Well, after an epic trip up to Deadhorse and back, my bike is showing the results of over 8k miles in 15 days. Nothing too troubling, but I wanted to get some experienced opinions before I begin the post flight tear down. I have searched and I think I found all the diff leak threads, and all the clutch cover leak threads. What I didn't find a lot of were good pictures to compare to. I'll post mine up and see if anyone has insight into most likely culprits/fixes.
First, the diff. It started leaking on the way back, just before Jasper. I had spent ten dollars at the car wash when we got back to Fairbanks from Deadhorse and noticed no leaking at that time. It was three days and about 1500 miles before I noticed the wheel hub looked wet. We rode in a lot of rain, both on the Dalton and everything else, but it was easy to see the darker stain of oil. At this time I checked and added 80/90 weight, but it took a tiny amount before it was flowing out and full. I had changed it prior to departure, so it had about 6000 miles on it when the leak started. A lot of that 6k miles was above 4k rpms, and long hours due to the time constraints of the trip. The next 2k miles of the trip, when I opened the diff it was full. It never dripped while sitting, but now that I'm home it has, maybe one drip in 36 hours. Gear lube, not engine oil.
You can see from the last one, it's not the weep hole I found referenced in other threads. You can see in the first one, there is some wetness around the vent I consider normal for the riding it's been through. The oil around the fill plug is from checking it and wiping it off. I'm sure it's not melted grease as others have had, it's gear oil. I used the Yamaha oil for the FJR in the diff, and lubed the splines with the High Moly grease from Honda, just like I did when I owned an FJR. I really blame myself for what I think is going to be the seal towards the wheel causing this leak, I was hesitant to power wash in that area too much, and I think I left too much grit in there after the Haul road.
The other issue is a clutch side case leak, which I'm doubting myself on calling it a dowel pin problem after I took these pictures. My bike is an early 12, with about 24K miles on it at this point, That seems to put it in the range for the the dowel pins needing shaved down, but prior to this trip I'd never noticed the leak, and my pictures of the bike at the Arctic Circle and after you can't see any leakage. The flash on my camera lit the area up better than I had before, and it almost looks like it's coming from the plastic plug by the fill cap. I changed the oil in the parking lot at Walmart in Fairbanks, Rotella T 15-40 per my norm so it has about 4k on it as it sits and I'll be changing it. My fill cap is tight and I put a safety clip on it, so I know that didn't loosen up. But that little inspection plug...
I hope that someone with the dowel pin leak can chime in and let me know if that's my issue, or is there is enough evidence that it looks like it's coming from higher up to rule that out. I'll be doing the work myself either way, so when I sleuth out what gaskets I need for the back I might just do the cover one and shave the dowels down to be sure.
My K60's took a beating, too. I expected that and was very happy with their overall performance. They are of course pretty chewed up and squared off after the rough roads and highway portions, but if they continue to hold air reliably I'll run them to death. They have a coupe of troubling scars, but I don't have another big trip planned this year so I'll just watch them close. Too bad the roads up there aren't curvier, the only time I hate seeing nipples are at the edge of tires that need replaced. ::013::
Thanks for taking a look, I'll get busy cleaning her up and try to post back with what I find. I wanted to get this up there before I started to mine the board wisdom while the evidence was still fresh.
First, the diff. It started leaking on the way back, just before Jasper. I had spent ten dollars at the car wash when we got back to Fairbanks from Deadhorse and noticed no leaking at that time. It was three days and about 1500 miles before I noticed the wheel hub looked wet. We rode in a lot of rain, both on the Dalton and everything else, but it was easy to see the darker stain of oil. At this time I checked and added 80/90 weight, but it took a tiny amount before it was flowing out and full. I had changed it prior to departure, so it had about 6000 miles on it when the leak started. A lot of that 6k miles was above 4k rpms, and long hours due to the time constraints of the trip. The next 2k miles of the trip, when I opened the diff it was full. It never dripped while sitting, but now that I'm home it has, maybe one drip in 36 hours. Gear lube, not engine oil.
You can see from the last one, it's not the weep hole I found referenced in other threads. You can see in the first one, there is some wetness around the vent I consider normal for the riding it's been through. The oil around the fill plug is from checking it and wiping it off. I'm sure it's not melted grease as others have had, it's gear oil. I used the Yamaha oil for the FJR in the diff, and lubed the splines with the High Moly grease from Honda, just like I did when I owned an FJR. I really blame myself for what I think is going to be the seal towards the wheel causing this leak, I was hesitant to power wash in that area too much, and I think I left too much grit in there after the Haul road.
The other issue is a clutch side case leak, which I'm doubting myself on calling it a dowel pin problem after I took these pictures. My bike is an early 12, with about 24K miles on it at this point, That seems to put it in the range for the the dowel pins needing shaved down, but prior to this trip I'd never noticed the leak, and my pictures of the bike at the Arctic Circle and after you can't see any leakage. The flash on my camera lit the area up better than I had before, and it almost looks like it's coming from the plastic plug by the fill cap. I changed the oil in the parking lot at Walmart in Fairbanks, Rotella T 15-40 per my norm so it has about 4k on it as it sits and I'll be changing it. My fill cap is tight and I put a safety clip on it, so I know that didn't loosen up. But that little inspection plug...
I hope that someone with the dowel pin leak can chime in and let me know if that's my issue, or is there is enough evidence that it looks like it's coming from higher up to rule that out. I'll be doing the work myself either way, so when I sleuth out what gaskets I need for the back I might just do the cover one and shave the dowels down to be sure.
My K60's took a beating, too. I expected that and was very happy with their overall performance. They are of course pretty chewed up and squared off after the rough roads and highway portions, but if they continue to hold air reliably I'll run them to death. They have a coupe of troubling scars, but I don't have another big trip planned this year so I'll just watch them close. Too bad the roads up there aren't curvier, the only time I hate seeing nipples are at the edge of tires that need replaced. ::013::
Thanks for taking a look, I'll get busy cleaning her up and try to post back with what I find. I wanted to get this up there before I started to mine the board wisdom while the evidence was still fresh.
