Hey guys.  Bike is a '96 with ~ 8,300 miles.  Bought it about a year ago with 6,100 miles.  Last year I noticed that my boot was getting a little oily, apparently from the shifter.  No biggie it seemed though, everything was working fine.  

The last two days I've ridden to work, and noticed that the amount of stuff on my boot seems like it's increasing.  Any thoughts?  Is this a common thing?

On a seperate note, somebody mentioned in another thread that GSJack had said some Fram filters were floating around out there that were mislabelled.  This got me to thinking about the oil change I did about a month ago.  The new Fram filter I was installing was very tough to put in, seemed like the hole in the middle was too tight.  Might I have one of those mislabelled filters?  If so is there any potential problem now that it's on?  The bike runs fine, no oil light or anything.  

jeff

Have you looked for where on your bike the oil is coming from?

I forgot to mention that.  I have never cleaned the engine, so there's a fair amount of stuff on it.  It's not obvious where oil is coming out, just that it finds it's way on to the top of my foot when I'm upshifting.  I think when I get home tonight I'm gonna give the engine a thorough cleaning, then see what happens.

jeff

Quote from: Jeff PLast year I noticed that my boot was getting a little oily, apparently from the shifter. [...] The last two days I've ridden to work, and noticed that the amount of stuff on my boot seems like it's increasing.  Any thoughts?  Is this a common thing?

Your left boot probably looks a bit worse than this, eh?  This photo shows normal marking from the rubber shifter itself.  But my previous pair of boots had a much blacker mark in the same area, from the same problem you're describing.


See the old thread Oil leak on left side!!.  The link to the even older thread called Fluid Leak now leads nowhere (Grrrr!) but in that older thread I described how to remove the left side sprocket cover and clean out the GUNK (chain lube, small pebbles, grit) that has built up there.

EDIT: Changed link from sisna.com to bbburma.net

Yup that's just what it looks like, just more oily crap.  Any chance I can convince you to recreate that old post?  

jeff

Not sure if it is your leak or not, but my bike used to leak a few drips from the cam chain tensioner.  The oil would leak out there in the center, fall in front of the starter cover, then go left around the head, and acctually follow down around the case and fall off right near the shifter lever.  Sometimes it could take a sortcut and go right down over the case and onto my shoe.

It would only leak while the engine was running and not too much.  So, I would park the bike, leaned to the left, come back and there would be 3 or 4 drops on the ground.  A new gasket on the tensioner solved the problem, easy fix.

Hope that helped.

-Paul

Quote from: Jeff PAny chance I can convince you to recreate that old post?  

I'll try to do better than that.  This time with pictures!


1) Scratch an alignment mark on the end of the splined shaft that the shift lever is pushed onto.  That way you will know where to position the lever when you put it back on.
2) Remove the bolt that keeps the lever on the shaft, and pull the lever off.  (The bolt has to come all the way out of the upper threads before it will clear the "detent" on the splined shaft.)


3) With the shift lever out of the way, remove the 5 bolts that hold the front sprocket cover on.  (One of them is hidden behind the lever in the picture.)  I believe they have 7mm or 8mm heads, so I hope you have a 1/4" drive socket wrench!
4) Prepare for a yucky sight.
5) Pull the front sprocket cover away from the bike and "look inside".
6) After you recover from the shock, use whatever you can find to clean out the 1/2" of collected gooey gunk.  (Spoon, paper towels, whatever.)
7) Once everything is cleaned up, reverse the above steps to reinstall.

EDIT: Changed links from sisna.com to bbburma.net

Agree, it's most likely just chain lube crap leaking out.

Regarding the mislabeled FRAM filters, I bought one and had the same experience you describe - very difficult to put in because of the size of the center hole.  I believe you too have a mislabeled one.  If it's still in, you might consider an early oil & filter change.

The shifting shaft seal also likes to become leaky after some time.

One word of warning: You mentioned the oil warning light in conjunction wit oil loss. That's not what it's about. Once you've lost that much oil that the warning light goes on, your engine probably is dead. The warning light signifies loss of oil pressure, not oil level. That's what the Oil check rod is for.

Kerry thank's for those directions!  How do you always have a picture of whatever it is your posting about?

I took the cover off and cleaned all the gunk out.  You're right it was quite a mess.  If tonight's thunderstorms don't materialize I'll be checking out the results tonight.

Question.  Behind the cover, just forward of the sproket, was a thin rod  sort of thing coming out of the transmission.  It goes into some gizmo that's attached to the cover, which is connected to a little lever with a spring with a wire going out the top of the cover.  While I was cleaning, the little rod came right out.  So I cleaned it off good and stuck it back in.  What was it?

jeff

Quote from: Jeff PHow do you always have a picture of whatever it is your posting about?

I take the photos myself, as the need arises.  :mrgreen:   Over time I usually get to reuse them.    I'm a kinda visual guy, so I figure if _I_ would like to see a photo, then everybody else probably would too.  The pictures often save me a lot of text composition and typing, too.  

Quote from: JeffPQuestion.  Behind the cover, just forward of the sproket, was a thin rod  sort of thing coming out of the transmission. [...] What was it?

It was one of 2 clutch push rods that work together to disengage the clutch.  See items 19 and 20 on this 1996 Suzuki GS500ET CLUTCH page from BikeBandit.

Kerry to the rescue again.....he helped me out I think it was the beginning of last year with the same thing.  I have been more careful with the amount of chain lube that I apply since I couldn't believe how much gunk there was behind the cover.

Wayne

There was a time when I took my bike in to a shop to ask about a 'leak'.

He asked what the tube was in front of the sprocket.

I told him it was for a home-made chain oiler.

I dope-splapped myself and left.


Turns out the oil was flinging off inside the front cover, and dripping out via the shifter lever.  I successfully ignored it forever after.  Of course, you might not *have* a chain oiler, but this is an exercise in proof-of-concept...

You could have a bad head gasket or O-rings

I've put about 5 hours on the bike since cleaning that crap out, and I'm happy to report I'm no longer getting stuff on my boot as before.  Thanks for the help!

jeff

Thanks for getting me to "re-create" the old post and to take pictures. For NEXT time...!

Glad to hear that the problem is taken care of.

Dang I need to do that too!
:mrgreen: