There's a hole in the engine, dear Liza, dear Liza.

[burp reynolds]

An oil leak suddenly appeared in my '79 GS1000E, and I promptly (well, prompt for a tree) opened up the cover over the drive sprocket to see what the matter was. I found my sprocket's nut missing, but the spacer and washer were lying in the bottom of the cover. I figured it wouldn't hurt to replace the nut, and I found one at the Ace hardware (fine thread M20) for a buck forty. I had hoped that this would fix the leak, but apparently not.

So, I cleaned up the area behind the cover, and found this.

Question: why is there a hole in my crankcase with oil gushing out of it?

Question 2: does something belong in this hole? If so, what?

I was all ready to rebuild the engine before I saw that all of the oil was coming out of this hole. Maybe it's a minor thing. Or maybe nothing goes in this hole, and the problem is on the other side of the crankcase wall. What do you guys think?

 

[asetech]

That is a drain for your starter cavity. It is supposed to be there and is not supposed to be plugged. your starter seal, cam tensioner could be leaking. cyl. base gasket. http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=131694

 

[rustybronco]

Search for starter oring Burp! (excuse me...)
such as... http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?p=837398#post837398

 

[burp reynolds]

That is a drain for your starter cavity. It is supposed to be there and is not supposed to be plugged. your starter seal, cam tensioner could be leaking. cyl. base gasket. http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=131694

Oh jeez. I should've known that. I constantly worry about the gas dribbling into my starter well. (I DID change the needle valves and seats!) Allright, I'll pull the starter cover.

 

[Steve]

I must have missed something somewhere. :-k

I clicked on his "this" link and got an index to 23 Picassa albums, none of which apparently contained anything about a hole in a motorcycle engine.

True, I only opened one of them, it was the only one with a motorcycle on the cover, but it did not show any holes.

.

 

[Big T]

I must have missed something somewhere. :-k

I clicked on his "this" link and got an index to 23 Picassa albums, none of which apparently contained anything about a hole in a motorcycle engine.

True, I only opened one of them, it was the only one with a motorcycle on the cover, but it did not show any holes.

.

Same here

Burp, how about using copy and paste to give us some real photos???

 

[yank]

could it be the fuel mixing with dirt,grime,and sludge dripping out?

 

[yank]

my bad ,your first post said Gushing oil.

 

[Dave_17954]

god I love mystery hole stories :dancing:

 

[burp reynolds]

That's odd. Works for me. I just marked the album 'public'. That should help. I thought having a link would get you into an 'unlisted' album, but maybe not.

[edit] the forum's not letting me paste photos into my reply. Can somebody see if correcting the 'unlisted' thing worked?

 

[Guest]

Unless I can't see it, you need to bend the washer on the sproket over the nut after it's good and tight. That will prevent it coming off again.

 

[burp reynolds]

Unless I can't see it, you need to bend the washer on the sproket over the nut after it's good and tight. That will prevent it coming off again.

Ah. Of course. Thank you.

 

[yank]

BIKE PORN... The Administrator must have removed it for haveing your finger in the hole.

 

[burp reynolds]

BIKE PORN... The Administrator must have removed it for haveing your finger in the hole.

That rascally prude of an admin!

 

[errorcauser]

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_hoHOkMBsRNA/SmOmGqzWtsI/AAAAAAAAE9Q/VU9yHdXQ2Y8/s800/DSC06958.JPG

 

[errorcauser]

I see you've got your link working now. What you're seeing im pretty sure is a drain hole.

 

[burp reynolds]

I see you've got your link working now. What you're seeing im pretty sure is a drain hole.

Thank you. I am aware of that now, thanks to asetech and rustybronco.

So, I pulled out the starter, cleaned all of the gravel, oil and dead hornets out of the chamber, cut a small slice out of a 25mm bicycle inner tube to slip between the groove in the starter and the oring, replaced the starter, and took the bike around the block. Pretty soon the rear tire was sliding around again whenever I turned left, so I headed back to the garage and revved the engine while I watched inside the starter chamber. Pretty soon I saw a geyser of oil spashing out of the hole that the wires were coming out of the stator compartment through.

So. Is there supposed to be oil in the stator compartment? If so, should it be gushing out of the hole the wires are routed through?

 

[Guest]

Yes, there should be oil in there. There should also be a rubber grommet that the wires pass through where they come out to keep it from leaking.

 

[Macmatic]

So. Is there supposed to be oil in the stator compartment? If so, should it be gushing out of the hole the wires are routed through?

Yes.
No.

Have you had the stator out? The wires (On an OE stator) pass thought a moulded on rubber plug that may have hardened or not been put back in place properly at some point...

Use some locktite on that nut as well or get a nyloc nut. Not nylon, a metal nut with a nylon inset. I think that is the OE type. And bend the carp out of that washer.

I think I'd still be trying to pick my pants out of my crack if I found my sprocket nut missing!

/\/\ac

 

[burp reynolds]

Yes.
No.

Have you had the stator out? The wires (On an OE stator) pass thought a moulded on rubber plug that may have hardened or not been put back in place properly at some point...

Use some locktite on that nut as well or get a nyloc nut. Not nylon, a metal nut with a nylon inset. I think that is the OE type. And bend the carp out of that washer.

I think I'd still be trying to pick my pants out of my crack if I found my sprocket nut missing!

/\/\ac

Thank you, RenoBruce, and thank you Macmatic. I can't imagine how this happened, but that grommet is just plain not there. I guess I'm going to look for it down inside. I haven't had the stator case open in a year. I was fooling with the starter quite a bit back then, but that is the only time that the plug could have gone missing. So if it had no trouble holding oil until recently, there must be more to the story.

Does anyone think that the flow of the oil has been obstructed somewhere, and that the oil pump doesn't know what to do with the oil except to blow it out this hole (and possible one other spot at the back of the engine. I have to look into that as soon as this gusher is fixed and I can clean the engine again)? Perhaps I should have changed the oil filter last oil change or something?