Gear Oil change causes leaks

[Pressureangle]

1 hour ago, Chuck said:

That Redline heavy is tenacious stuff. It'll be hard to get rid of. I quit using it when I couldn't get it all to drain out of the rear drive and over filled it a bit when I "drained and measured.."

OTOH mine spit out 100cc from the rear drive through my thought-through but untested rear drive vent on my 10k tour and came home none the worse for wear with ~150cc in it. 
If it isn't broken down enough to drain out, it isn't broken down enough to want out, I figure. I've used about every high-end gear lube over the years, and never seen anything quite like the RedLine. I have to say though that I put ~35k miles on my LM1000 with Royal Purple gear oil in the drive and it also passed every test, including 5-10 miles of 90mph+ twice a day to work and back. 

[LowRyter]

When filling the rear drive, I just leave the overflow open and make sure there's no excess.  I don't know about Redline but that moly is thick as honey and won't wash out of anything.   It's so thick that it might take a half hour for all stuff to leak down from the top of the gears and inside walls. 

[gkaan]

I had a good outcome to my 'wet clutch' saga.    I was able to plug the small elongated drain hole with a rubber stopper and ran two bottles of mineral spirits through it, shaken not stirred,  and topped it off with some brake clean.  The bike exhibits no ill effects and I am also now the proud owner of a service manual!    Now that all the fluids are properly replaced next up on my baseline service is a new air cleaner, new tires and plugs.

[LowRyter]

That's a nice Christmas present, even down to the Red & Green colors.

[footgoose]

Good on ya gkaan! Who sells your new manual?

[gkaan]

23 hours ago, footgoose said:

Good on ya gkaan! Who sells your new manual?

I had a tough time finding a service manual and ended up getting it from New Zealand on ebay.  Pls do not ask how much it costs! 

[Lucky Phil]

On 12/25/2019 at 1:07 AM, gkaan said:

I had a good outcome to my 'wet clutch' saga.    I was able to plug the small elongated drain hole with a rubber stopper and ran two bottles of mineral spirits through it, shaken not stirred,  and topped it off with some brake clean.  The bike exhibits no ill effects and I am also now the proud owner of a service manual!    Now that all the fluids are properly replaced next up on my baseline service is a new air cleaner, new tires and plugs.

Hmm, depending on how much 2 bottles is and where the level in the clutch housing came up too I'm not sure exposing the rear main and gearbox input seal to mineral spirits is totally without risk. Add to that washing lube off the gearbox input splines and I just dont know. Time will tell I guess and add to the accumulated knowledge here. 

I had the flap drive system apart on an Airbus A300 years ago and cleaned up one of the rubber boots that covered one of the drive shaft universal joints in some jet fuel ( basically refined kerosene) and was the horrified to see it had destroyed the boot. I've always been cautious with solvents on rubber products since.

Ciao 

[Chuck]

I won't argue that, but the OP really had no other choice. The "mineral spirits trick" has been done many times on Guzzis without a problem as far as I know, though. I did it myself on an LM5 when a shop "mechanic" had serviced it before I saved it. 

[Lucky Phil]

5 hours ago, Chuck said:

I won't argue that, but the OP really had no other choice. The "mineral spirits trick" has been done many times on Guzzis without a problem as far as I know, though. I did it myself on an LM5 when a shop "mechanic" had serviced it before I saved it. 

Good to know Chuck. Of course you could always just pull it apart and clean it out. What else are you going to do with you're life thats more interesting than working on a Guzzi:)

Of course the concept that many times this error has been made is a bit worrying. How many people out there think a gearbox fill point is sealed by a simple rubber plug you can pull off with your finger nail. 

Ciao

[po18guy]

We are speaking of what is known in Oz/NZ as Mineral Turpentine. It appears that short exposure may not be harmful, perhaps only superficially harmful. On the other hand, long-term soaking, let's say 24+ hours, would definitely be damaging. I was able to find this compatibility chart relating to O-rings, but could not locate such a chart relating to crank or transmission seals (nitrile? Viton?).

I wonder if non-petroleum de-greaser cleaners such as the 'purple' cleaners would do the job, if properly flushed - perhaps with water followed by compressed or heated air?    

[Chuck]

4 hours ago, Lucky Phil said:

Good to know Chuck. Of course you could always just pull it apart and clean it out. What else are you going to do with you're life thats more interesting than working on a Guzzi:)

Of course the concept that many times this error has been made is a bit worrying. How many people out there think a gearbox fill point is sealed by a simple rubber plug you can pull off with your finger nail. 

Ciao

Ahh, I've screwed up myself once or twice.  The OP came clean, *bought a manual* and hopefully will be a contributing member. 

[Lucky Phil]

56 minutes ago, po18guy said:

We are speaking of what is known in Oz/NZ as Mineral Turpentine. It appears that short exposure may not be harmful, perhaps only superficially harmful. On the other hand, long-term soaking, let's say 24+ hours, would definitely be damaging. I was able to find this compatibility chart relating to O-rings, but could not locate such a chart relating to crank or transmission seals (nitrile? Viton?).

I wonder if non-petroleum de-greaser cleaners such as the 'purple' cleaners would do the job, if properly flushed - perhaps with water followed by compressed or heated air?    

Yes its often more about the length of exposure time. I once had an engine that cracked a cylinder head through the cam feed oil gallery in the head and into the water jacket. Contaminated the cooling system with quite a lot of oil. A friend said to use sugar soap which is a liquid soap you mix with water to was down walls prior to painting. Worked perfectly and after a few brief stationary short runs of the engine and dumping and repeating the system was perfectly clean. I mentioned this to someone else though that pointed out that sugar soap had a component in it that rubber seals might not like which was fair enough but the exposure time was so short it never was an issue. Even if it had been the worst thing that was likely was a few new hoses and a water pump seal. I have no idea how I would have cleaned the system otherwise.

Ciao 

[LowRyter]

1 hour ago, Chuck said:

Ahh, I've screwed up myself once or twice.  The OP came clean, *bought a manual* and hopefully will be a contributing member. 

Being a bit nearsighted, I was changing the rear pads on the Greenie.  I thought it was little firm removing the caliper.  I'll admit I wasn't looking down when I felt the hex driver connect into the allen bolt.   So I gave a strong yank on the ratchet and then all the brake fluid came out. 

Yep, I disassembled the caliper rather than removed it.  DOH!

[80CX100]

I think the large number of spirit flushes taking place and being reported, aren't always due to improperly adding gear oil through the timing inspection hole.

I think it's usually due to leaking push rod seals or as in my case, the previous owner of my CalVin, adding too much gear oil to the transmission. I think the thought process is,,, if the manual calls for 750ml and a full bottle is 1 litre,,, adding the whole 1 litre jug of gear oil would be more of a good thing, what could it hurt ?

The flush saved me from a huge job on my, new to me CalVin, and the clutch has been working great since, going on 3 years.

Kelly

[gkaan]

Reviving this old thread.  Its been nearly 18 months since my infamous oiled clutch incident. I know quote a few of you inmates got a laugh from that.    I'm pleased to report the bike is finally back on the road with a new clutch and running better than ever.  I used the time off road to also replace the hideous red and green bling on the bike with oem parts. I also had my pork chops, which were faded pink repainted.  I replaced the battery, air filter, rear brake pads, shift spring, and other misc. items.  It looks great and runs fantastic....just in time for spring.  The only job remaining is the foot peg lowering kit which just arrived.  Time to put some miles on it. 

Before

Now