Valve Stem Seals, or maybe throw in the towel

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Made good progress today. Was just about to pop in a new oil filter and fresh oil. When I was tightening the drain bolt, thought I felt the crush washer crush, then gave the wrench a little more. What I actually felt was the pan threads giving way. FML. Well, at least I have a spare oil pan that was already cleaned up and ready to go. Have a pan gasket on the shelf too. Spent the last hour or so scraping the old gasket. Decided to call it quits for the night and enjoy a beer. I could finish it up tomorrow, we’ll see how it goes.

I know there’s a new member here with the same bike who just did the same thing. Can’t seem to find a torque spec for the oil drain bolt in any of my references. Never had this happen before. Think I was getting tired and my built-in ugga-dugga meter was out of calibration.

 

[2BRacing]

The drain bolt threads on my 850 also stripped out.

Other members here reported using a special oversize bolt that cut it's own threads in the oil pan. Brian (bwringer) very kindly sourced one and posted it to me together with a few tubes of Honda moly paste for the drive splines.

That fix worked well and has been leak-free for some years.

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

The drain bolt threads on my 850 also stripped out.

Other members here reported using a special oversize bolt that cut it's own threads in the oil pan. Brian (bwringer) very kindly sourced one and posted it to me together with a few tubes of Honda moly paste for the drive splines.

That fix worked well and has been leak-free for some years.

If you or bwringer knows exactly what that is I’ll buy one to fix this damaged pan, just to have as a spare. I had thought of doing some kind of repair in situ, but figured I’d have to take the pan off anyhow. Wouldn’t want thread cuttings left in there.

 

[Eli69]

"It's always somethin !"

 

[2BRacing]

If you or bwringer knows exactly what that is I’ll buy one to fix this damaged pan, just to have as a spare. I had thought of doing some kind of repair in situ, but figured I’d have to take the pan off anyhow. Wouldn’t want thread cuttings left in there.

It was a "+1 oversize" sump bolt in the standard 14 x 1.25 pitch. They are available in auto parts stores. Unfortunately I cannot locate my notes on that item now - apologies for not being able to provide you with better info.

I put grease on the bolt and turned it slowly in-and-out bit-by-bit until it was all the way in, and then removed it to clean the cuttings caught in the grease.​

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Worked all day, just wanted to hear it run. Lots of smoke but it cleared up eventually and I got a nice idle. Think I must have pinched a wire putting everything back together. Tail/ brake lights had been working prior to the video. Blew the 10A signals fuse 3 times. I’ll break out the wiring diagram and multimeter tomorrow. Did go for a short ride up and down my lane a few times. Amazing how small this bike feels after riding the Tiger the past few months. Time for beer.

 

[rphillips]

Remember, open garage door before first start up...Congrats, Proud for ya

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Haha. I had one bay open, and the man door behind the camera. Wasn’t enough. Had to open the other bays. :grief:

I’ll be proud of me too, once I work out the electrical gremlins. Tomorrow is another day.

 

[KiwiAlfa156]

Well done. Enjoy that beer!

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Congrats, pinched wire somewhere likely. So now what to do with the rest of the winter?

Got the kid some upgrades for his POS Chinese dual sport for Xmas. He and I will work on that a bit. I also think I’ll try and tackle valve clearance on the Tiger. Won’t be bad if it’s in spec, but if not, the shims are under the buckets, so it’s cams out. Fun stuff. Having watched the videos, that project could easily take me a couple of weekends.

 

[Nessism]

Well done! Is there an exhaust leak? Hard to tell from the video sound, but it sort of sounds like that, plus there was some blue spoke out the front of the bike when you first started it.

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

I believe I do have an exhaust leak down low at the collector. Will investigate more. First I gotta put all the smoke back in the electrical system that got out last night. The only stuff I have is for positive earth bikes. Hope this works.

 

[93Bandit]

Excellent! You didn't waste any time getting this thing put back together. See, nothing too tough that you couldn't handle.

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Thanks, Bandit. The mechanical stuff is sorta like following Lego directions. Just have to get to it. The electrical stuff I’m not great at diagnosing. I took the seat and airbox off today, didn’t see anything obvious in the wiring around the battery. Burned a couple more 10A fuses on the Signal circuit. I didn’t feel like unwrapping wiring today. May start in on it tomorrow evening, or wait until Friday, have another day off work.

I did pill the signal relay. I don’t know if a bad relay could cause the fuse to blow. It’s cruddy inside, ran out of electronic cleaner spray. My thought is to just replace it. It is original.

Question for the hive mind. Can I replace with pretty much any 2-pin signal relay. Everything I see on Amazon is for LED. Is that ok to use without LED signals? Example:
https://www.amazon.com/Electronic-F...r+motorcycle+signal+light+12v+,aps,342&sr=8-1

 

[Eli69]

I've got a few of those old flashers. I could send you one. But the electronic ones for LEDS work fine too.

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

I'll get the one from amazon. Thanks Eli.

 

[dorkburger]

Nice work Rich. Congratulations.

 

[Rich82GS750TZ]

So, started in on the Fuse Blowing situation last evening.
The Signal Circuit 10A fuse blows whenever I activate the front brake or the rear brake.

There is a new good tail/brake lite bulb in a very clean bulb socket.

I've un-taped and cleaned all bullet connectors to the rear of the bike that live in a bundle behind the battery box. Found nothing suspect there. Cleaned everything anyway. No obvious kinks or breaks/rub-throughs that I could visually see.

I've gone through a pack of fuses. Have to get more.

Throughout the tear-down/rebuild of the top end, I disturbed none of the wiring in this circuit, not on-purpose, anyway.
I suppose I'll try cleaning the front and rear brake lite switches, pull the headlamp out and clean connections there, look for breaks.

Will attempt to meter/continuity check the switches..

This circuit controls some instrument panel lights, turn signals, horn, and brake light. All other items work until I activate either brake light switch.

Is there something obvious (to someone smarter than me) that I should be looking at as the cause of the fuse blowing?

 

[Baatfam]

Sounds like wire between the brake light switches and the taillight bulb is grounded. Should be easy to check.

 

[dorkburger]

If the fuse blows only after activating a switch I'm thinking the glitch is after either switch. A quick and easy check might be to pull out the taillight bulb and check for continuity to ground. Not sure of your exact setup, but I'm thinking two contacts (running and brake) and the socket is grounded. If the brake contact shows continuity to ground start tracing the wire backwards. Checking the switches is a good idea, but it would be surprising if both failed at the same time.