"Upper" Shaft Drive Seeping

Bombadier36

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Aug 8, 2019
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Florida Panhandle
After a 7,000 trip on the bike I noticed a bit of oil seeping from the "upper" portion of the shaft drive. Also, after doing some searching and reading through the forum I have not found the information I am looking for so decided to post the question.

A little history:
2017 ST non-ES with approximately 15,000 miles.
Purchased the motorcycle about 4 months ago. After noticing the lubricant seeping I have cleaned the questionable area and ridden around town for the past few weeks. The seeping has returned to the same area.
I have not changed the shaft oil since purchasing the bike so I do not know how it was changed before. No hard off-road riding (any "off road" riding was forest/4X4 roads) and no falls on the bike (only a soft laydown).

Is it possible for the seeping to come from an over-filled shaft drive? I have seen on some other posts that this might cause leaking from the pumpkin (not seeping from the pumpkin area at all). If so, I will drain and measure what is in the shaft currently and add fresh fluid.

Any other posts with information on fluid leaking from this area? See images.

IMG_1186.JPEG

IMG_1187.JPEG
 

Bombadier36

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Florida Panhandle

I did find this post and information.
 

Boris

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midlands. UK
The place your pics show are dry spots in the driveline, all the fluid is held at the rear of the driveline in the pumpkin. I doubt very much that that has anything to do with a pumpkin leak. Have you checked the drain hole on the underside of the drive shaft just in front of the four bolts near the pumpkin?

it’s not easy to overfill the drive oil, you fill until it overflows, stop and install the filler plug.

personally, those sweat marks wouldn’t bother me.
 

Bombadier36

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Aug 8, 2019
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Florida Panhandle
Boris and Rob, thank you for the information. I have checked the drain hole and the underside of the pumpkin and there is no leaking there.

This is my first shaft drive motorcycle and knowing the drive tube is dry definitely puts my mind at ease.
 

Jlq1969

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Perhaps the 15th oil seal, which prevents the oil from going down from the gearbox. Maybe it's grease or lubricant from the drive crosshead
18F9FBFB-AA81-4054-B5ED-069FA6A01FCD.jpeg
 

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Also, If the male / female splines have been services with grease, it might eventually "weep" at the seal after it's gotten hot. Ive seen this many times and have never seen anything to worry about.
 

jeckyll

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May 11, 2016
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Lotusland
I've had the same thing, but it never got any worse.

Not done anything about it yet, still monitoring carefully to see if it ever gets any worse. Over the last year it has not.
 
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