oil leaking from right side of bike

[dmajorz]

hey guys im a new rider and i am new to this site. i bought my first bike almost a month ago. its a 2004 gs500f and i had to change the stater relay because the guy who owned the bike before me hooked up a very old stater relay  to the bike and added connection and wires to get it to work with the battery. anyway i fixed that problem after waiting like 2 weeks for the part to get mailed in and i had been push starting the bike now that the bike is fixed and i charged the battery im notiiced that the bike is jering a little bit when i first take off and when im cruising slow in first gear im thinkin maybe spark plugs are gapped right? and my bike leaks on the right side some of the oil gon on the exaust pipe but i dont know if its from the bottom or from the crank case cover anyways id appreciate the help.

[theGrinch]

How many miles has the bike done? A look at the spark plugs might be in order.
http://www.dansmc.com/Spark_Plugs/Spark_Plugs_catalog.html (found via http://wiki.gstwins.com/)

And regarding the oil: How much? And take the fairing off and try to locate where it's coming from, otherwise a diagnosis is nearly impossible.
If it's on the exhaust pipe, it might just be the airbox overflow hose.
Have you checked your oil level?

[dmajorz]

the bike has 18000mi on it i checked the oil level its on the f and i changed the spark plugs. i took the fairing off and the leak is coming from the crank case cover. i think its the gasket there. now just 2 days ago the bike is making a clacking noise it hadnt happened before. dunno if the valves need to be adjusted. i havent adjusted the valves since i bought the bike and the p.o didnt tell me if he had done it recently
what are your opinions. should i take it to a shop or do you think i can fix these things myself.

[DoD#i]

the bike has 18000mi on it i checked the oil level its on the f and i changed the spark plugs. i took the fairing off and the leak is coming from the crank case cover. i think its the gasket there. now just 2 days ago the bike is making a clacking noise it hadnt happened before. dunno if the valves need to be adjusted. i havent adjusted the valves since i bought the bike and the p.o didnt tell me if he had done it recently
what are your opinions. should i take it to a shop or do you think i can fix these things myself.

I think you might want to actually read the posts here - the exact problem of leaking right side cover has been hashed over extensively in the past couple of days - read and enjoy.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=47785.0

As for the clacking noise, how's your oil level? If you have a leak and have not kept the oil topped up, you might be low on oil...the proper way to check the oil is detailed in several places on this board - find one and read it.

[dmajorz]

i talked to a mechanic and he said the clacking noise could be the cam chain could be loose and that its slapping around. he said that it keeps doing that it will skip over the sprocket and f%$k up my valves and then im f%&ked. he said that changing the chain cost 300 dollars in labor and then whatever it cost in parts what do you think. how can i adjust the valve to see if its that.

[sledge]

GS5 camchains themselves generaly last forever, if the chain has become slack and that is whats making the noise, chances are the guide or the tensioner has gone west.......Its very difficult to diagnose faults from the descriptions of the sounds they make but I wouldnt assume its the chain on its own............ His comments dont inspire my confidence and maybe a second opinion from another mech` might be a good idea.

[dmajorz]

so how do you adjust the cam chain if it has slack and is making this noise is there a video that shows this or how is it done do you guys have experience with that?
thanks by the way you guys have been real helpful cause nowadays everyone wants to rip you off

[DoD#i]

Dunno 'bout "everyone wants to rip you off." A few do, and a few always did. There's a hell of a lot more not very good mechanics (generally) and motorcycle mechanics (specifically) out there. Not really out to rip you off, but not terribly good at what they do, either. It makes finding a good one a bit of a challenge. Then again, none of us here can hear your noise.

If the guy swaps out your cam chain and reinstalls everything "by the book", he'll probably find the bad tensioner (if that is, in fact, the problem at all) along the way and fix it, so he'd have "fixed your problem" assuming some level of competence at doing the work. But if he's diagnosed the wrong problem to begin with, he may well do hundreds of dollars of needless work - which can be clueless, and can be mercenary - it's often hard to tell, unless you have no need for the guy in the first place.

Search here on cam chain tensioner, for a start. It's relatively easy to pull out and check, if you can get over pulling tank, airbox and carbs to get some working room. Consider buying a manual, for another start, though extensive searching here can answer a lot of questions - and there a few cases (fuel tank petcock) where the manual has it backwards (and some previous owners have blindly followed the backwards pictures). But on the whole a manual is a good thing if you are going to dig into the bike.

Couldn't hurt (since you want video) to look at Kerry's valve adjusting video (well, I hear there is one, I prefer to get info without video so I have not looked at that, but it's well regarded here.) If nothing else, you get in there and you will be able to check the valve clearances, and have a look at the cam chain (and its tension or lack therof) while you are in there. Here's the non-video:

http://www.gstwin.com/adjust_valves.htm

And the video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2015554469142545363

[dmajorz]

yea ur right about not everyone but its not hard to find a mechanic who jus wants to take your money if you by anychance are a mechanic i didnt mean to offend you. there are good mechanics out there ive dealt with mechanics who dont fix anything and try to charge you for it but thats a story for another time. but leaving that aside youve been really helpful im gonna try and do this tomorrow. are there any tools i should buy before digging in the bike. and does the clymer gs500 book also apply for the gs500f or is there another book out there for those. if there are please let me know. thanks for the links.

[DoD#i]

I'm an engineer without a motorcycle mechanic at present, since good ones are hard to find, so I do my own (it's more manageable than the truck, and I have found an at least halfway decent truck mechanic). Still, Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity is a decent policy to follow.

IIRC you need a 10 and 12 mm socket, a 6 mm allen, and feeler gauges from 0.03mm to 0.08mm, at a bare minimum. Might need an additional size wrench to get the cam chain tensioner out - I don't recall what its bolts are.

A neat trick was posted for avoiding the "special valve shim tool" if you actually need to change shims. Basically hold the valve open/bucket down with a nylon wire tie inserted through the spark plug hole.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=43440.0

Other than a few electrical changes (electric tach rather than mechanical - different pickups as well, I think), 3-circuit carbs,  and an oil cooler, the Old GS and New GS are quite similar, from what I recall seeing posted here. Mine is Old, so no direct experience with the New...

[dmajorz]

im at the part with the brillo pad thing but the screws underneath wont budge. and i semi stripped one tryin to turn it and the screwdriver moved but the screw didnt dont know what to do

[dmajorz]

wait i take that back theres no need to take that off...my mistake. the gasket seems to be on tight and cant take the valve cover off. what should i do

[dmajorz]

ok i took the valve cover off and i put the bike in 6th to turn it and i see now that the exhaust valves are tighter than 3.8 and by tighter it has no chance of ever going in. what shim should i put in ??

[dmajorz]

p.s where can i buy shims

[fred]

You should take out the shim that's in there and put in one that is smaller. If you wait for the valve adjusting kit, there will likely be a shim in there that will do what you want. If you're impatient (like me) you can always head down to the dealer and buy some from them... You'll also need the tool for compressing the valve so you can get the shim out or some equivalent. Do a search here for posts about what other people have used...

[DoD#i]

Buy shims at your local dealer - if you have a local dealer. Hang onto the old ones, or contribute them to the kit.

As for thickness, you need to pull out the too tight shim(s), see how thick it is (they are), and get a thinner one (two). IIRC it's better to run the exhausts on the loose side (more time cooling off on the seat, less time stuck up in the hot exhaust stream.) ie, nearer to 0.08 than to 0.03, so too tight definitely wants to get fixed.

Just to double check - you are looking at 0.03 mm on a metric gauge, not 0.003 inch on an inch gauge, right?

How does the cam chain tension look?

[dmajorz]

yea it says .03
the tensioner i cant tell cause i havent been able to get inthere yet i took the airbox out but the carbs are in the way i dont know where the carbs are attched to to get them out of the way. but the guy had said to me that the chain could be loose seems tight enought to me. but i still want to check it out .. so when i take the tensioner off how do i know its shot what am i looking for??? thanks