Oil Leak, Gas Leak on a GS450

[Anonymous]

I recently bought a 1981 GS450L, it has a few problems...

1. There's a small oil leak coming from the bottom edge of the crank case - where the shifter is. I'm thinking it's probably a gasket of some sort, but I haven't actually popped the cover off yet. (Trouble with lousy screws). Any advice on where the leak comes from, or where I need to look when I get the cover off is appreciated.

2. There's a gas leak, coming out of a black rubber tube that runs - I think- from the gas tank or nearby, down between the battery and the engine. It only leaks when the bike is tilted a certain way. IE If the bike is level, fuel doesn't come out this hose. Some mechs saw it and said the carbs should be cleaned - something about a float needle. Again, any info/ recommendations to fix this would be great. Thanks,
-Ben Anderson

PS Anyone live in Omaha, Nebraska know of a good motorcycle mechanic?

[nabrams]

I happen to have been in your position many years ago, so I'll give a lengthy but good piece of advice (in my opinion, at least).

Regarding the oil leak near the gear shift lever: This is a common problem on older bikes in general. In many cases it is really not worth it to invest the effort in fixing because the crank case may need to be split in order to get the appropriate gaskets/seals in place. Even if the cases don't need to be split, there may be so much work involved that it may just be acceptable to live with the leak. I had a bike I rode for seven years (put 11,000 miles on it) that had a slow leak in that area that never got worse. I just needed to add an ounce or two of oil every two months.

Reagarding the gas leak: If you're reasonably adept at motorcycle work in general (have you ever put a chain on?- or bled a disc brake? - or troubleshooted an electrical problem?) then you should take the carb apart using the instructions on this site (or a Clymer manual) and clean it and inspect all the hoses. If you've had almost no experience with mechanical work then you probably don't have tools you'll need and you could mess things up. Also you might invest more time and money than if you'd brought the bike in to an honest mechanic to begin with. If this is your only bike then you probably want to ride it a little first before messing it up.
Howver, if it's impossible to ride now for many weeks (because of weather in your area - I hear it can get nasty in Omaha), and you have the time, then you should take the time to learn the bike using a good manual (like Clymer) and proceed very slowly and carefully - always with the appropriate tools. I can't tell you how many times I thought I'd save a few bucks on tools and ended up making things worse.
I enjoy working on bikes and riding them. But many people are not into getting dirty, sweating and cursing alot. They just want to ride. For them it is well worth the expense of using a reasonably honest mechanic.

[Anonymous]

My guess is that the leak is probably either the output shaft seal or the gear position indicator (if you have one). I believe the cases need to be split for the output shaft seal - BIG pain. Just split mine and gonna rebuild - I had a similar leak.

Steve

[Anonymous]

First of all, thanks for the advice so far...


I think the previous owner took the gs450 to a bike shop and they told him that it was the head gasket - they qouted something like a $30 repair job for the oil leak. I'm going to take a look at it tomorrow hopefully and decide what to do from there.

Any info on that gas leak with the carbs would be great... It turns out the black hose that the gas comes out of - looks like it plugs into the carbs somehow...Any info to fix this would be great - I am considering cleaning them, but if there's anything else I need to do or know I want to find out sooner rather than later...
-Ben

[blo]

Howdy!
I've had my -81 GS450 for just ower a year now, and I've had to some serius work on it. I'm going to use the x-mas to replace the sealings around both shifter and cluch pushrod. My mecanic has informed me that it is possible to remove those seals by removing the right hand side engincover, retracting the afore mentioned shafts, popping the seals out on the left side and inserting new ones. How easy this is going to be, well that's for me to find out.

Oh yeah, the bad typing?
I'm NORWEGIAN!!

[Anonymous]

The Oil Leak....

I took the left side of the clutch case off and looked inside. It looks like the neutral position indicator is not the problem... I think it's either the output clutch shaft (which has an oil retaining plate over it - so I think all I have to do is pop that off and replace the oil seal -NOT crack the case), the actual gear shifting rod has an oil seal, and the sprocket has an oil seal behind it. I think it's either the one by the sprocket or the one by the output clutch shaft just by the look of things. I'm going to replace them all anyway...I'll post a response sometime in the future if this fixes it - just for future reference...
-Ben