[tonygret]

I was checking the bike over yesterday trying to see if I could locate the source of a fuel smell. It's not overpowering and I know from searching previous threads I am going to be told to check the QDs. I'll be doing that soon. I get this smell almost every time after I ride it and park it in my garage. I have never seen a drop of gas. Its a 2005 with the canister still on it.

As for the leak, while doing my inspection I found exactly two droplets of what appears to be some heavy fluid or light grease dripping at the point where the drive shaft meets the trans. Nothing below that is wet at all.

Pictures are attached. As you can see by the picture of the skid plate and oil pan, this bike is bone dry other than the two drips in the first pictures. Any thoughts on either issue would be appreciated!

 

[sheldan2]

Time to change the seal then, might as well change the slave cylinder while you are there if it has not been done

 

[tonygret]

Time to change the seal then, might as well change the slave cylinder while you are there if it has not been done

Sorry to be so ignorant, but which seal would that be? Would 1 drop now indicate an upcoming catastrophic failure of some kind?

 

[shoswell]

I may be wrong. But the pics are of the A - Arm correct? Where the rubber seal meets the tranny? (Drive shaft from the Trany to the FD).

If so, OEM used a heavy grease to seal the rubber to the tranny. Nothing to concern yourself with. Again, I assume the grease gets hot, liquify s a bit and you get what you see..

Alternatively you may have an output seal leak. However, I would not suspect it would leak at that point. On the other end of the A-arm, loosen the boot above the FD and inspect for fluid. Dont shit yourself if there is a "little" fluid. i.e. a few drops or residue. However, if it leaks pretty good when you inspect... Lucy... You've got some splain'in to do!..

 

[deanwoolsey]

If you are looking for a fuel odor check the flex hoses that connect the quick connects to the hard plastic lines. My Rt had a big leak which only occurred for a couple of seconds as the fuel rail pressurized. I found that the flex line was a little loose on the hard plastic line. The connection would leak until the lines fully pressurized. It looked to me like the hard line would start to pull out of the flex line and then stop leaking when the barb was pressed closer to the clamp by the pressure. I could see the lines sliding on each other as it leaked. On mine I could see staining on the case by the quick connects where it leaked regularly but not continuously. Put a new clamp on it and all is well.

 

[clayton]

The seal that is leaking would be a transmission output shaft seal. I am very sure of it from your pictures. I recently had the leak on my 03 LT.

 

[Ric]

Hard to tell from your pics, but if it were my bike I would have to figure on seal replacement. Leaky seals as a rule never get better, only worse. You could clean the area off as good as you can and go for a nice ride and look at it when you get back home. If it's showing fluid well you know the rest. Good time for a slave cylinder job too.

Rick H.

 

[tonygret]

Sorry I should have been more discriptive of the location.

"shoswell" has the location correct. This is where the driveshaft (swingarm) meets the trans. The drips have a dark grayish color and thick consistency. There are two droplets and nothing below that point has any sign of being wet.

So after some conflicting opinions here, seal or no seal?

 

[clayton]

Also depending on how large the leak is from the trans output seal, oil will puddle up inside the swing arm. Loosen the clamp on the rubber boot at the rear drive, pull back the rubber boot and feel inside the wing arm for oil.

 

[jzeiler]

I am with Hoss on this one as you usually don't get oil here form a seal leak. It will show up at the boot on the rear drive. Looks like the grease they use to seat the boot up front.

 

[tonygret]

So I pulled the boot back near the FD and it is bone dry inside there. I used a scope to get as far in there as I could and found some dust. I am feeling much better about this. I cleaned off any trace of oil/grease at the other end and will do a test drive this weekend.

As usual, thanks guys!! If it wasn't for the members here I would have already moved on to something else.

 

[tonygret]

A follow-up on this post. After a 732 mile ride this weekend I found another single drip of fluid in the same spot pictured above. I captured this drop on the end of a screw driver and it definitely smelled like trans oil. There is no oil residue anywhere else below that point so it's a very slighty leak.

So do these seals fail catastrophically or can I just let it seep like it is until there is a need to replace something else around there?

 

[jzeiler]

I would not worry about until you need to get into that area. Just keep an eye on it and if it gets worse go in.

 

[blueknightga6]

One drip after over a 700 ride? I agree with John. For the time being just monitor closely.