Oil leak?

[krauscouf]

I am a new to these bikes and have been using this forum to fix my 81 xs1100SH. I had my bike out on the highway this morning and all of a sudden I noticed oil splatter on my side covers and pulled over to the side of the road. When I jumped off I looked at the front of the engine and it was soaked with oil. Can anyone tell me where could be a big source for this leak? I was wondering, could the cam tensioner be this big of a source? The oil was everywhere at the front under the tank, on the coils, I mean everywhere on the front of the motor. Where do I start?

New Poster,

Jason.

[trbig]

???? Start it up and look for a leak? Obviously... make sure there's enough oil in it.

Under the right side cover, there's a galley plug that leaks sometimes. The cover holds the plug in, so don't try to start it with the cover off. These motors generate enough pressure to shoot that plug all the way across the garage with a solid stream of hot oil right behind it. I'm sorry to say that I know this for a fact...

But yeah.. best way is to start it and watch. The wind will make the oil go everywhere... even forward.. so it's hard to find it after riding. You don't have an oil cooler on the bike do you?


Tod

[krauscouf]

I do not see this galley plug! I do have an oil cooler by the way. The oil is still dripping from the front and back(rear inner fender) and I'm trying to clean as best I can.

[Ken Talbot]

If the rubber plug from the end of the cam chain tensioner has fallen out, you will get quite a leak. Fortunately, this is an easy fix.

[trbig]

It sounds to me like you got a line that has failed going to the cooler. I've never heard of anything more than a troublesome drop or two of oil from the cam adjuster. There's no oil pressure there, it only has oil sitting in that tube and gravity making it drip out the end.

If your galley plug is leaking, there will be oil on your rotor and stator inside that cover. It can also be a leaking crank seal if there's oil there, but I would bet that the oil is just on the outside of the cover. Our rotors are a bit different, but here's a pic of the galley plug..






Tod

[79XS11F]

With that much oil down the front of the engine it is likely ether your oil cooler or it's lines so check the cooler and lines for damage and leaks.
The valve cover gasket and or valve cover bolt tightness. You can get a lot of oil from that seal when the gasket is bad or the bolts loose so check those out
and the cam chain tensioner seal can also be suspect.
Those would be the most likely places to weep oil down the front of the engine.

Rob