Clutch cover oil leak - Any tips?

Hello again!

Been riding a lot after fixing the carburetors on my ‘81 XJ650 Maxim, and I’ve recently noticed a slight oil leak from a few of the clutch cover hex bolts. See below:



I have to imagine the gasket is just giving up the ghost after 40 years in service. Before I buy parts from chacal to replace this, is there anything else I should replace while doing the job? Further, are there any common pitfalls when taking this cover off?

 

Zoom out a little bit and see what is going on above it. That is not coming from the air box of leaking down from a breather tube area? You are correct that with the age of our bikes that this could happen for sure. You also DON"T want to over tighten them little 5mm screws either, they will break, and then you have another mess.

 

Are the bolts tight?

 

A trick for you.
Find a spot that you can put the side stand in, about 100mm lower than the wheels.
Not enough for the bike to fall over, obviously.
When you pull the cover all the oil will still be in the engine and won't leak out.

Tip2
Get the surfaces of both gasket faces to a mirror finish, or close, don't use any sealants and you should be able to pop that cover a few times at least without worrying about a new gasket.

As far as issues.
There is a little splash plate that basically wedges in. If you are observant, when pulling down, it will make sense.
Make sure it is in the right spot on assembly.

And... That's a damn small leak. Clean it up and work out where its coming from before doing anything.

 

I just bought a torque wrench that can measure below 10 ft-lbs, so I will check those soon. However, it seems like the clutch cover may not be the leak location after all…

Today I noticed a thin coat of oil on the front of the clutch cover. Looks like it may be coming from the oil fill plug! I tried to get pictures, but it was difficult to capture with my phone camera.



You can at least see the smudge from where I wiped my finger across the case. I’m guessing, even if the seal is bad, oil shouldn’t really be getting up that high, right?

 

As I mentioned in my previous reply, it seems like the oil might indeed be coming from higher up, but from the fill cap rather than the airbox. If the liquid was coming from the air box, wouldn’t it be gasoline rather than oil? Or am I wrong? The liquid leaking from the bike doesn’t smell at all like gas, much more like dirty oil.

Here’s a pic of the airbox tubes, if it helps.

 

When the engine is running oil is getting thrown off the clutch all the time by centrifugal force so it's possible it's the o ring on the filler plug. If Yamaha thought oil could not get past the filler plug they wouldn't need an o ring on it.

The hose attached to the airbox and gear shift cover is for gasses to get into the combustion chamber via the carbs for emissions l believe. When gas gets into the crankcase due to faulty carburettors oily gas can get into the air filter. Don't think that's your problem. Change the seal on the filler plug because it's cheap to do and should fix it. If oil and fuel mix was getting into the engine the oil would be burning off and fouling the spark plugs.