD-ED-ESD.pdf
 
Rob, we never know what to expect from NY folks, I wouldn't have been surprised if ya'll called it a Fix It book... I don't know if it's true but also heard some of ya'll, up there wait till supper time to eat your dinner. I'd be starving if I waited that long.
 
Well, I'm very conservative. Got out of bed at 6PM but didn't have my first beer till 10PM. I calls it a breakfast burrito. Some folks call it a sling blade, but I calls it a breakfast burrito. :pirate:
 
I have the repair manual linked on BikeCliff's site. I printed it out and stuck it in a binder last year, and I do read it. I guess I haven't found the section where it identified the location of the stator LOL. maybe it's in one of these blurry black-and-white photos that I can't make heads or tails of.
I did figure out where the stator is, after removing the starter motor to perform the recommended service wear checks on the brushes and rotor lands.

I confirmed that the neutral switch sensor is the source of the leak, it's gotten substantially worse since I cleaned out all the gunk, looks like I'm going to have to either re-seat it ore replace it because it's dripping pretty bad now.
 
Underneath the circular sensor with the 6 wires coming out of if, you’ll see this. Be careful not to lose the spring and pin that go in the hole. No idea how you replace the seal around/behind? that disk or if it’s covered in the manual.
3LggdSch.jpg
 
I have to admit I'm afraid to shoot gunk around the front sprocket. do I need to protect my chain, or do I just need to rinse it off and lube it afterwards?
Maybe it's best if I pop the master link and remove the chain entirely before I clean up in there?
 
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