Where does the oil go? Nobody knows!

Hey guys,

So the 85 XJ700 has been running fine except for one detail - it loses oil. At first I thought that maybe it was that my oil filter cover seal wasn't seated properly, so I wiped down the cover during an oil/filter change and have kept an eye on it - and it's remained clean. The collector box, on the other hand, stays greasy. And so does this little spot above the gearbox and below the stator.

Nothing sucks more than being 100+ miles from home in the middle of the night when the oil light pops on, and the only place you can buy oil is some crappy gas station that doesn't sell conventional oil.

Can anyone get me thinking in the right direction on this one? I figure I'm in it for the long haul with this bike.

 

How fast are you loosing the oil?
If you are riding hard you may be consuming it. I have an XS850 that uses no oil when I play nice but if I spend a day on the mountain twisties I will burn a half quart in 200 miles. I believe it is getting sucked around the valve guides when decelerating.

 

collector box as in exhaust?
you can look at the oil level sensor it has an o ring to be replaced.
oil pan ?
a little rtv in the oil filter cover will seal it.
have you removed the side cover and checked the shifter seal.
cam chain adjuster
it looks like you have a shawdow of oil from crank case /cylinder in photo
have you checked inside the airfilter box? breather tube

have you opened the stator cover?
how many miles between oil light coming on?

 

I'd pull the stator cover first. I strongly suspect that you will find oil inside, which indicates a leaky seal and/ or o-ring. It's a fairly common item to need to replace since it does get fairly warm inside there and the seals are likely the originals.

 

I never would have thought about the stator. I'll open that up as soon as I get a chance between gigs.

Also there does appear to be some grease on the breather tube. Why would that happen? I've heard of the valve seals being a potential place for oil leaks to occur. How hard are those to replace?

 

Valve seal replacement would mean removal of camshafts( split timing chain too). Remove the valve shims and buckets , then valve springs , and using compressed air through the spark plug hole to hold the valves closed.
Ussually when the valve seals are bad the engine ( exhaust) will smoke on initial start up , fairly intricate job.
Alan

 

the breather tube brings oil fumes from the crank case into the air box to be burnt off it will have some oil residue in it check inside of the air cleaner anf filter for excess oil
my money is on the stator seal, oil driping down under.
there is not a lot of oil in these bikes does not take to many drops per minuite to lose a about half qt of oil to set the light off .
if your valve seals are leaking you probaly be seeing blue smoke in the exhaust, or smelling it.
its typical to have the oil dripping when bike is sitting then starts with a puff of blue smoke.

how much oil are you loosing in a hunderd miles? or how many miles between oil light coming on?

 

head removal. if this is what you have to do you should have a valve job done while the head is off.
i would check every seal and gasket before removing head.

 

The chain doesn't have to be split. The cam sprockets are removable, and with those off the cams can be removed, leaving the chain in place (and hopefully tied off so it doesn't drop into the sump).

If anyone dose need to replace the valve guide seals (I doubt that the OP does given the evidence of the leak), and you don't have an air compressor, you an use a length of rope fed into the spark plug hole to fill the combustion chamber and hold that valve in place.

 

you really come up with some innovative things when the correct tools are not available.

 

Nah. Some old guy figured out the rope trick about 100 years ago (back when most engines had a single casting for the cylinder and no seperate head).

 

Nope, don't need to split the chain. Loosen everything up, slip the cams out but tie a line to the chain so you can keep track of it.

If you end up having to do that, come down and i'll help you.

In the meantime, just keep an eye on the sight glass, and keep a quart in your stuff bag.

You're probably burning some, and dripping some--- but the wind blows the drippy part of it away.


Dave

 

I have the same leak from the stator area but it's so little that it doesn't cause a problem. I check the oil and top off occasionally. I would replace the seal but apparently I need some type of puller and just haven't gotten around to getting one yet.

 

Ok so I just took the bolts out of the stator cover and the two top ones were grimey, but the bottom one was slathered in old oil. I peeked inside and there was a lot of oil.

 

I didn't take the cover off because there's a rubber thing attached to the stater cover down near the 5 o clock position headed in the direction of the starter motor. I've been having a technologically deficient day so far and have therefore had difficulty accessing my service manual to figure out what it is lol

Anyway I just wanted to take a looksie. I'd like to replace the stator o-ring and seal, and whatever else I should do while I've got it apart. Anyone know the procedure for this?

 

Stator and rotor wiring. The wiring is routed around and under the starter and ends up at one two pin (green and brown wires) and one three pin (three white wires) connections to the rear of the air box.

Gary H.