Oil leak question

My 1979 KZ 650 is leaking oil at the output shaft. Is it a big ordeal to correct this, or would I be better off just dealing with a couple of drops per day?

Cycle Recycle has the seals If your interested in fixing them.

Hmmm... it seems to be more than just an oil leak at this point. On the way home from work this morning, the bike (which I will call "Christine" from now on), broke down.

The engine would rev up, and it would shift gears, but wouldn't move. It was like the clutch was pulled in... except that it wasn't pulled in.

Fortunately I have a Ford diesel truck that is more reliable than the bike is turning out to be, so I hitched a ride home and picked up the bike.

I noticed as I was pushing the bike into the garage that there was a clanking noise coming from the front sprocket area - it was still in gear, BTW.

The clutch lever feels perfectly normal, and I'm pretty certain that it's working properly.

The output shaft *was* weeping oil. Now the bike won't move. I'm hopeful that it's something simple like the front sprocket came loose, but I'm concerned that it could be much worse.

I bought this bike to save a few bucks on fuel, but I'll probably end up spending that and more just keeping it running. Right now I'm feeling a little dejected. I'll know more when I get off graveyard shift and am able to get the sprocket cover off.

Post edited by: Idaho_Spud, at: 2005/10/16 21:02

Idaho_Spud wrote:

My 1979 KZ 650...

A little off-topic, but you have "KZ560" in your sig...

got me kind of asking a few questions here, if the bike was in gear, then it shouldnt move without trying to spin the engine, if the clutch is working then you should be able to roll the bike in gear, kind of wondering if you have had a sprocket / chain failure, I would pull the cover and take a look, cant hurt

Sig Fixed thanks!

Post edited by: Idaho_Spud, at: 2005/10/16 22:16

Got the sprocket cover off this morning after getting off shift. The nut and washer that hold the front sprocket in place are MIA. Whew! Man I'm glad that's all it was!

Now I just have to see about how long it will take to get replacement parts...

Same thing happened to me last night. It seems like it was associated with gas leaking from the carbs and onto the sprocket at which time the nut loosened off of the shaft (so probably your oil leak loosened it up). The nut fell off about a half mile down the road, which I was fortunate enough to find, and the sprocket slipped off just as i pulled into my drive way. The washer was stuck in the cover. The shaft threads were a little flattened from it rubbing against the sprocket, so it was kind of hard to put the nut back on. I haven't put any mileage on it yet, and I'm not sure what's going to prevent it from slipping off again. Maybe take a walk down the road and look for the pieces. Good luck

When you put it back together use red loctite on the threads and hit it with an impact wrench to tighten. This should keep this from happening again.

It's also helpful to take a black permanant marker and make a line across the shaft and nut. That way you can make a quick visual check and see if the nut has been backing off.

Make sure the tranny is NOT in gear if you put an impact wrench on it! That's a good way to bang up the dogs on your gears, and screw with a lot of the finer parts in a tranny. If you have the rear tire on the ground, just step on the rear brake when you tighten it. That should give you enough leverage to tighten it quite sufficiently by hand.

Glad it worked out ok for you!!!