After my recent bit of green-laning I noticed my right boot had a bit of oil on it. Today I had a closer look at the bike to see where it had come from. I thought it was going to be the banjo coupling in the photo, but it turned out to be the allen screw below it.
It looks like the screw had been glued in place with an oil ring under the head. I tried to screw the longest screw I had into the hole and it caught a thread but wouldn't tighten. I'm guessing a previous owner stripped the thread and then glued in a short bolt to keep the oil it :(
So, how long should the screw be? I'm thinking of getting a longer screw and seeing if there is a couple of good threads at the bottom of the hole. Failing that I'll tap the hole in the cover an fit an oversize bolt to stop the oil leak.
It's not uncommon for the crankcase bolts to strip their thread and its an easy and permanent fix using a Helicoil or similar. Plus you can't then be accused of bodging by a future owner
I think the bolt is number 26 on the attached fiche diagram which is 56mm long.
I see there's another no.26 at the back of the casing. I'll spin that one out and use it to see if there is still a thread in there. If there isn't, I'll look into getting it heli-coiled when I get around to doing the valve stem seals.
I found a +56mm long casing bolt in my "spares pile" and it turns out there is still a thread in the casing. I'm amazed the previous owner made the effort to glue in a short bolt rather than just getting one the right length :)
Thanks to ebay and me thinking the worst I am now also the proud owner of an unused heli-coil kit :0
Unfortunately after a little test ride it turns out it was the banjo leaking after all as well :(
The banjo was in really tight so I'm guessing one of the copper washers needs replacing. I couldn't get the banjo fully out with the exhaust in place. The exhaust studs looked like they haven't been removed for a while so I've left them soaking in Plus-Gas and I'll pull the exhaust and banjo off next weekend. :/
-- Edited by Dan-in-a-Van on Sunday 22nd of April 2018 09:20:03 PM