'78 550E First Ride - Oil Loss/Leak, Suggestions of where to start?

[Guest]

Bike is sitting at a rest stop until after work today. Wife followed me to work (good thing she did) as it lightly coated her windshield with oil and I lost much power and got it to the next available pull off.

I'd just gotten her running (bike not wife) and clean-cleaned the carbs (read several posts on cleaning carbs in this forum). I know that it may not have been tuned correctly, but did not anticipate it to lead to an oil covered rear tire. The transmission has oil on the top so it looks like it's coming from the carb side or possibly through a carb. Ran great but then slowly started to loose power, noticed smoke in mirror, found a place and stopped. I will still run but not well (fouled plug?). Small puddle under bike once on stand and that's all I've got to go on right now. If anyone has an idea of where I can start to look, I'd appreciate it.

[Nessism]

Sounds like you are lucky to have not crashed.

You should NEVER take a bike out on the road until the basic maintenance is performed.

I won't even venture to guess where the oil is coming from. Haul the bike home, clean up the engine (Gunk engine spray and a garden hose works well), dry engine using leaf blower or wait a few hours, start up engine and watch for source of the leak. Very basic stuff.

Needless to say, fixing the oil leak is just one part of performing maintenance. There are many more tasks that are needed before the bike is safe. For example: brake system clean out, valve adjustment, fixing the charging system wiring, tire safety verification, etc.

Please slow down and be safe. The bike belongs at home in the garage until you can assure it's safe to put on the road.

[boingk]

These are old bikes and have often sat for long periods of time unused. If used regularly prior to this, the gaskets can shrink and perish from non use, or become brittle and develop leaks.

I would recommend buying an entire gasket kit for the bike if you cannot pinpoint the leak, tear the engine down, get the bases blasted & painted while you're at it, then reassemble with new gaskets.

I'm currently doing that exact procedure with my GS850, even though I suspect the camchain tensioner is the one that's leaking. It has much the same symptoms as your, although not smoking or stopping; just using a bit of oil.

Cheers - boingk

[amiller48895]

Thanks Ed. Thank you for being concerned about rider safety. I am very concerned about it myself as I want to come home to my wife and daughters every day. I've been throught the bike, top to bottom. Rebuilt the brakes, tires are good (not weathered/cracked & still plyable with lots of tread), electrical all checks out except for gear indicator and horn, have put about 25 miles on it (1/4-1 mi down and back) road checking it to make sure systems work. Everything seemed to check out. Today was the first time I took it up to 60 mph and kept it there. I did have an issue finding the correct settings for the air mix screw (the hard to reach one on the engine side of the carb) but found a suggestion to start one turn out, so I went a turn and a half. Could it still be too lean?

[amiller48895]

The smoking was from oil hitting the pipes I believe. I did not have the engine apart, was hoping that I wouldn't have to since it was running and sounded good. When cleaning the original dirt off it, I did take of the timing chain tensioner... and that's right there behind the carb so you may be onto something. Problem is finding the time to get knee deep in it. Looks like I have a project for this winter. I doubt I'll be able to get it back on the road before the weather turns on me.

[tom203]

Smoke oil mist... hmm, sounds like maybe gas in crankcase from bad petcock or leaky carbs. When parked it will dribble out of airbox.
As others have said, your life depends on making this bike safe- no ride to work stuff until maintenance is done.
P.S.: tires can look good, but check date code. My 40 year old dirt bike tires have good tread and ain't weather cracked, but I won't take them out on street.

[amiller48895]

I fixed the leaky carb issue when I followed the clean your carb over and over advice. Installed an inline fuel filter along with a fuel shutoff since the OEM filter was missing from petcock and wife compained enough times about my bike marking it's territory in the garage. Definately was oil (blue smoke).

I'll take the advice and keep it off the road until it's completely ready. Guess I just got too excited about getting back on two wheels.

[Nessism]

Valve cover leak is a common source. Did you adjust the valves? I assume yes based on your "top to bottom" review of the bike. Maybe the valve cover gasket squirmed out of position when you reinstalled it after the valve adjustment? Time to double check the basics.

[amiller48895]

... I assume yes based on your "top to bottom" review of the bike...

LOL, You caught me. Ok, maybe I should rephrase that... top to bottom but NOT inside and out. I left the motor and trans in place when I went through the bike. I've redone a lot of small engines and usually just replace the oil and spark plug and she's good to go. Sounds like y'all are telling me this is a different ball game.

[Steve]

LOL, You caught me. Ok, maybe I should rephrase that... top to bottom but NOT inside and out. I left the motor and trans in place when I went through the bike.

You can do a valve adjustment with the engine in the frame.

It is basic maintenance, needs to be done every 3-4,000 miles.

You say you had the cam chain tensioner off? That means you also had the carbs off, otherwise you could not have gotten the tensioner out. Hopefully you got the tensioner installed correctly.

Too many times, onen will be installed by someone who reads the first two instructions, but not all of the third.
1. Retract the plunger, use the setscrew to lock it in place.
2. Install the tensioner, release the setscrew.
3. Tighten the setscrew THEN BACK IT OUT 1/2 TURN, lock it in that position with the lock nut.

.

[amiller48895]

...Hopefully you got the tensioner installed correctly...

Probably not, but for the sake of argument, let's say "No." Would this be "Bad" like crossing the beams in Ghost Busters?

*I've only put about 35 of the 30,000 miles on the bike so I will assume that a valve adjustment has never been done since I have no history on the bike.

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. amiller48895,

You'll find a lot about the care and feeding of a GS in the links below. Old bikes love maintenance. Go through the maintenance lists, properly address every task, and both of you will be happy.

If you are here you probably have a 30 year old motorcycle that needs about 20 years worth of maintenance. In the links below you'll find maintenance lists, documentation, wiring diagrams, "how to" guides, vendor links, tips, tricks, and a whole lot of GS goodness. This is your "mega-welcome". Let's get started.

Let me dump a TON of information on you and share some GS lovin'.

I just stopped by to welcome you to the forum in my own, special way.

If there's anything you'd like to know about the Suzuki GS model bikes, and most others actually, you've come to the right place. There's a lot of knowledge and experience here in the community. Come on in and let me say "HOoooowwwDY!"....

Here is your very own magical, mystical, mythical, mind-expanding "mega-welcome". Please take notice of the "Top 10 Common Issues", "Top 15 Tips For GS Happiness", the Carb Cleanup Series, and the Stator Papers. All of these tasks must be addressed in order to have a safe, reliable machine. This is what NOT to do: Top 10 Newbie Mistakes. Now let me roll out the welcome mat for you...



Please Click Here For Your Mega-Welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike!

More links to helpful threads in the forum:
Help! Your Bike Won't Start
DON'T DO THESE THINGS
Help! Your Bike Won't Run Well
Oh God! Pods!


Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Steve]

Probably not, but for the sake of argument, let's say "No." Would this be "Bad" like crossing the beams in Ghost Busters?

It would be more like crossing the beams AND opening the trap.

.

[eil]

Welcome, fellow Michigander! I can't offer any advice above and beyond what has already been said, but I thought I would drop in and say hi at least.

An oil leak of that magnitude shouldn't be hard to spot once you've cleaned up the engine. I myself am looking at replacing a leaking head gasket this winter. It'll be my first semi-intrusive engine teardown.

[greg78gs750]

as stated, the valve cover gasket can lose an astonishing amount of oil that can end up in places you would never imagine. clean things up, do a valve adjust, check that tensioner, and go from there.

greg