Oil Leaking

Hi guys,

Dropped my SV on its left hand side a while back, oil flooded everything, but now its been cleaned up oil is trickling out of the screws that bolt that round thing in on the right hand side.



Any ideas before I rip it open?

It seems to be a fairly common problem. You could try taking the cover off and running a small amount of gaskety sealant around the o-ring, or replace the o-ring. Might be worth checking it for cracks and flatnesswhile you have it removed.

Ifthe bikes in the side stand it shouldnt leak much (if any) when the cover is taken off

This is certainly a very common problem on curvys.

Yep just remove the clutch cover and add gasket sealant on both sides of the o-ring. First time i did this i didnt use much sealant, and didn't leave it long before running the engine. This didn't completely fix the problem.

So i started again and was quite generous with the sealant and left it a day or two before running the engine. Has been good for a number of months now.

So people say dont tighten the bolt too much cos it'll warp the cover further. However, from the look of the cover, the diameter of the bolt holes are much bigger than the diameter of the bolts. As such the holes are shimmed and the bolt goes through the shim. Therefore, if you over tighten the bolts the cover won't be exposed to the excessive compressive force as the shims isolate the cover from the bolts. Equally though, overtightening will be of no benefit as it won't cause the cover to be compressed any harder agains the engine.

[5hort5]

Originally Posted by MrTom

This is certainly a very common problem on curvys.

Yep just remove the clutch cover and add gasket sealant on both sides of the o-ring. First time i did this i didnt use much sealant, and didn't leave it long before running the engine. This didn't completely fix the problem.

So i started again and was quite generous with the sealant and left it a day or two before running the engine. Has been good for a number of months now.

So people say dont tighten the bolt too much cos it'll warp the cover further. However, from the look of the cover, the diameter of the bolt holes are much bigger than the diameter of the bolts. As such the holes are shimmed and the bolt goes through the shim. Therefore, if you over tighten the bolts the cover won't be exposed to the excessive compressive force as the shims isolate the cover from the bolts. Equally though, overtightening will be of no benefit as it won't cause the cover to be compressed any harder agains the engine.

+1

just done mine with Silicone of the bathroom type and it seems to be a lot better than it was but after a couple of rides I'd say there is a tiny tiny leak still but we are talking tiny.

Note though when you take off the cover the O-ring will probably be to big to go back in. just cut it and super glue it and make sure that bit's at the top of the cover with a lot (enough, if you know what I mean) sealant.

It's common. I think over time the v-twin vibrations loosen the bolts.

Before using gasket sealant, get a torque wrench and torque all the bolts down to the correct tightness - 10Nm - and see if that doesn't fix the problem. The cover is only plastic, and over-tightening is a common problem. This has worked for me in the past; coincidentally this weekend I noticed mine is oozing again and so I will be checking all the bolts are the correct torque again tomorrow.

take the cover off and place it on a flat surface to check its not warped

Thanks guys I'll have a look at the weekend