Gas getting into the clutch wreaking havoc!

P

passivepsycho

New Member
Hi, I figured out the problem with my little clutch problem, somehow gas is getting into the clutch and leaving oil, when I pulled off the clutch cover a small flood of gassy oil came pouring out. I'm going to go get some brake cleaner to at least get it running but that doesn't take care of the bigger problem, namely how the heck is gas getting in there? Anybody have any ideas on how I can fix that?


:-||
 
So, as suspected I cleaned out the clutch and it started right up, then I zipped around the neighborhood a little bit to see if I could tell where the gas was coming from but it didn't appear to leak anywhere. I'm totally stumped I guess I'll just keep running with it and checking the clutch every so often to see if it's filling up again.

.shft.
 
Sounds like the float stuck and gas leaked out of the carb and dripped down the case to find it's way inside the clutch. Then, after the next ride, the float was not longer sticking and- problem gone.
 
That's what I thought as well, but I don't think you realize the amount of oily gas that came pouring out, the clutch was marinating in it. Thinking my problem had all gone away I decided to take it for a little spin up and down the block a few times just to make sure. After about twenty minutes the clutch started slipping again, I pulled off the clutch cover and was blasted by gasoline vapor. So I left the cover off for a few hours so it could just dry out and rode it about 5 blocks down the road and back with the cover off. By the time I was putzing back into my driveway I had almost no power at all the thing would die every time I pulled the clutch and I had to pedal the last thirty feet or so. I'm not sure where to go from here.
 
here is a couple of things that could be causing the problem. It could be the crankcase is leaking into the main shaft(the shaft from the clutch to the rear sprocket) area the gasket for the engine's crankcase is very thin in that area between the crankcase and the main shaft the gasket is only about 1/8" wide.
You will be able to see just how thin the gasket area is on my post on total tear down. But if it is leaking you should also be seeing fuel leaking out the front sprocket area at least I think it should or there is just enough grease in the main shaft area to keep it from leaking out to the front sprocket.
My main guess is your main seal on the crank is shot or blown out it is located under the front small gear on the clutch side. Must be about gone to fill up the clutch area.
If you have the kit supplied puller you can take off the small gear and get a good look at the seal its probably shot One of the vendors sells the seals and 2door is the guy to ask which one as I've forgotten but the good news is they are cheap.
The seal in the gear side is easy to replace and find the seal on the mag side is the one hard to find that vendor does sell both though.
I'll go ahead and put the link here
http://motorbicycling.com/f39/bicycle-engine-total-tear-down-391.html
see if this will help I'm banking on it being the seal leaking.
 
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my daily rider has this problem...it is definately that seal like norm said...ive been too busy to fix it so i removed the clutch cover gasket for now to just leak out the fuel...
 
yep... those oil seals has a tendency to keep popping out. I've already replaced mine twice already. Good thing I had some spares from my old burned motor.
 
Thanks for the info, now that you mention it when I checked the small sprocket for wear the little piston in there and the ball bearing came out all by themselves like they were under small pressure and the grease around them seemed especially soupy. I didn't give it much thought thinking that wear and temperature caused the grease to break down a little. I still have the puller and we're expecting a week of great weather here in blustery south dakota, so hopefully I'll be able to tackle it sometime this week. I'll have to wait a bit before I can buy anything else for it as I'm a poor college student but as soon as I can I'll get some replacements. I'm also considering just starting from scratch with a new bike (the one it's on right now is a real piece of poo) and a new motor, now that I know how to install it, it shouldn't be a problem. The last time I rode it without the clutch cover it worked well for a while and then got really hot and decided not to cooperate anymore so I ended up pedaling the last few feet to my driveway. Would this problem be caused by the same issue? Thanks again for the great info!
 
Is it a rubber gasket I'm looking for, or is it something I need gasket paper for? I can't see very much from the tear down pictures and I can't seem to figure out how to get the little gear out but I'll figure that out, I just need to know what to buy.
 
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