Author Topic: FT oil leak  (Read 8592 times)

murdo

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FT oil leak
« on: December 05, 2017, 03:17:19 am »
The FT had developed an oil leak on the left side of the cylinder head cover. I had cleaned and covered the joint with silicone, but it still dribbled a bit until a few months ago it really sprung a leak which covered my boot in oil after about 5 miles. I put the bike in the corner to work on more pressing matters and yesterday got back to getting this leak stopped. The main leak was from the rocker shafts, with a smaller dribble from the cover joint. Off with the tank and top engine mount, removed all the cover bolts and lifted the cover (after scraping the silicone off, it worked for a bit but was only ever a tempory fix). I found two bolts had stripped and somebody had hammered the rocker shaft locating pin in too deep to be able to grip to remove. I tack welded a piece of 1/4" rod to the pin and gripped in the vice. I was able then to gently tap the cover away from the vice with a plastic faced hammer. I cut the weld and sanded the pin back to original diameter.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2017, 03:28:15 am by murdo »

murdo

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Re: FT oil leak
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2017, 03:27:16 am »
I was surprised to find that both rocker shafts had a bit of "galling" on the thrust side, but not that the O rings were hard and square. A clean up with some well worn 400 grit emery paper smoothed them off and I ran some through the rockers themselves too. When cleaned I put a smear of camshaft paste (moly paste) on the pins to help with the lubing, new genuine Honda O rings with some rubber grease to help them slide into the cover. Before assembling the rockers I also put the cover on some 600 grit wet and dry paper taped to a sheet of thick glass and sanded until all edges were touching. Cleaned up and washed with hot soapy water to get any remaining grit out. 

murdo

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Re: FT oil leak
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2017, 03:34:40 am »
The two stripped threads I repaired with insert coils. Drilled, tapped and fitted into the head and after carefully cleaning and making sure there were no drilling chips still hiding I used a very thin smear of sealant on the cover and fitted. Torqued the bolts down, refitted the head stay, tank, etc and took for a run to check for leaks. 

murdo

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Re: FT oil leak
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2017, 03:36:33 am »
20 miles later and all is good.

J6G1Z

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Re: FT oil leak
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2017, 03:27:18 pm »
Good job!   8)

Thanks for the info.

J.