[judsterky]

Has anybody experience oil leaking at the base of one of the push rod tubes? One of my tubes has been leaking for a month now. This is where the tube is bolted with the 4 socket head screws at the base. It seaps oil probably where the gasket meats the base. I took it to the dealer twice and all they did was torque the screws down both times. I give up with them and going to go to a specialist.

David

 

[jpwarrior]

Are you absolutely, 100% positive it's not leaking from the top and flowing down? There is an O-ring and a rubber gasket at the base of the pushrod tube. If the leak is occuring where they meet tightening the base won't help any. The rocker box is what holds the down force on the push rod tube so tightening the lifter block won't help any. Is this a new bike or has there been work done to the motor?

If you have a leak the odds are that one of the O-rings wasn't seated during assembly and is torn or just not working as it was intended. To properly diagnose the problem the assembly should be pulled apart to check the O-rings at the top or at the bottom of the pushrod tube. If the leak is occuring below the pushrod tube, the O-ring that's on the lifter block is proably not seated and is causing your leak. Regardless, the rocker box and pushrod tubes will have to be removed to diagnose.

 

[jpwarrior]

Did some checking. You have an 02. If this was a trany recall, then you may have what I described. I clean the parts thouroughly before assembly to prevent weeping from the pushrod tubes. The O-rings seal the tubes from leaking but during the repair and reassembly, often some oil will get past the O-rings and weep until it is gone. If you have a small puddle then that's probably from a pinched O-ring, weeping is generally because they were not very tidy while doing the workand will go away after about 60 miles or so. Your lifter blocks should not have been removed during this recall so tightening them now will have no effect whatsoever on sealing the leak.

I'd check your fluid levels on your transfer case and watch the drive pulley area for wetness also. There are two small O-rings, one on the final (drive) shaft and the other at the counter sprocket shaft. If the collars for either of these O-rings were installed improperly they will leak. (the correct orientation is bevel in). You can check the final drive shaft one fairly easily but the countershaft will require removal of the outer transfercase cover and a new gasket.


The leaking at your fuel dry break is now the third one I've heard of in the last two months. The rear part of the dry break is cracking at the hose bib. The part is plastic and may have a crack in it. (all bikes were 02's BTW) Check to see if the rubber hose is wet at the rear of the dry break, if it is, this is your problem. Mine leaked once recently because I didn't seat it properly. Occasionally it's tough to connect the two parts and you may think they are together because the clamp is closed but the seal may not be tight. I'm not sure if this helps any but I do it anyway; I open the gas cap before trying to seat the drybreak.

 

[fake]

Has anybody experience oil leaking at the base of one of the push rod tubes? One of my tubes has been leaking for a month now. This is where the tube is bolted with the 4 socket head screws at the base. It seaps oil probably where the gasket meats the base. I took it to the dealer twice and all they did was torque the screws down both times. I give up with them and going to go to a specialist.


David

My 2008 with 780 miles on it is doing the same thing. I ordered a Krank Vent to see if this stops it and before I throw in the flag and let the dealer fix it.

 

[Yamatized]

Mine did the same thing. It leaked exactly where you described and the leak ended up being between the lifter block and the engine block. The lifter block, when lifted out, is cylindrical and has a couple of O-rings on it just like the push rod tube itself. A couple of hours work and some o-rings/gaskets and I have been leak free for 3 years now. Tightening won't do squat if the o-rings are bad.

 

[judsterky]

JP Warrior,

I appreciate all the info you provided. I check out my bike again for other leaks and everything checks out fine except the push rod tube at the base. This is just weird. Bike runs great and all the recalls been done about a year ago and all of this started in mid June. I really don't have time to work on my mike because of my job and family. I fear that if I take it to a shop they will have to tear down the whole engine just to replace the O-rings. Probably will be expensive too. In the mean time I just wipe the **** oil up with a rag. The oil is seaping between the base tube and the block wear it screws down. The amount of oil that is seaping out is very very little. If I go riding for about 150 miles I may have about a dimes worth dripping down the block, that's it. The stupid dealers look at it like they have no clue. :-(


Here is a photo of push rod tube leak.

Thanks!

David

 

[MarcoPolo]

Also I would like to post a photo up on this thread and have no luck in doing it. If you click the insert image tab, that just links a URL. All I want to do is simply attach a low res jpeg, can't be that difficult. LOL.

It's not difficult, it's impossible. You have to host the picture somewhere before you can add it to a post. It could simply be hosted in your rsw gallery though if you wanted to keep it simple without going to photobucket or something.

 

[judsterky]

Marco Polo,

Thanks for letting me know, I will post it in my gallery and then link it.

David

 

[fake]

this is where mine is leaking

 

[arizonawarrior]

IMO its too bad you ordered a krankvent at this time. Iadvised you that will not fix this problem, and I believe you spent your money on a krankvent instead of fixing the leak. The fact is I PM'd you earlier today saying I may have misunderstood where your bikeis leaking - and I directed you to this post hoping it would help. Best advice is still to fix the leak even if that means to let the dealer handle it. Hopefully under warranty. If no warranty and you have to pay the bill, well, lets just saythat bill would have been about the price of the krankvent.

My 2008 with 780 miles on it is doing the same thing. I ordered a Krank Vent to see if this stops it and before I throw in the flag and let the dealer fix it.

 

[fake]

IMO its too bad you ordered a krankvent at this time. Iadvised you that will not fix this problem, and I believe you spent your money on a krankvent instead of fixing the leak. The fact is I PM'd you earlier today saying I may have misunderstood where your bikeis leaking - and I directed you to this post hoping it would help. Best advice is still to fix the leak even if that means to let the dealer handle it. Hopefully under warranty. If no warranty and you have to pay the bill, well, lets just saythat bill would have been about the price of the krankvent.

My 2008 with 780 miles on it is doing the same thing. I ordered a Krank Vent to see if this stops it and before I throw in the flag and let the dealer fix it.

No, I got your PM's and I appreciate the advice and help. I also spoke with a co-worker who has also worked on bikes for over 21 years. He looked at where I was having the oil seeping out and he believed the Krank Vent would stop the leak. However, he said if it didn't stop the leak, then I have a bad O-ring plain and simple. The only thing that bothers me, is the bike started leaking at around 600 miles. If it was a bad ring, why didn't it start leaking right away?


I really apppreciate the inputs by everybody. However I need to take the advice from somebody who has seen the seepage with his own eyes. The Krank Vent will help the bike regardless if it cures the leak or not. I was reading some posts by Dark Star and he swears up and down on the Krank Vent.

 

[judsterky]

How does a krank vent fix a push rod tube leak? Is this the same as the krank case vent tube that runs down the frame?

 

[Gilly]

Your crank vent hose runs into your stock airbox,not down the frame.When you remove the stock airbox to do the V-BAK it creates a little more crankcase pressure in your engine that will try and push oil out gaskets,but mainly pushes the oil out the crankcase vent.The krankvent is like a check valve,or pcv I guess. It creates a vacume instead of pressure,Therefore stopping(hopefully) the oil leaks.There are smarter people on here that could explain it better.

Guy

 

[fake]

How does a krank vent fix a push rod tube leak? Is this the same as the krank case vent tube that runs down the frame?

Do a search on it.





My Krank Vent will be here tomorrow. I will let you know if it stops the kind of leak we are having.

 

[jpwarrior]

Probably a pinched O-ring. No amount of tightening of the lifter block will stop this leak. The lifter block and the pushrod tube are seperate parts. The rubber gasket you see in the pic insulates the two parts from each other. Not much oil will leak out of it. The motor oil isn't under high pressure and the leak shouldn't get much worse. The repair isn't all that difficult just takes time and a 3.00 O-ring.



Ragarding the crank vent, it's not necessary and won't solve a leak in the pushrod tube. Originally the vent was directed into your air box Which recycled the oil vapor, if you have a big air kit, the vent is open to the atmosphere now. The vent is meant to release pressure and will continue to do so without anything attached to the vent line. If you are worried about vaccum drawing dust or debris into your vent hose place a filer on the end of it.

 

[arizonawarrior]

Like so many others, maybe Fake is hoping to replace the bit ofvacuum produced in the oem silencer airbox(by the piston downstroke)with a Krankvent, in hopes it will solve anoil leak. Guys have reasoned this before, and one day it'll work - who really knows. I hope it does!


The problem is, the real world gets in the way too often.The oem airbox design pulled a bit ofvacuum to draw gearbox oil vapor. Far lessvacuum is captured momentarily by a Krankvent (it doesn't draw vacuum).


The other problem is, again in the real world, if that small amount of pressure is allit takes to leak oil thru o-rings it'll be a huge surprise. Lots of members find the Krankventhelps reduce or eliminate oil vapor coming out of the oil/gearbox breather hose, which is the path of least resistance by design. But if the oil has a choice of a freeway or pushing through an o-ring, I guess I'm not so convinced it will beat back a good o-ring. I think an opening has to exist in the o-ring already, and that opening has to be dealt with.


It's all good.

And I sincerely do hope this works out this time!

 

[alanh]

If the leak is occuring below the pushrod tube, the O-ring that's on the lifter block is proably not seated and is causing your leak. Regardless, the rocker box and pushrod tubes will have to be removed to diagnose.

+1 ...

... the small o-ring on the tappet block ...

 

[judsterky]

JP Warrior,

You really know your stuff. I'm going to call the cycle shop tommorrow about the problem. Would they have to remove all the heads just to get to the o-rings, its seemes like it would be time consuming. If you took a guess how much time a shop would need to fix this. Probably at $65.00 per hour. Yikes!

Thanks everyone for your help! I wish I new as mush as you all know, but I'm learning a lot from this forum.

I will let you know what happens.

 

[fake]

Like so many others, maybe Fake is hoping to replace the bit ofvacuum produced in the oem silencer airbox(by the piston downstroke)with a Krankvent, in hopes it will solve anoil leak. Guys have reasoned this before, and one day it'll work - who really knows. I hope it does!


The problem is, the real world gets in the way too often.The oem airbox design pulled a bit ofvacuum to draw gearbox oil vapor. Far lessvacuum is captured momentarily by a Krankvent (it doesn't draw vacuum).


The other problem is, again in the real world, if that small amount of pressure is allit takes to leak oil thru o-rings it'll be a huge surprise. Lots of members find the Krankventhelps reduce or eliminate oil vapor coming out of the oil/gearbox breather hose, which is the path of least resistance by design. But if the oil has a choice of a freeway or pushing through an o-ring, I guess I'm not so convinced it will beat back a good o-ring. I think an opening has to exist in the o-ring already, and that opening has to be dealt with.


It's all good.

And I sincerely do hope this works out this time!

I'm hoping. LOL





I've read so many view points on the krank vent by so many people in this forum. Take Dark Star for one; he swears up and down by it and believes it is cheap insurance for the engine and seals. I ride this bike hard anyways, so regardless if this stops the leak, it's still benificial for my type ofriding style. Another member had the same problem with the oil seeping. He put on a crank vent and it stopped. Who knows what it will do? I will report on it when the weather clears up. The krank vent will be here today, however, it's 38 degrees and rainy today, so I will not be doing any riding.

 

[judsterky]

I just got back from a local motorcycle specialist shop. He told me the cost to fix this leak would be in the $450-$500 range including o-rings and gaskets. He told me it would be at least 6 hrs of labor. I'm not a motorcycle mechanic but the stuff he was telling me he would have to take half the engine apart. The gas tank, then the head covers rocker arm push rods and on and on. I'm going to ponder this for a few days and make a decision. I may leave it alone and take my 3 seconds and wipe of the little bit of oil near the tube. I feel all of this is insane. Practically a new bike with 4,600 miles on it and already a push rod leak.

The other thing that bothers me is when you take apart the engine, it never runs the same as before and other leaks could occur. I'm really paranoid over this whole thing.

Any thoughts?