Crankcase gasket?

Hi,

Had an issue with an oil leak from last year which is leaking a little oil after each ride. I think its due to the crankcase gasket where the problem seems to be, ordered the gasket as its only about £8 off wemoto, its the left hand side, i.e near your left leg as sat on the bike, if I remove the bolts to take the case off and replace the gasket, obviously draining the oil firstly, is there anything I need to worry about falling/springing off when removing? Any help will be appreciated.

[TamSV]

It's been a while but as far as I remember it's just a case of taking off the sprocket cover and removing 8 or 10 bolts around the cover. You'll also need to unplug and free up the cable leading from the cover to the regulator. The cable comes away with the cover IIRC.

You should be able to pull the cover off by hand. If it's stuck give it a few taps around with a rubber mallet and try again. Don't try to stick a lever between the cover and engine. There are a couple of locating dowels that will be stuck to either the cover or the motor. You'll feel a bit of magnetic resistance from the rotor as you pull the cover off.

There are a couple of more common oil leaks on the curvy that are worth ruling out first, if you haven't already done so.

An oil leak on the left hand side can be as simple as dislodged breather hoses - either at the airbox or crankcase end. If oil is seen high up on the engine that's a likely culprit. Look at the bottom of the airbox on LHS and you'll see the two breather hoses.

The other common one is the plastic clutch cover. Although on the wrong side of the bike, it's possible for oil to run down under the engine when the bikes on the sidestand and look like it's dripping from the left. Less likely I think, but possible.

Thanks very much TamSV, I'm sure its not the breather hoses but I'll double check anyway. Thanks very much for the info on the cable and the dowels, I'll make sure im careful when removing them. Hopefully a job for next weekend!