Midnight, pouring with rain, ominous rumble slow down, loud clank from below, find rear of bike covered in oil, end of journey. Have now stripped motor to find LH conrod bent and big end shot, and no oil in tank! no further damage apparent. Pump alright and other bearing's fine. I could only find that the chain oiler pipe had pulled off of it's spigot, would this have caused the tank to empty? Any thoughts many thanks John.
John Sorry to read of mech…
John
Sorry to read of mechanical woes. By 'pulled off its spigot' does this refer to the chain oiler pipe junction just below the return pipe inlet to the oil tank?
If so I can see that this would cause oil loss over time as oil pumped up the return pipe would flow readily out of the oiler pipe junction which would have an unregulated flow and is set below the level of the oil tank return inlet.
I know there are varying views, but an oil pressure gauge or low oil pressure switch and warning light (all very non-standard) would help provide an indication of a problem like this before the damage is done. Please message me if you would like any details of these.
Andy
Andrew I have blocked off…
Andrew
I have blocked off the chain oiler at it's end, but the plastic tube had detached itself from the tank outlet. The journey I was on was about 2 hours and I now seem to remember that I had the battery out to recharge thus I must have knocked the tube off when refitting same. Your idea of a warning light is a good I idea, will contact you, many thanks John.
Many years ago I had a very similar experience with my 850. One of the pipes had come adrift from the oil filter and the entire contents of the tank were all over the back end. Fortunately I hadn't been engaging in exuberant cornering at the time.
My conrod actually snapped and took a chunk of the barrel with it. Fortunately the crankcases were OK.
I wouldn't have thought there was enough flow to the chain oiler although I always had mine blocked off.