Leaking 850

[Poot]

i can see why the "mystery hole" is there. When cleaning out that area on my '80 850, there is a little spot under the cam-chain tensioner, where the metal dips right where the lines run into the starter compartment.

its very easy for water to get in there, so thats probably why the hole is there.

now, as to why OIL is coming out, I would definitely check the tensioner, and follow up on ringers suggestions concerning the oil sensor.


I cant think of any way that the gear oil could be coming into the starter compartment....unless you have a real big crack in the lower end :?

[Anonymous]

As Bob & Doug might say, "Beauty, eh." This all helps tons. I'm glad to hear that (hopefully) it's not something that will be extremely invasive. I've only had the bike running a few times last summer while trying to get carb gremlins ironed out. If there was a serious crack in the lower end, would it have been manifest when running the bike then?

While thinking about it, I guess I could toss is some additional details, FWIW.

When originally fiddling with the bike last spring, gas got into the case from a bad petcock (since replaced). I can't really say with certainty when the oil started leaking, but I'm pretty sure it was after the gas got in. I know that after that (and after I drained the contaminated oil and replaced the filter), the few times I started the bike after that, it had oil on the pipes that stunk up the garage while burning off. It also leaked pretty good in the back of my truck while moving here from central IL. So I replaced the base/pan gasket thinking that was the culprit back in September.

I thought the problem was solved after that since no leaks showed up after that. But then in January, it started again, and this time I traced it to that hole as it seemed to get a little worse into February and March. I wiped it clean a couple weeks ago, and haven't seen anything since then, but I still keep an eye on it.

At this point, I (we all) know what the hole is, and now I have some options to explore to see if I can get it to stop. I sure appreciate all the responses and the assistance. I look forward to sending a follow-up post when it's all taken care of.

Much thanks