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2-3 drops, drives me nuts!

3K views 34 replies 8 participants last post by  Buddy 
I knew I probably shouldn't have read this thread. I go back and forth between acceptance and frustration when it comes to my oil leaks which sound basically identical to yours mmart.

I park my bike right next to my MG so between the two of them, I've got oil-dri mats pretty much covering my entire garage floor!

I've at least made a valiant attempt to chase down the VN's leaks (the MG would be futile). I've replaced the spark plug sleeve o-ring, replaced the oil filter and drain plug o-rings and pressure washed that whole part of the engine to see where the newest drips are coming from. It seems they're generally coming coming through the RTV sealant around the stator case (applied by PO). And like mmart's, mine only drips after it's been ridden.

I like your idea, Dirtrack, about the AT-205. Do you know if it'll help re-seal red RTV?

Oh yeah, and about dropping the bike when deploying the center stand: I experienced my first drop a couple of weeks ago while changing my oil. (Hey, better than at a stop light right?) In my case, it was the reverse procedure. With nice oily hands, I grabbed the bars to lower it from the center stand to the side stand to drain that last bit of oil. Wobble, wobble, oh %$#! And down it went. Thankfully it landed away from the MG. Also thankfully, all that got damaged was the rear turn signal. And it screwed the right-hand mirror in really tight.

Speaking of which, is there any adjustment in that lower part of the mirror mount? At the mirror end, there's a stop nut which allows some adjusting of the mirror. At the perch end, there's a similar spot to slide a wrench onto but there doesn't seem to be any equivalent nut to make adjustment for the position of the arm relative to the perch. How would I go about adjusting that position?
 
Ok, makes sense. That's how it's been with the mirrors on other bikes I've owned too. I just wanted to make sure before I put these in a vise and try to free that nut up. Both are so stuck that it's going to take some significant force to free them up. I didn't want to break them in the course of trying to budge something that wasn't meant to budge.
 
Try some lube or cleaner down beside the stem, road dust and grit can collect in there. Even soapy water can help.
That did the trick, thanks! I put some B'laster on there and was able to free it up enough to make the desired adjustments.
 
Thanks for the update mmart. I too have messed with my leak a few times since my last post. Apparently I had two. One of them is now fixed but the other one is a lot like yours.

The one I fixed turned out to be at the oil filter. Interestingly, it was not the filter gasket itself but the gasket underneath the filter mounting plate. I didn't even know there was a plate there, but there is and it has a gasket and an o-ring, which was crushed flat. I replaced both and now there is no longer oil dripping all down my starter like before.

I still have that damn leak at the bottom of the case though. I figured the one last thing I could feasibly try is checking the gasket on the bottom drain plug. (Incidentally does anyone know why that's there? IIRC, the manual says to drain the oil from the side bolt, the one with the screen behind it. So why the redundant drain on the bottom?)

Anyway, that bolt has an aluminum washer which seemed fine so I cleaned it all up and put it back together, added oil, and still have that little drippity-drip after the bike's been run. It drips from that same lowest spot but in my case at least, I'm pretty sure it's coming from the stator cover gasket.

And I'm not going to futz with that; not for a while anyway.
 
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