Well, this whole project with the mystery bike has turned a rather embarrassing and frustrating direction...
1. To remedy the incredible strong gas smell in my garage and to stop gas from ending up all over the bike. I had pulled the fuel tank, completely drained it, and left it to sit until it was warmer to work in the garage.
2. I decided this weekend to get to work on pinpointing the leak location. I cleaned off the bottom of the tank and removed large patches of semi-soft paint, and exposed some rusty looking areas beneath. I examined it closely under a very strong light, and couldn't see any holes or pin-prick openings.
3. I decided to fill the tank up to the neck with water and let it sit overnight, figuring that the water would find whatever way the gasoline had used to escape the tank. I examined the tank carefully again today with bright lights and camera. The bottom is perfectly DRY! It isn't leaking anywhere! Hmmm.
The red liner inside look very good - better in fact than my R65LS liner. This is very weird.
4. To add insult to injury, I discovered that the (undertank) master cylinder seal had apparently failed during the winter and drained all the brake fluid out. Now, I had changed the brake fluid this fall just before I put the bike up as the fluid looked old, and I couldn't tell when the PO had last changed it. I wanted to avoid having to rebuild those dastardly undertank gizmos, so I drained the fluid. The cap said DOT3 fluid, and the bike had a sticker on the frame that said DOT4 fluid. Trying to avoid any reaction, I bought a new bottle of synthetic DOT3&4 compatible fluid, drained the system, filled it and bled the air out (which was tedious) and it was working nicely before thanksgiving. Grrrr.
5. On top of it all, just before I put the bike up for the winter, it has begun to weep or leak oil from what appears to be about every seal on the engine. Originally, it seemed to just be the oil pan gasket, which I replaced - had to soak the sump in acetone for a week to get the old hardened gasket off, too. Oil still kept appearing down there, so I thought - well, it is probably the rear main seal or the oil pump cover, I'll get to it when it gets worse. Then the bike started to weep/mist slightly from the cylinder bases, and leak from the pushrod seals (3 of the 4), oil filter cover, as well as the other places. I know the PO had screwed up installing the oil filter (didn't use metal shim, and he had cut the o-ring and caused a leak at the oil filter cover, but thankfully the oil pressure light didn't seem to come on -- who knows, perhaps that wasn't working either until I replaced the guts of the instrument panel.. I only run dino-oil in my airheads, so it shouldn't be from switching to synthetic oil. The engine seems to run quite strong, so I am thinking (and hoping) that the cause of the oil leak isn't excessive crankcase pressurization from blowby past the rings - I guess I'll have to check the compression next. I was thinking if the crankcase breather valve wasn't working or was stuck closed that perhaps it could cause these leaks all over. I took the top cover off tonight and it looks like maybe someone had switched the valve from the spring-type one to the reed type one, but I've gotta re-check.. Maybe the PO installed it upside down? Is that even possible?
I think it is going to be a while yet before I have the thing solid enough to then get around to attaching the sidecar. At least my Kawasaki and the R65LS woke up from their winter's nap without any issues!
