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I'm at my wits end and about to break...Oil pan hell.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Detman101
  • Start date Start date
D

Detman101

Guest
Good day,

Well, it's actually a pretty crappy day...but, here's the story.

A month ago I stripped the oil pan drain hole by overtorquing the bolt. ( I know I know, how unprofessional of me) So I decided that I would take the oil pan off and have it helicoiled. Well while taking off the oil pan I forgot that central bolt that sits about 3 inches in front of the drain hole.
I couldn't get the pan off so I got out the crowbar and I'm sure you know the rest. :roll: :oops:

So...56 dollars later I have a new oil pan and I layer on the gasket maker and mount it up. Then I repaint my 4-into-1 MAC exhaust and put it back on the bike with new exhaust gaskets. I go to start the bike and the battery is dead. So...I take it out and recharge it. Full charge now and I try restarting the bike again and....nothing.

There's gas in the tank, the ignition components all work, the choke works, the carbs are clean, the exhaust is mounted tight. I just can't figure out what the hell is going on?

The oil pan is dripping oil slightly from 2 bolts on the right side and from that central bolt near the drain bolt. The bolts that leak on the right side have leaked oil onto the wires that come from the ignition cover/ignition side of the engine.

Could getting oil on those ignition pickup wires be causing the hell I'm going through? IE: The bike not starting?
I don't get it becuase I've ridden through mud, rain and snow and nothing ever happened with those wires before. I wouldn't think that gettign oil on them would cause no signal to go through.

I reused the clips that were holding them onto the bike before I took the oil pan off and they are in the same position as before....just covered in drippy oil.

Does anyone have a clue what to do? I really want to sell this bike while it's running but if I have to I will push it into traffic.

Thanks,
Desperate Dm
 
Also, CloudbreakMD is picking me up a new Glassmat-gel battery. If that doesn't work and start the bike then I'm giving up and selling it.

For Gs members the starting sale price is $400 dollars. It has been rejetted with pods, comes with MAC 4-into1 exhaust and will have a new battery and rear tire installed. It also has a pingle petcock and comes with a spare tank that can be repainted if you want. The brakes are brand new and front/back brakes were flushed before the oil leak started.
It has a battery charge monitor on it mounted to the drag-bar handlebars.
The bike also comes with an aftermarket horn and a vista-cruise for when you want to relax your grip and just cruise for miles.
 
Describing how you managed to strip threads, destroy an oil pan with a crowbar, "layer" on gasket maker and end up with oil dripping everywhere might not be the best way to market the bike for sale. Forgive me, but folks might assume this represents the general standard of maintenance.
 
Detman,
Please don't be offended, but are you sure the kill button is off?

If so, does it turn over or not? If not, the coils aren't in the picture. Does it make any noise when you hit the starter button? Is there adequate voltage in the battery to turn the starter motor ( > 13.5)? Have you tried jump-starting it?

Ace.
 
When you say "Nothing" do you mean the starter is not even turning the motor? After I went down the list of Stator papers I narrowed mine down to the starter and the same thing happened to me, it just quit working one day. Thought it was the battery myself and even checked the Solenoid to no avail.
 
When I have the kill button to "off" nothing happens.
I flip it to run and the starter turns over the engine with it's regular speed.

The problem is that the engine will not fire. Everything is working as it should or at least it seems to be. Fuel in the bowls & Spark at the plugs and I can hear the carbs sucking in air through the pods.

I just don't know why it's not starting. I'm guessing I need to replace the battery...even if it is charged enough to turn the starter it may not be strong enough to give sufficient spark to start the bike.

Wait a second, when I took out the plugs they were dry. If the engine was getting fuel then the plugs should have been wet with as much as I tried starting it.

Damnit, I guess I'll take the carbs off and take em apart next week.

:(
 
maybe it was more simple, is your vaccuum line attached? does it hold vaccuum?

maybe try some starter fluid in the airbox just to see if it gets anything? sometimes that can get enough things moving to start er up??

good luck there, buddy 8)
 
Detman101 said:
Wait a second, when I took out the plugs they were dry. If the engine was getting fuel then the plugs should have been wet with as much as I tried starting it.

Damnit, I guess I'll take the carbs off and take em apart next week.

:(
Click to expand...
Naw. All the carbs don't go south at the same time. The carb rack isn't getting fuel. Petcock ?

Pete
 
Guy said:
Describing how you managed to strip threads, destroy an oil pan with a crowbar, "layer" on gasket maker and end up with oil dripping everywhere might not be the best way to market the bike for sale. Forgive me, but folks might assume this represents the general standard of maintenance.
Click to expand...
Well, yeah, but he isn't trying to sell it to us, my friend :D

Pete
 
Pete Logan said:
Detman101 said:
Wait a second, when I took out the plugs they were dry. If the engine was getting fuel then the plugs should have been wet with as much as I tried starting it.

Damnit, I guess I'll take the carbs off and take em apart next week.

:(
Click to expand...
Naw. All the carbs don't go south at the same time. The carb rack isn't getting fuel. Petcock ?

Pete
Click to expand...

Pingle petcock on the tank and I saw the fuel flowing into the filter and down to the carbs.

Still stumped.
:(
 
No problem. Well, I'm going to pull the carbs and tank and make sure that I don't have a blockage somewhere somehow.

It concerns me that the plugs were dry when I tried to start it.
I'm going to flowtest my system and see what the hell is going on when I get home.

:)
 
You might look at another simple thing: firing order.

It is a common error, and usually causes backfiring or other noises, but you could just get a no-start condition.

One coil fires cylinders 1 and 4 the other coil fires 2 and 3.
 
Are you usuing your choke? My 1100 would crank endlessly if I didnt choke it.
 
Check the color of your spark. More likely than not your battery is weak and/or dying. I will pick up a new gel mat battery for you this week.
 
Guy said:
Describing how you managed to strip threads, destroy an oil pan with a crowbar, "layer" on gasket maker and end up with oil dripping everywhere might not be the best way to market the bike for sale. Forgive me, but folks might assume this represents the general standard of maintenance.
Click to expand...
In his defense, the man is absolutely crazy about maintenance. A bolt was covered with road grime and he didn't see it, thinking all the bolts were off... time lapse forward this cluster of a mess he's in, and here we are. Oh and a motorcycle shop recommended the gasket maker.
 
i'm new to gs world but have been fixing stuff since i could walk.
divide and conquer.

spark?, grab an old plug, transfer a plug wire to it, vise grip it to something clean and paint free on frame or engine, look for spark

fuel? loosen one of the float drains.

air? check for old socks in carb throats

if you have all three and it was running before, it should run again.

if anything is missing, split the defference between source and sink and see if it's there in the middle. for example, if you have fuel in bowls and spark and air but no start, you might squirt a shot of ether in each carb. If she fires and runs a few seconds, you know your spark is not only there but there at the right time and that you've something amiss with carbs. if you had spark and she doesn't run on ether, your spark is not there at the right time.

ether is about a buck at the auto parts store. AKA starting fluid because they put a little oil in with the ether. not recommended for diesel bikes.

speaking of diesel bikes, does anyone near atlanta have one they want to get rid of?

-bob
 
He said the engine cranks fine but plugs are dry. A new battery won't change that. Remove the plugs and crank the starter. You should be able to smell for the presence of gas vapor coming out of the plug holes. Don't smoke when you do this :lol: If you smell nothing out of any spark plug holes, try removing the air box (maybe the filter is totally plugged) and try the sniff test again. Replace air box when done.

Are you using the choke as already asked? - it won't start without it. And is the choke actuating the choke levers on the carbs? The cable can become disconnected or broken off.

Next stop is the float levels in the bowls - are they adequate for the jets
to work?

I read in a thread here that the main difference between a good mechanic and a bad one is patience. No offense, but using a crow bar on an oil pan is not patience.
 
In Detman's defense, the only way you really learn is from experience. After this experience, I am sure that the crowbar will not come out again unless he knows all the fasteners are taken care of.

Maybe he was hot,sweaty, and tired, and lost his nerve a little bit. I think we have all done that before.

Maybe he's the type of person that acts quickly, then says "oops." I don't know.

In any case, he needs some help, and I see a lot of good comments re: the starting problem.

Matt
 
Not trying to lecture, but it helps for the future to remember about being patient - and stopping to cool down a little before using brute force.

I once got in a hurry trying to time my old BMW 2002, and started the car while it was in gear - ran it right into a wall! I think I learned my lession that time.

Ace.
 
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