Camshaft oil leak

Hi John, you may have dislodged the spring ring inside the lip of the seal when you fitted it.. provided you haven't used a sealant on the timing cover it should be a quick job to have a look but of course the ignition timing will have to be upset and re-timed

Previously john_cowie1 wrote:

Hi - last time I had the timing cover off my Mk2 commando I put a new cam shaft oil seal in just because it seemed a good thing to do. I wish I hadn't, because now I have an appreciable leak into the points cover. I've got the proper tool for fitting the seal over the end of the shaft so I'm not sure what's gone wrong.

Has anyone had similar experience? Are there good seals and bad seals? If it turns out the cam shaft is a bit worn, is there a slightly undersize seal I can get?

Thanks - John

Done it myself and the machined register is not always concentric with the cam so the seal gets worn on one side. Take a 010" feeler guage and gentle push between seal and cam all the way round. That should reseat the lip unless and solve the problem unless the spring has been displaced. Yes you have to remove the stator and rotor to do this but as long as you accurately mark both to the inside of the timing cover and dont turn the crank you can replace as removed and be within a degree or so on timing.

Some of the cheaper seals do not have a spring ring and consequently distort very easily. In fact they are so poor that anyone fitting such an item to the timing cover will find that you need to change the seal each time the cover is removed. Which on Magneto Dommies is very irritating if the timing slips just a few degrees.