The bike is still not finished.

Last weekend when I rode my motorcycle, it was dripping oil when I finished the ride. There was oil dripping off the engine, from the top to the bottom. I suspected that the problem was a leak in my head cover (aka valve cover) gasket, so I re assembled the cover using high temp silicone RTV to help seal the gasket in place. Today, I washed the bike of all the old oil, and took the bike for a test ride, and it looks like that took care of the head gasket leak. But there is still oil on my engine that should not be there.

I had taken the bike for a 15 minute test ride; riding at speeds of about 15 mph in my neighborhood up to 60 mph on the county highway that runs through town. This oil leak was covering the front of the engine between the exhaust header pipes, and there was a lot of it. At this point I was thinking (and saying under my breath, I do have children) many things that would make this blog unsuitable for audiences of all ages. After dinner, I looked at the bike again, checked my Clymer repair manual, and still couldn't figure out where the leak was coming from. It was only on the bottom of the engine, and I had a hard time believing that the new cylinder base gasket that I had installed was the source of the leak. At least, I was really hoping that the leak was not the base gasket. Fixing that would require a complete disassembly of the engine, again.

I checked out my bike's online community, www.gstwin.com, and found a little gem. One of the posts in the forum mentioned that sometimes the tachometer cable can be a source of an oil leak. The tachometer drive cable attaches to the engine directly above where I was finding oil. I checked my cable, and it was oily. I had packed a small amount of grease into the end of the drive cable, and it had all been washed out. Bingo! I'm going to talk to the parts guy at my Suzuki dealership and see if he has any ideas about this. I may need to replace the cable ($11), or there could be a seal in the tachometer drive gear that could need to be replaced. I'm hoping this is my problem. But until then, hang it all, I'm riding and checking my oil frequently. I'm sick of being stuck in my cage!