| Author | Message | ||
     Mackdaddy |
Last weekend, my recently bought 99 M2 (6K miles) started to leak oil from different places, I'm new at Buells or Harleys, so I don't have a clue what to do. One of the main leaks is coming from the front tie rod, when bike is idling, you can see a drop forming, at speed, it has to be a lot more, as the front fender, engine case, oil filter and rear shock were covered with oil.  There is oil that seems to be coming from a hose that has an open end and is connected to the crankcase, the previous owner said he installed a longer hose to make it easier to notice leaks; after the ride, my right boot and part of the frame and rear wheel were covered with oil, this oil has a strange appearance, it's kind of mixed with something and its light gray in color; could it be that I overfilled my bike? Dipstick is at the middle.  The guy that sold me the bike, had a blown seal that goes somewhere under the clutch cover, and he thinks it is also leaking now, I removed the cover with the bike upright, and when tilted on the bike stand, a lot of oil came out of it, is it normal?  Finally, I noticed that the rear cylinder is also leaking from the head.  The bike was fine the previous week, what could have caused all these leaks at once? I'm in central Mexico, and no Buell dealer is available, so your help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Mack | ||
| Hans |
Macdaddy, I will try to start to find some answers. First of all: You should have a service manual in any case. On such a far distance of a Buell dealer: A service manual is even imperative with a parts list. Both expensive, but worth their weight in gold. This is an easy one:  That is the end of the crank case breather. Originally the breathers are ending in the air filter and some puking oil is sucked into the carburettor to burn. The engine doesn`t like it very much and it is better to lead the crankcase gases with some oil outside. The diameter of the hoses and the way they are routed is very critical. (Staying horizontal or below). look at the knowledge vault. The hose should have an catch can at the end. Many house made examples in the knowledge vault. The catch can doesn`t collect much oil when the hose are routed well. There are still some changes on the head possible to minimize oil pucking more. They are not necessary. The gearbox has its own oil supply: The drain plug is at the lowest point under the crank(?)case. You can refill through the small observation window. The tranny has a quart oil or less and it has enough when the lower primary chain touches the oil level. No need to remove the clutch cover. Of course you can drain the oil by removing the clutch cover and tilt the bike, but I did never try how much oil I could remove on that way. If you found more than a quart: Or it was overfilled or you have indeed a blown seal again and engine oil has been blown into the gearbox. In that case you would smell gas. Does it has a gas smell? I shouldn`t think so in this case. Tie bar leak:  Could it be that the leakage come from the oil pressure switch ? ( At the point of the red arrow?) The tie bar is mounted on the oil filter mount but I don`t think that its bolt perforates the wall of the the oil cavity. While the filter mount is damaged, I should think that the oil pressure switch is damaged also and leaking. The leakage of the rear rocker box cover: Totally independent and innocent oil leakage, which is known to happen frequently. It will stop forever with aftermarket seals. On second thought: You wrote that the hose came somewhere from the carter. Then it is not the breather hose: The carter ventilation hoses come from the rockerboxes. It is not normal to have two open ends on that place. The ventilation of the tranny crosses the middle of the bike and goes up, along the frame tubes, and ends, tied under the highest frame tube, right under the saddle, above the middle of the rear tire. In short: The leakage of the tie bar mount (or oil pressure switch) need first attention. The seeping of the rockerbox can wait for a moment. Find out where the engine breathers go and where the tranny ventilation hose. For the two oil leakages you can first try to refill till the advised amount of oil (See also the other threads) and have another look. I am only a simple back yard wrench holder and I will leave it gratefully to others with other/better ideas. Hans | ||
| Reepicheep |
Hans has it right. You have two problems right now, both fairly predictable for that vintage. The first is a badly overfilled primary, or a blown crank seal. The seal is under the whole primary cover, and behind the stator magnet cup, not just the derby cover you removed. Tons of information on how to do it right (Henrik) and how to do it wrong (Me). Use the new metal type primary gasket when you put it back together. You will need a couple "big honking sockets", and a torque wrench or two in addition to "normal" tools. The second is a leaking rocker box. Again, the new metal gaskets your dealer should stock will completely solve the problem. This is also straight forward, and tons of information in the knowledge vault about it. You may have to cut down an allen wrench, and again need torque wrenches. Your factory service manual gives great information about doing these jobs. Both will take some work, but in the whole scope of things, they are not a huge deal. I don't know about the tie rod link, that is a new one. If it were me, I would get everything else fixed first, give it a really good cleaning, and make sure it is still there. My leakign rocker boxes looked like a shock leak... that oil seems to be able to magically teleport. Another thing to consider is that if the bike has more then 15k miles on it, you might want to drop the oil pump and look up into the cam case and inspect the oil pinion driving gear (that is up in that case). Check it in a few positions. Many are fine, some or worn, and a few wear to the point of failure which leads to a major engine event  | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Mackdaddy, Bill is dead on. Is your oil level going down? If so, you probalby have a crank seal leak. Like he said, not a big deal to fix. Just take your time, get the service manual (it's your BEST friend). Tons of info in the KV regarding the rocker box leak and the crank seal replacement. The seal insertion tool is cheap (around $20) and saves much hassle. I did notice another thing in one of your pictures. You have a recall shock that doesn't have the reinforcement package in place. Have your VIN checked to see if the recall was ever done. You may get a new shock out of the deal.. Good luck! Keep us informed as to your progress. Don't be afraid to post questions. Brad | ||
| Reepicheep |
Hey man! Are you dissing my green tinker toy? It worked perfectly! (the second time ) | ||
| Mackdaddy |
Well, I tried to see if it was the oil pressure sensor as Hans suggested, so i cleaned the bike ans started it, after a while the oil drop started to form again in the tie rod mount, but after a little while, the bike stalled and i could not bring it back to life. Seems like this is getting more serious than what I expected. The hose that is pictured in the right side is definitely the tranny vent, as I located the breather lines and they end up in a little K&N filter tied beneath the seat. The good news is that a crank seal, a rocker box gasket set and more important, a service manual are already ordered and on their way. Bad news is that I still don't know what to do with that leak from the tie rod mount. Thanks guys for all the ideas!! Mack |
