I need help with my first bike!!!

[thisSideUp]

Hi everyone! first I want to say thank you. I have learned a ton from this forum so far!

TLDR: What do I do about chasing an oil leak around?

So I bought a 2005 gs500 that had been half nakedified because I wanted a cheap reliable forgiving bike as my first bike, and the gs 500 seemed to fit the bill. The guy that sold it to me told me it had no problems, but he seemed to know nothing about it. Long story short I have had to touch a LOT on the bike. You all have helped me out a ton!

The problem I am having trouble fixing: when I got the bike I noticed that it was leaking a little oil from the valve cover gasket. So I put a new one on and checked the valves while I was in there. Then it started to leak a bit from the air box cover. I torqued the bolts a bit tighter, and that seemed to fix that. Then a day or so later it stared leaking oil pretty badly from the gear shifter. I opened that up, and the seal had pressed out. I pressed it back in and let it idle for 15 minutes, and it pressed it self back out!!! I did a better job of cleaning and pressed it back and it seems to kind of maybe be holding right now, but I doubt it will last.

Any suggestions on where to go from here? just replace all the seals? Is there something that could be causing too much oil pressure?

[J_Walker]

too much oil pressure? no such thing! well.. there is but not on the GS. check the breather hose that connects to the airbox to make sure it isn't clogged. probably just the gaskets going bad, or someone took it apart and REUSED the gaskets.. and that's why it seems like everythings falling apart.

[thisSideUp]

That seems highly likely. (I just replaced the air hose, because... it didn't have one) it also didn't have many other parts that are 'optional'

Any advice on where to go from here? Would you just keep replacing seals as they fail?

[J_Walker]

the verification go away after a couple of post.. for the most part keeps the bots off.

[J_Walker]

also I'd just buy a whole engine gasket kit, and replace all the easy to get too gaskets next oil change. unless of course you're spewing oil, then drain and replace em now.

[cbrfxr67]

Welcome and hope you can get things sorted but,...where pics?

[The Buddha]

Leak from airbox cover this bike has an airbox cover You mean airbox drain ? That could be blow by.
Cool.
Buddha.

[thisSideUp]

Thanks for all of the replies guys! Yes pictures! here is one of the bike just cus (complete with oil coming from the side):



Sorry Buddha, I may be using the wrong word. what is the part that the gas tank vent hose connects to? It was leaking from the seal where that connects to the valve cover. The top seal in the photo below. It has leaked from both of the seals in this picture, but they seem to be relatively buttoned up at this point.



I have an update for you all: I bought a new seal to go around the gear shifter, and it fell out also! Any ideas on why this might happen? I could just be doing a bad job of pressing it (I am just using a bit of pipe) but it slides in so easily, I have a hard time believing that it is rolling or anything.

here is a picture of the fallen out seal: