Curvy; new owner questions.

So now ive managed to rebuilt the front calipers on the mrs SV, those brakes where truly awful. I now move onto my next challenge, just an overall service really and a clean up of the underside, its caked in oil and chain ****e.

Now heres a few questions I have after making some observations:

Oh its a 2001 K1 Curvy btw.

1. When I first switch it on cold I can here every now and again a high pitch psssssht, like a squirt of high pressure air from an air line. Is this one of the cylinders missing on tickover when cold, it gets better as she warms up but if u bring the revs up slightly u can get it to do it again.. If so no prob as plug change is next, I bet they havnt been touched in years. Just want to confirm thats what it sounds like.

2. Sump Plugs. I have taken a good cleaning brush to the sump as I was sure there was oil leaking from somewhere and obviously the plug washer was prime candidate, anyway ive cleaned it up and I am gonna take another look tomorrow see if theres any oil present, However, I noticed there a 2 sump plugs? One that sticks out as a bolt and the other that looks set into the sump, they are quite clearly different as one you can get off with socket set and the other a bit like my offroad bike you would use a alan key for, is this other one a sump drain or something? If it leaks can I renew it the same as the sump plug?

3. Gear Shift selectors/drive: Where the shiftor goes into the engine u have a circlip holding a washer which covers what looks like a rubber seal, I have also cleaned this up as there was so much **** under there it was impossible to tell where the oil was coming from. Firstly, should there be play on the spindle that goes into the box? I must be able to pull and push it a good half inch either way. Secondly, is it common for that oil seal to fail? Easy to renew?

Thanks all

[NedSVS]

I don't know what your noise is but I would check the spark plugs just in case one is slightly loose. The correct sump plug is the male hexagonal one you need a socket for. If the gear change input shaft is moving that much then I'd guess the circlip has popped out of its' groove and yes they do leak - mine started at about 35k miles.