elusive oil leak

[jimmyenglish]

Hi everyone. I have an elusive oil leak on the left side. I just replaced the stator cover gasket and the drive gear cover gasket. I Hondabonded both and high temp rtv 'd (both sides ) of the grommets where the stator wires pass through. After a 120mile ride today I noticed it's still leaking. My question is, where are the probable locations? It's hard to tell because there's oil all over the bottom left side. Doesn't seem to be the stator cover. Could it be the push rod seal? I looked into replacing it a couple years ago when I rebuilt the slave. It wasn't leaving then and it seemed impossible to reach. Thanks in advance!

[Peder_y2k]

Didja replace the crush washer on the bottom bolt of the middle gear cover?

-Pete, in Tacoma WA USA

'88VR

[MasterGuns]

The usual suspect is the rubber insert that your stator wires run though. If that piece isn't completely free of all oil and sealed properly into it's recession in the case, it'll leak really badly. If it were the crush washer, you'd be able to tell just by looking at it. My bet is the stator wire rubber grommet.

[mbrood]

You know driving around pushes the oil leakage back (and most likely up a bit as well). Look for the most forward sign and check in that immediate area.

[van avery]

You might want to change the O ring on the shift indicator. It's the white triangular plastic piece behind the middle gear cover. It's held in by three screws. I chased small oil leaks for quite awhile on my 87 VR and after replacing that O ring she doesn't mark her spot anymore.

Good luck.

[frankd]

Jimmy,

 

With a mirror, you can look up under the middle gear cover and maybe get some idea of what's leaking. You can also take the rubber cover off the clutch bleeder and look down it. I had a leak on my 83 that I couldn't figure out, so seeing that I had a replacement middle gear cover that was in worse shape than my original, I took it and cut off the forward portion that covers the stator leads and will allow you to see exactly where the oil is leaking. On my 89, after I changed the stator and starter drive, I had a tiny leak on the stator cover. I replaced the gasket after I thought I had everything scraped. Wrong...it still leaked. The next time I went to replace the stator cover gasket, I found a tiny piece of the old gasket stuck to the engine side. I also used a torque wrench on the bolts so that I didn't over tighten the bolts and distort the cover.

 

If the oil seems to be coming from the back of the middle gear cover, make sure the seal on the output shaft isn't leaking. You can pull the driveshaft boot and look forward of the U-joint.

 

Frank D.