Went on a trip, had fun...(and got a question)

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:40 am

Just came back last night from a 2k km trip around BC/Alberta. Did some scenic routes as well as some riding roads(twisties).

Jasper-Banff

Allison Lake road in BC(second half of HWY 5A from Merrit to Princeton, riding heaven!)

The F turned 40k! Bought it with 25k on it in 2008...

And now onto the question. On the way to Jasper, we did a lot of passing and there was some high speeds involved at moments, I would be chasing my wife on her SV(one time it was at about 180km/h measured with the GPS, which is the fastest I have taken the bike). Anyway, that was once for a few seconds and we reached close to that here and there while passing a lineup of cars. I checked things over after we got to Jasper and I thought I have developed a leak from that, but the oil was dried up by the time I checked and during the couple of days of riding after that, it never seemed to have leaked again even though the ambient temperature was a lot hotter due to geographic location and weather. Mind you, I never went as fast as I did towards Jasper.
That said, it looked like it seeped from cylinder-to-case seam, but it's hard to tell as it could be coming from the two other spots in the picture, the oil light bolt or the switch nest to it( oil pressure switch?) . The breather system was drained during the recent carb clean, but it seems to me like there was a pressure build up that vented, or it's the bottom gasket which would suck... but would not that leak more or less constantly?
Here's a pic...

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:59 am

Nice pics and landscape perfect to ride it,I would think that it is the oil light bolt if I look to the pic. Maybe you check this first it is the easy part.

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 6:02 am

metalganz wrote:

Nice pics and landscape perfect to ride it,I would think that it is the oil light bolt if I look to the pic. Maybe you check this first it is the easy part.

Possibly. I'm gonna clean the area off to see, but I'm pretty sure it's not leaking anymore.

And I got the bike cleaned and waxed before the trip, the paint cleans up nicely!

But now of course, I have to do it all over again, lol

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 5:23 pm

Thanks for those pictures!
Brings back great memories of doing the exact same route many, many years ago!

Nothing like that around here in Kandahar but we do have a large shit-pond to gaze at as we go to work Laughing

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 8:58 pm

Fitter wrote:

Thanks for those pictures!
Brings back great memories of doing the exact same route many, many years ago!

Nothing like that around here in Kandahar but we do have a large shit-pond to gaze at as we go to work Laughing

While at it, I will post some more. Stay safe over there!

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2010 9:37 pm

Yes, please post some more pictures. What a beautiful area to ride through. Someday I will make it there.

Steve

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:33 am

Re: Leakage. Have a close look at the cam chain tensioner acorn nut area's at the rear of the cylinder. If the vent system is restricted I have noted that oil is prone to be pushed past these two location and cause a leak. It may be also possible that the same thing might happen during runs at higher rpm when piston ring blow by increases.

FWIW,

Tony

p.s. Nice pictures.

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:21 am

TigreST wrote:

Re: Leakage. Have a close look at the cam chain tensioner acorn nut area's at the rear of the cylinder. If the vent system is restricted I have noted that oil is prone to be pushed past these two location and cause a leak. It may be also possible that the same thing might happen during runs at higher rpm when piston ring blow by increases.

FWIW,

Tony

p.s. Nice pictures.

Hm, good one. I happened to adjust the timing chains before I left. Actually, I adjusted the front adjuster, but could not for the life of me get the upper back acorn nut loose so I left it. And I did the bottom one but maybe I did not tighten it enough... did not want to strip it.

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 2:38 am

I agree...use extreme caution when adjusting or attempting to adjust the cam chains or more correctly, when playing with the adjuster bolts/nuts etc. On the rear the risk is stripping or snapping off the threaded part of the adjusters. On the front one it's all about not tearing the alum threads out of the head casting with the steel hold down bolt and it's locking nut. If memory serves there should also be small washers (of copper make up?) on the underside of the rear adjuster acorn nuts...a sealing medium of a sort. I'll also state further that the "pressured up crank case oil leak syndrome" is apt to push oil out of more then just the cam chain adjuster holes. My bike pushed oil passed the tachdrive seal, valve cover bolt dounuts (they were old too but..), and valve cover gasket. You do not seem to have noted this type of leakage so perhaps it's just a loose acorn nut or missing acorn nut washer at the cam chain adjuster/s.

Tony

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 3:41 am

TigreST wrote:

I agree...use extreme caution when adjusting or attempting to adjust the cam chains or more correctly, when playing with the adjuster bolts/nuts etc. On the rear the risk is stripping or snapping off the threaded part of the adjusters. On the front one it's all about not tearing the alum threads out of the head casting with the steel hold down bolt and it's locking nut. If memory serves there should also be small washers (of copper make up?) on the underside of the rear adjuster acorn nuts...a sealing medium of a sort. I'll also state further that the "pressured up crank case oil leak syndrome" is apt to push oil out of more then just the cam chain adjuster holes. My bike pushed oil passed the tachdrive seal, valve cover bolt dounuts (they were old too but..), and valve cover gasket. You do not seem to have noted this type of leakage so perhaps it's just a loose acorn nut or missing acorn nut washer at the cam chain adjuster/s.

Tony

Thanks Tony. I seem to recall the washers being there. And yeah, the oil did not come out anywhere else and I know for a fact that my tach driver seal is old and needs to be replaced as its wet around it. In addition, I remember having a small leak though the shifter shaft seal a while ago but I checked that and it was dry.
Speaking of cam adjusters, to confirm the top chain running from ex. to in. cam is the "back" one right? I'm a but confused as to what adjusts what. The back one was the one that had a visible slack in it and doing the adjustment with the front adjuster took care of that and got rid of the excessive cam chain noise. So.... what does the back adjuster do if the front adjuster adjusts the rear chain?? LOL Laughing

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 4:55 am

The attached micro fiche shot will go a long way to explaining what adjusts what. The main cam drive chain is the rear one which takes it power off the crankshaft to drive the intake cam. The exhaust cam is driven off the intake cam. The front adjuster takes slack out of the exhaust cam chain..which if left loose may generate noise through the valve cover area..ergo rather easy to hear. If the rear chain (intake cam) is allowed to run loose it can cut into the cylinder block, this will of course produce noise also. In the fiche shot the front of the motor is to the left side of the picture. I have seen a CB1000 Custom in which the exhaust chain was so loose that it wrapped around the item shown as #14 (Cam Chain Guide B) and actually tore it to pieces. To help make sense of the tensioners keep in mind that only one side of the chain run is under tension during the motors operation,..like peddling your bicycle there is/will be slack in the drive chain as it returns to the rear of the bicycle when it's done pulling on the gears. The tensioners help control the amount of slack of course.

HTH,

Tony

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:06 am

Thanks again, that explains it. The noisy chain in my case was mainly the exhaust chain with its visible slack. It was very easy to adjust using the static method. I still have to adjust the intake cam one because of the mentioned upper bolt that wouldn't come loose. Can't get a good leverage on it due to where it is... I don't know who's bright idea was it to place it there. I can get the wrench on it, but it's so awkward that it rounds it rather then loosens it.

Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 6:48 am

A few more pics as promised...

One of couple of bears we saw by the Jasper-Banff road

Icefields glaciers

Now THAT's a switchback

Got pretty dirty riding through some construction zones...