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Creamy slime leaving gearbox - doesn't look good

My 961 sport was serviced immediately before I picked it up from Bradford. After 15 miles running I noticed creamy slime coming out of the top of the gearbox. Any ideas about the cause please?

 

Escape of creamy slime.

It looks at first glance like the slime is coming from the primary chaincase where the wires come through the grommet, and it does seem to be emulsified oil , that is oil mixed with water.

What on earth is that black gizmo on top of the gearbox filler plug?,it looks like some home made attempt at a breather of some kind. Originally they had just a normal solid plug, but later on  a modification was made to reduce pressure in the box with a breather pipe being fitted through the centre of the plug.

Wherever you got it from take it straight back and show them the problem before it's too late or they say    "It was alright when it left here"   Was it a private sale or a dealer, if it's a dealer and he has just serviced it stay well clear of them from now or if they are Norton recommend dealers report them to Norton for incompetence.

 

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Hi Peter,

I shall be organising the bike's return today. I have only had it 2 days and only done a few miles on it. 

I live in Basingstoke and the bike came from a main Honda dealer in Bradford so it will be another huge trek with my trailer unless the dealer will collect. Lets see.

The bike has a number of other issues as well: The tacho started reading at 2000 RPM last night (even when the engine is off)? The speedo meter case fixings have been broken and the case stuck back together with sealant, a rear indicator stalk has broken and the other was loose (no fixing nut), plus there is the excessive engine noise. All in all I have lost all trust. She is going back.

Thanks for the help. 

Terry

It's a shame you have had a shitty experience with the Norton, I can well understand your stance on this. If you have a bike that gives you problems from day one, all you want is to see the back of it before it gets worse and starts bleeding your wallet dry, a bit like a bad wife really.

It sounds like some one has given this bike a right good mauling before you came along and just wanted to get rid ,so fobbed it off to a dealer for a quick exchange.  Tell the dealer to stick to Hondas in future, if they send a bike out in that condition I wouldn't take my pushbike there.

Good luck with it and I hope everything goes smoothly and you get all your money back, just think some other poor bugger will get lumbered with it because the dealer obviously won't spend any money on it and obviously knows f**k all about the correct servicing of a 961. Next time may I respectfully suggest you get one a little nearer home and take it for a test ride and don't believe anything the dealer say.

Best regards   Pete

It could well be that John, there is a drain hose that comes out of the bottom of the airbox and drops down near the swingarm. On my early 961 the engine did push oil from the engine into the airbox and from there the oil drained down the rubber tube and out to atmosphere, unfortunately that meant all over the arse of the bike!.A breather modification was brought out which slowed this down to bugger all but not all 961's have had this.

I have mounted a small catch bottle ..about the size of my thumb at the end of my tube and after a 150 mile ride there is usually about 5ml in there, I think that's about as good as it is going to get and I can live with that. One thing some people tend to do is check the oil level incorrectly and over fill the oil tank, this just adds to the problem.

Pete

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The Honda dealer is playing fair. He is short staffed this week but will recover the bike as soon as he has the staff to do so. He will attend to all the faults and return the bike to me. I'll get them to do 50 miles on it by way of shake down before it is returned. If there is any further trouble, undue delay or a refusal to return the bike I'll take the 'refund or else' route. Plus, I have asked for detailed explanation of what is going wrong so that I can determine if they know their stuff e.g. how emulsified oil magically appeared in such quantity and was there any in the gearbox.

The bike was serviced by the Honda dealer so they have been all over the bike. It wouldn't surprise me if they did something very wrong not being a Norton Garage. Engine oil is good and it only ran for a few miles in that condition so it doesn't concern me too much. The Honda dealer will have to consult Norton over the tacho staying at 2000 RPM. 

The emulsified oil seems to ooze from a hole in the top of the gearbox? I have the service manual but I still can't work out the topology of that area of the engine. It is more or less inline with the centre of the clutch so it would normally be where the gear cluster lives.  You can see the oozing hole in the picture. There is nothing dripping from above the ooze. It is all pristinely clean as one might expect from a bike never really used.

Thanks for all the comments people. They were most enlightening.

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Norton modification to gearbox filler plug to reduce pressure, goodness knows what that is in your picture?.

Norton mod to reduce oil being blown into airbox , comes straight off the crankcase and through a filter before going into the airbox.

Hope this helps the Honda dealer.

 


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