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Fixing my impossible crank case leak

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    Fixing my impossible crank case leak

    THIS TIP IS MOSTLY EXACTLY AS EARL FORNES SUGGESTED IT TO ME. I WENT A LITTLE OVER BOARD ON SOME OF THE STEPS BECAUSE I FAILED AT IT A FEW TIME BY BEING IN A HURRY.

    ..epoxies adhere and seal poorly if at all on oily

    surfaces and I wouldnt try to use them for your purpose.

    Once hardened, they can also be difficult to remove.
    If the epoxy you have already put on cannot be popped

    free with a finger or a wooden scraper, I would chuck a

    small sewn fabric buffing wheel into an electric drill

    and buff it off.
    The buffing wheel will heat up the old epoxy and

    clean it off the bike fairly quickly with no chance of

    gouging or scratching your engine case. I would then

    (with no oil in the bike) do the following
    take a rag and some acetone and thoroughly clean and

    dry the leaking seam. Leave it sit for a half hour to

    see if any more oil weeps through. If it does, acetone

    and a rag again. Do this until no more oil is seen to

    keep weeping through. Once clean and dry,
    Clean the paint from the surface to be siliconed. use

    a wire brush to be sure it is shiny and clean. Use

    acetone in a sprayer. Spray over and over in adition to

    uing many clean rags.
    In some cased it would be to your advantage to put a

    strip of masking tape on each side of the seam about

    1/4" from the seam on both sides, That will give you a

    1/2" wide "fill" area. My first choice of filler would

    be a clear compounded urethane/silicone caulk made by

    Boat Life and called LIFE SEAL. It has much better

    adhesive properties than plain silicone and is

    considerably more durable. If you do go this route, it

    is available at any marina or marine supply. Just be

    sure you buy LIFE SEAL. The salesman may want to sell

    you LIFE CAULK which is made by the same company but is

    an entirely different product. I couldnt find the clear

    so i used black. You can,if you must, use Hi Temp RTV

    (silicone) available at auto parts stores. Either way,

    the one thing you must have is a clean, dry surface that

    is not going to weep any oil before the sealer has a

    chance to set. This means about 4 to 6 hours on a 60 to

    70 deg day. (I would seal the seam full width across the

    front of the engine) or whatever side the leak is on.
    Some notes from doing Scottys bike. I (Scotty), had

    failed a few times and i attribute the failures to not

    prepairing the surface properly. When i put the epoxy

    over the seam. When i used the silicone i did it the way

    Earl suggested. I was fortunate to have an area of the

    cases shaped like a v(a vally , not a ridge.) I added

    the first coat with a plastic scraper that I cut down

    for this job. I was able to feel the weak spot in the

    gasket and used the scraper to push a bit of the

    silicone into that spot. I let it set for a while and

    applied a second coat. I let it cure for 2 days to be

    sure that this heavy coat had cured all the way

    through(maybe not necessary but I felt better doing it

    that way. A week of riding about since the repair and

    not a drop is even seeping from that gasket leak.
    Any corrections will be added by earl when he reads

    this post and then I will edit the original at that

    time.

    #2
    Re: Fixing my impossible crank case leak

    Good job scotty. I dont see anything to change. :-)

    Earl


    [quote="slopoke"]THIS TIP IS MOSTLY EXACTLY AS EARL FORNES SUGGESTED IT TO ME. I WENT A LITTLE OVER BOARD ON SOME OF THE STEPS BECAUSE I FAILED AT IT A FEW TIME BY BEING IN A HURRY.
    Komorebi-The light filtering through the trees.

    I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion. H.D.T.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Fixing my impossible crank case leak

      [quote="earlfor"]Good job scotty. I dont see anything to change. :-)

      Earl


      Originally posted by slopoke
      THIS TIP IS MOSTLY EXACTLY AS EARL FORNES SUGGESTED IT TO ME. I WENT A LITTLE OVER BOARD ON SOME OF THE STEPS BECAUSE I FAILED AT IT A FEW TIME BY BEING IN A HURRY.
      Ok Earl
      BTW it working afer hundreds of miles of riding and the silicone still looks and feels ok. It appears as though it will never come off.

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