Hi,
I have been puzzled by the grease/oil on my side stand (just at the top near the nut) and boot ever since I bought the bike. Every week I keep on wiping it off and through the week more and more black grease accumulates (about 4-5 drops). Today I wanted to investigate the source of the leak and it turns out that my gear lever although securely fastened has a bit of sideways slack(up and down slack would be normal I would imagine) and seems quite wet(black oil) where the lever attaches to whatever bit of metal/shaft is sticking out from the gear box. Is this normal? Am I slowly loosing oil from the engine? In three months of ownership and 3500miles the bike used about 650ml of oil.
Is there something I can do to stop my boots from getting oily (I would rather fix the problem on the bike end as opposed to the boot end)?

__________________
Blue GS500 K2

You could have Sledge come over and rip the leaky seal out of your bike for you.  
:lol:

How many miles are on the bike?
While obviously the shift shaft is leaking, what the root cause is takes a litttle work to find and you may not like the answer. There should be very little play in the shaft. There should be more rotational and in and out than sideways.  The problem is that the GS shift lever is very easy to stomp down on at the center instead of the end, putting alot of stress on the shaft and the seal and bearing surface in the cases.  Crash damage could also wrench the shift shaft too.
Remove the shift lever and outer sprocket cover. Look at the rubber seal (more like a grommet) to see if the oil is coming from it or it is visibly pulled away from the shaft. Now try to rotate the shaft (may need to put the lever back on) check and see that it turns true and doesn't appear bent. Now try and push it around. There shouldn't be any more than a few millimeters of free play.
If the shaft is just bent, thats not that big a deal. Replacing it means a bit of work removing the clutch and the micky mouse shifting mechanism, but you don't have to dig into the cases. But if the problems is that the case's shift shaft bearing surfaces have been damaged, that may require more work, stuff needing a machinist or at least an experianced bike mechanic to correct.
Try the above diagnostics and we can go from there before anymore doom and gloom.

Go ahead and order a GS500 service manual. Its always nice to have and I be thinking you will need it shortly.

thanks for the reply. is sledge in the UK? as his technique did not offend me.  

The bike is 11500 miles and it's never been droped while in my possesion( from 8000 miles). I do not abuse her and I very rarely ever go over 6000 rpm before shifting. The freeplay is in the actual lever not in the shaft. I will have to check the shaft later on today to see if there is any play in it. Otherwise I will be changing my oil at the weekend and I will have more spare time to take off the outer sprocket cover.
Thanks

d

Lets just hope that it is a design feature on the 2002 models in order to keep the side stand well oiled!

I had exactly the same thing when I 1st got my bike.
I cleaned the large amount of crud out from behind the sprocket cover.
That stopped it. (until a couple of years later the oil seal on my sproket shft went.)
It was mainly road junk and oil from my chain building up.
You could be in luck, especially if you use oil rather than chain wax on your chain.

I agree with Red_Phil here. Do you lube your chain excessively? Definitley clean the area behind the sprocket cover, ride it (maybe for a while); and then take the cover off again to see exactly where the leak (if any) is coming from.

It may simply be just an overabundance of chain lube.

You leave the seals to me James.......better leave the Flywheels also!! How many cranks, flywheels and axles have you screwed up now?? (See the post "Flywheel removal Cam timing" by Aprilia 123). What ever happened to the "Suzuki Approved method" ?? hahah my ribs are still hurting from the 1st time I read the post. I will move it up the queue so everyone can read it and have a laff.  

Note to Moderators: I was letting the subject of the seals go but James obviously doesnt have the control I do!

I've been looking into an oil leak that I've been having from the same area, thanks for the info since I've got a good reason to think the shift lever shaft may be bent. My wife got a little frustrated when it wouldn't go into gear...

The replies sound like good news and bad news.
good news: I do have a Loobman chain oiler and I am quite genrous to my chain with oil.
bad news: I have kicked the lever a few times when getting into neutral and not comming out of it in the middle of the traffic.

I have a Haynes manual. Which page deals with the gear shaft( I had a look over the black and white photos and I could not tell what I was looking at.

You just need to do a little investigation. With more accurate information, we can narrow it down. Right now we're conjecturing. Clean up behind there and see where the leak is really coming from (if it's a leak). Cleaning up is the first step.

Looking at the shaft while the cover is off is the next (to see if it's straight).

Quote from: scratchYou just need to do a little investigation. With more accurate information, we can narrow it down. Right now we're conjecturing. Clean up behind there and see where the leak is really coming from (if it's a leak). Cleaning up is the first step.

Agreed.  Before you start worrying about leaks and taking things apart, just clean out the area behind the plate, and take it easy on the lube.  What kind of lube are you using?  If you're using some sort of oil, I recommend switching to a spray on lube like Bel-Ray.

jeff

lubing the chain with 10w40 engine oil

Quote from: cmit37lubing the chain with 10w40 engine oil

zoinks!  I'd bet the ranch what you're finding on the shift lever and your boots is nothing more than chain lube that's collecting back there and oozing out.  I posted about this very problem about a year and a half ago.  Cleaning out the area around behind the plate took care of it.

Motor oil certainly does a good job of keeping the chain lubricated, but it has definite drawbacks in terms of cleanliness.  I suggest cleaning your chain and trying out something like the Belray spray on lube.  One can (<$10) has lasted me a good 6,000+ miles, so it's not expensive.

jeff

If the oil is black, mucky and greasy my best guess would be chain-fling, I have had exactly the same thing it gets onto the side stand and the little groove inset down there. Oil coming out of the casing would probably be much cleaner.

%

Hmmm, I think we may be out thinking the problem. Your chain oiler is probably dribbleing on the shiftshaft and its probably just your shift lever that is loose or stripped.  Take the cover off and give everything a good eyeballing before us long distance troubleshooters proclaim the bike totaled.

Sledge- My comment was only a half dig at you. The other was serious if he wanted/needed to go that route.

As for the rest? Well, I should have expected something like that out of you.  Just so you know, the flywheel incident was a field repair at about 2AM on a racebike the day before a race. The flywheel came off easy as you please, the crank was fine, and the stripped axle was a spare. So STFU.

James? If your gonna have a dig, even half of one thats fine, But I will have half a dig back. If you cant take it back dont dish it out to start with.

I just "fixed" the problem by taking the cover off and cleaning the muck off.
Cheers!