Found my oil leak.

[Steve]

Could not find my "Little Ride" thread from last year, so I am starting this one to show what happened on "Little Ride v2".

We were on the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopped to check a map, left the engine running for the minute or so I had anticipated for the stop. It was taking longer than expected, so turned the engine off and got off the bike. Looking down, I saw a pool of oil over a foot in diameter. I had not noticed it when I pulled up, so I did some checking. When the bike was upright, there was no problem, but leaned over on the side stand, it was rather obvious. Stator was not impressed.

We went about 10 miles to the next town, stopped at the auto parts store, got some brake cleaner and JB Weld, quick formula. Cleaned the left side of the base gasket, mixed up some JB and packed it in along the edge. Mixed up a second batch to cover a bit more of the joint and walked next door for lunch.

After lunch, we fired up the bikes and continued heading for the west end of the Blue Ridge Parkway. On the way, we took a detour to go up Mt. Mitchell, then continued on to the Tail of the Dragon. Got home about 850 miles later, had only used about half a quart of oil. Not bad, considering the video above.

Due to many other projects happening, I have FINALLY gotten around to replacing my base gasket. Everything came apart reasonably well, and I was very pleased to see that my JB patch survived disassembly.

I have no idea when or how that piece of gasket disappeared. It had to be rather recent, as it had been installed about 1800 miles earlier. It was using some oil, but that was expected, as I had new rings and a fresh hone job, but certainly not enough to explain a leak of that magnitude.

Re-assembly will happen over the next few days, and I will also try to find out why my cam chain tensioner was so noisy. I don't remember if I have rebuilt this one before or not, but it will likely be rebuilt THIS time.

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[MikeS]

I love JB. It's saved me in all sorts of situations. I've got an aluminum header tank in my airplane and found a couple pinhole-sized leaks around areas that had had stiffeners and brackets welded to the outside bottom surface of the tank. I touched each of them up with JB and even though it's not supposed to be solvent (gas) resistant, those leaks have not returned during the 10 or so years it's been since I used JB to fix them. I use it for everything from tiny items to large ones and it seems to always work.

You could have probably left that slice of JB gasket replacement in place and never have worried . . . but of course you did the right thing.

 

[Steve]

I was just a bit surprised that the block of JB came out pretty much intact, showing me the sliver that worked into the gap where the gasket used to be.

I also have some JB on one of the valve covers on my Wing. It got blown over several years ago while in Flori-duh, one of the highway peg mounts punched into the bottom edge of the valve cover. Cleaned it up with alcohol, slathered on the JB, put it back on the bike when set. Coming up on nine years, still leak-free.

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