So, today I took the Kaw triple out for a ride. Beautiful day, great ride – and once again, my luck held… As I rolled back into the driveway I saw (and smelled) more than the usual quantity of oily smoke. Key off, roll to a stop. Hop off, have a look. There is two-stroke oil dripping all over! The back wheel is coated. Dribbles oozing down the frame tubes… WTF?
At first I thought the engine cases had developed a bad leak – but it was definitely not 10W-40 engine oil (used in the gearbox). It was purple-black two-stroke oil. And it was coming from the oil tank. The side of the oil tank. The sight “glass” (it’s plastic) had worked itself loose! This opened a quarter-sized hole in the full tank, allowing the top-third of the oil inside to pour out – and all over everything.
Amazingly, it fell out in the driveway, with the bike barely moving… not 5 minutes earlier, when I was running 70 on the open road!
So, just a clean-up. Not a seize up!
I love when stuff breaks on the driveway! You can’t ask for more… That means your machine loves you.
I does!
Best feeling ever… well, almost!
Reminds me of the time my radiator developed a crack about a mile from my house at the end of a 500 mile trip. Incredibly fortunate.
Dom says this shows your machine loves you!
You are very fortunate that you found this in the safety of your driveway. An engine seize up on the highway does not sound good. I am assuming that you could have ruined your motor or worse.
Yup!
I have been running pre-mix, but have dialed it down to almost nothing (whatever old gas-plus-oil is still in the tank, mixed with the straight unleaded) so had the oil tank run dry while I was booking along at 70… could have been ugly!
As it was, just messy.
I covered the bike in Simple Green (great stuff for cleaning without staining finishes; very safe to use on almost anything) and gently cleaned her up. Screwed the sight plug back in – and am thinking about ways to secure it extra-tight so it doesn’t shake loose again.
RTV in the threads? I am trying to visualize how it works, I am guessing a clear plastic piece that just screws in as a plug.
Yeah, it’s a little plastic screw-in top. The threads are such that it’s very hard to really tighten it up. So, I used some “black” RTV on the threads, as well as around the perimeter. It’s sealed tight now!