oil pressure gauge?

is It possible to put an oil pressure gauge on a 1982 650 seca?

I read about a guy (poor soul) blew his engine now I want to set up some kind of "early warning system", how about one of those oil temp gauges?
Some how I cant be comfortable with the dummy light

 

DO NOT buy one of those "oil temp gauges" off eBay, the ones with a little miniature dipstick thermal probe on them.

Think about how the XJ is designed. Those things measure the AIR temp in the clutch housing; the oil is WAAYYY below where they can reach and good thing--- there's a rapidly-rotating clutch in the way.

The guy who blew the bottom out of his XJ experienced an UNUSUAL failure. Worry about your "primary" chain guide beginning to lose hunks that lodge in the trans and keep the bike from shifting gears. That's my personal "bugaboo" with the 650 since it's a case-splitter and I can't trust the bike to be trans-Continental until it's been replaced.

 

Thanks Fitz. so if this happens Im in the gear im in and thats that till I do a major surgery? Is that anything next door to "common"?

you knew which poor soul I meant huh?

 

I have considered it on my X but just didn't want the gauge cluttering up the bike.
There are two spots you could tap into to install a gauge. Or at least there are on the X
Just below the cranshaft, there is an oil galley with plugs on each end. They are somewhat big allen head caps and would be a dangerous spot to try and put an adapter to run a small line up to a standard gauge.

Or on the back side of the engine, there is an oil line that goes up to the head to lubricate the cam shafts. The X has banjo fittings and a "double" bolt would give you a tap for a gauge.

If you have an oil cooler there should be a spot to tie into there.

BUT any of these options would mean you would need the gauge mounted to the stationary part of the bike OR you would need a pressure line going up to the instrument cluster (flexing with your steering maneuvers). OR you would have to go electric with a sender and a electric gauge.
None of these are particularly appealing options I'm afraid.

The electric option is probably the only "safe" option since if it fails you don't USUALLY have oil spraying all over.

 

so is there any other way to tell if say.. your oil pump fails or .. well I guess that would be just about all an oil pressure gauge would tell me huh, well out side of being low on oil but I got the window and the light for that.

 

Yeah, pretty much. Sometimes it's possible to fish the busted hunks out of the shift forks thru the aperture in the inner case behind the shift mechanism and get shifting again, but that lasts only until another hunk breaks loose. It's relatively common; unfortunately common enough that I won't be riding my 650 out of "borrowed pickup truck rescue range" until I've proactively replaced it.

If you're LUCKY, you discover hunks of plastic during an oil change and your shifter doesn't jam.

 

Just a thought but unless you are staring right at the gauge at the time of failure how is it going to help save your engine? Maybe a small leak but a catastrophic failure.....probly not.

I installed an o/p gauge on my v max and I'm always staring at it worrying...... 'was that pressure this low at 4k rpm yesterday?.....pressure seems low at idle?.....'

Wish I'd never put the damn thing on!

 

There's a low oil pressure switch on big commercial lawn mowers that closes below a set pressure, sounding a hi-pitch alarm. You would need to rig this into the ignition power feed using a relay, and a bypass switch so you can start the bike.

If the bike lost oil pressure, the ignition would cut off.

 

Hmmm, don't think I like the idea of an ignition cut-off on a bike, an alarm and/or warning light sounds good tho.

 

The XJs already have a "low oil level" warning light.

A "low oil pressure" light might be a good idea though; my Norton is so equipped (it came that way.)

 

thats why I come to you guys with these things. so thr REALISTIC bottom line is stay on top of things-dont neglect.
Now that I have a legite something to worry about, how bad/how long of a job is this? the guide replace?
Rick had told me Id need to replace this at around 60k??
Ill be doing a valve job and rings in around another 20k or so..... IF it allows me to that is (best laid plans....)
So If I got the head off and the jugs, how bad is it from there?

(any body near the florida panhandle got a bike for sell cheap? I soooo need a spare!! Im serious)

 

Low Oil Level Warnings seem to be something that got designed-in across the Yamaha Line.

The Light coming-on has scared many a Yammie Owner.
The Sensors turn the light ON ahead of Oil Levels getting too low.

In cooler weather, ... when the Engine sheds it heat so fast that 20/50 Oil scavenges slower, ... the Low Oil Light will come-on even though you haven't lost a drop!

 

The "wear out window" is around 60K; some bikes get there, some start losing chunks at 20K. Why some chain guides break up and some don't is another mystery revolving around the conditions under which the bike sat and for how long. Probably equally affected by what kind of "life" it had previous. People have also gotten past 100K without ever touching it, so like I said-- it's a mystery.

Replacing the bloody thing requires splitting the cases. Not a long process but one requiring utmost care and attention to every detail. It can be done without disassembling the top end if you simply turn the motor upside down.

Having the head and cylinders off doesn't hurt or ease the process (other than making the unit considerably lighter.) You go into the bottom end for the chain guide, so top end disassembly isn't required.

The best practice, as you said, is to stay ON TOP of things. By that I mean regularly scheduled maintenance, per the book. Valve adjustments and carb services on schedule; regular oil changes, the proper kind of oil, and not allowing things like oil leaks to go unchecked. Catastrophic failures are rare (like a blown up bottom end) as long as you don't neglect things. The chain guide wouldn't really be considered "catastrophic" more of an age-related pain in the butt.

 

That 60,000 mile interval is for replacing the Timing Chain.

From perusing the Archive Posts; I think there is a direct correlation between Bikes that have sat outdoors or in an unheated garage for a great number of years and the Primary Chain Guide deterioration.

If you are going to run the Bike until you replace that deteriorating Guide, ... (and some people have gone great distances without replacing it) ... look-up the Roadside Emergency Procedure and Print yourself off a copy.

 

yeah I have the bike insured with progressive for $2000.00 and I have road side assistance with trip interruption. withhin 100 miles of my house me and the bike can get picked up and carried home.That extra is worth the 3 dollars a month.
The more I got into the bike and the deeper I went it started to become clear that some previous owner before the previous owner I got it from actually took care of it. lots of things had been replaced, even got progessive suspension front and rear.
several things were not factory as far as I could tell, but why the bike was put away for so long Ill never know.
The guy I got it from only had it a short time, he dumped it on a dirt road and that was that.
I have a weeks vacation coming in spring I may do the chain, the chain guide and lap the valves then.
Outside of that I have no intentions of raw hiding the bike like Im a 17 year old speed freak or trying to race it. there was no plastic hunks in the pan as yet either so at least for now Im good.
Thanks guys and Ill have more questions soon enough I promise