bbolesaz

Lotta money for a dust bin.

BTW, if you happen to live in Phoenix area, my apologies for the rolling environmental disaster !

I stopped at Auto Zone and grabbed a funnel and 4 quarts. I re-filled at the first 10 miles or so and then about 1/2 way. Some quick math told me I would make the last 1/2 without draining it dry. Kept a sharp eye for the little red light.

Apparently, not quite yet. But sad none the less. Just made it official.

I rode the beast home, going slow and short shifting to keep the RPM below 2500. It was 47 miles and it spewed just under 2 quarts of oil.

Thanks, that explains the continued drip drip after I washed the oil off of the outsides. I'd really hate to look inside there. The little rubber plug was quite nasty just on its own.

Found it. RTFM ! Yes, 3 +/- 0.2 bar. Thanks Coreytrevor !

Searched around. What is the rated fuel pressure for our lovely machines?

Adjustable fuel pressure regulators for $20 on ebay. Some hose, a couple of hose barbs and a plain old auxiliary tank and I should be in biz.

Is there a drain hole at the bottom of the bell housing?

Coreytrevor, thanks for the link. That would work. I want to debug my breather system, so I'd like to run the bike tank off.

Yep, that's the breather in the motor. And for the fun part ? See that gap between the metal breather hose fitting and the case? Yep, as the breather is puking oil all over, some of it is running down that gap and contaminating the bell housing with oil. Clutch is still operating normally, but . . .

I don't think the bike carries that much gear oil. It's for sure the breather tube, it is completely off of the fitting and the fitting is like a little oil geyser.

Yep, that's why the old style ones don't work. I looked at the parts list, but they don't list the specifications for the main or return fuel lines. I guess I'll measure them, then maybe cobb up some line extensions with vacuum fittings and put the tank on a table next to the bike.

Anyone else had a breather hose break? If so, how much oil came out. I felt like I was riding the Exxon Valdez. Easily a pint of oil.

So, in the old days, with carburetors, you could hang a test tank (like an IV bottle for gasoline) and run the bike with the tank off. Has anyone seen something equivalent for FI bikes? Does anyone know how the bike can be run with the tank off? I'd like to diagnose my breather issue.

Yep, I have the factory airbox and that hose. Maybe that hose is getting crimped somehow? When I get the new breather hose and it is still clean, I'm going to hook up the spine end and make sure I can blow air thru the system.

Cycle World website has a just released caliper rebuild video. BTW brake assembly fluid = plain old brake fluid.

So, my temporary fix didn't work. I was on the way to the Arizona MCNOC breakfast doing about 80 up the I-17 when the bike turned into a smoke cloud. It was blowing oil out much faster than it did the first time. I pulled off into a parking lot and watched it drip a monster puddle. The breather hose had completely seperated just above the engine tube and the engine tube was an oil geyser. It wasn't so bad if the engine RPM was less than 2500, so I limped it home short shifting and going slowly. I grabbed a couple of bottles of oil along the way to make sure the red light didn't come on. So, I have a new breather hose on order. Now I'm starting to think (always a bad thing) that maybe I have a problem with the breather. I assume that there should be easy airflow from the engine breather to the outlet at the top of the frame. Haven't had a chance to check it out yet. I'm hoping that it's just that Luigi used some cheap pasta to make the original hose.

Yep, it was the breather hose that cracked. The crack wasn't quite as big as shown below, it got bigger when I pulled the hose off of the tube. I cut the ragged end straight and replaced it on the tube.

Thanks all!

Hi, my Scura came with a oil temp dipstick. It has some sharpie markings on it. I'm would like to be sure what the measurements are. I found this thread. http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13096 but it's not clear. All I want to know is how far from the top of the threads to the high mark and low mark. A couple of minutes with your stock dipstick and a ruler would be very appreciated.

So, after the 25 mile ride to work, I get off of the bike and notice a trail of oil drops behind the bike. A quick look underneath confirms the puddle forming under the bike. It looks like the oil is originating from the top of the motor, running down the sides and then dropping off of the rear of the oil pan. I had the tank and air box off recently. I'm suspecting I put a crack in an oil hose in that process. Can someone explain the oil path in and out of the frame? I'm guessing the frame forms a breather / sump function. Further guessing that the hose from the top of the motor to the top of the spine is the engine breather outlet and the hose from the rear of the spine to the oil pan is the return. Hose at the top of the spine is the atmosphere line. Any other place on top of the motor suspect for puking oil?

Rode the mighty Scura with the new bags today. I had seen several posts about bikes that wobble after adding H&B bags. Happy to report that did quite a bit of time with the speedo in the 8's and 9's and the bike is quite stable. I can feel the back end getting nudged around by the wind a little bit, as would be expected. That said, a couple of points - 1. I have the 30L bags, not the 33% wider 40L versions. 2. I have owned and ridden some notorious flexi-flyers in my time. Gummy-kuh BMW Airheads with their famous mid-chassis pivot. Early Goldwing interstates that would head shake anytime the bike was going 40MPH. 3. Even my other current bikes feel less stable. My K1600GTL is always asking "turn now?", "Turn now?", "can we turn now?". My F800GS with it's huge aluminum flat plates hanging in the breeze really bounces around the rear end. So, it may be that I'm de-sensitized, but no bag wobble problems here. Unfortunately, the bike is going home on a trailer this afternoon. That's in another post.

Installed my Hepco Becker rack and bags over the weekend. When I opened the box from Moto Machines, I ran into my 1st problem. Only 1 page of installation instructions with only 1 picture of the completed bags, all in GERMAN. I looked on line for an English version without success. I did find a .pdf file in German, but being Germans, it was read locked so I couldn't cut and copy text from it. With out enough pictures to guess, I spent the next 4 hours using google translate, typing in crazy 30 character words that ended up meaning allen head screw (linsenkophschrauben). Finally with instructions in hand, I could complete the job. The hardest part involved a bracket that mounts to the rear of the sub-frame and sticks out to either side of the fender to support the back of the brackets. I requires removing and cutting the back small inner fender piece to let the bracket pass thru. Very poor design, it would have been better to install some standoffs on the rear subframe, drill 2 holes in the inner fender then bolt the bracket to the standoffs. If I had lots of time to waste, I would have re-fabbed the bracket in this way. Took about 4 hours of work to finish the installation. Very sturdy and the bags are really nice. The engineer in me appreciates the new functionality the bike will have and packing for the Lake Henshaw rally will be easy peasy. The rider in me is not so happy. To a certain extent, it's like I'm dressing a super-model in cargo pants and cargo vest. Yea, you can still tell that there is a super-model underneath, but the end result is way less sexy than she was before. Gonna debate this one for a while, but if anybody wants a nice set of Hepco Becker bags in a month or so, let me know.