I've never seen this before until today and I've worked on many motorcycles before. For the life of me, I'm not sure how it got in there.
I just acquired my second Centauro, a 1997 with 17.9k miles, about a month ago. My first one I bought brand new in 1998, so this is a bit of a learning experience for me on the used one.
3 days ago, I washed my 1997 Centauro to remove several years of road grime and grease from the the engine and I washed it in exactly the same fashion as I had my first Centauro many years ago, i.e. Simple Green and garden hose with normal flow (not high pressure spray).
After the wash, I put her in the garage to sit for a couple of days waiting for parts to arrive.
Today, upon starting the bike, water SHOT out the seam of the starter/motor housing, and blew out a steady spray past the rubber plug covering the timing inspection hole. In all, I removed about 1.5 - 2.5 cups of water. I was blown away.
My question is, where in the hell could this have infiltrated into this area from. I pulled the tank to see if there was a vent or something on the top of the engine/gearbox seam, but there was nothing that I could see. I used my lighted bore scope and looked inside of the housing from the inspection hole side and other than a few residual drops of water, there was nothing which appeared out of the ordinary.
My plan is to put a bright light over the bike in my dark garage, and re-use my scope to see where light is entering from.
I think it entered from the starter side of the bike but I've never had to replace the starter motor in my previous Centauro, so I don't know if there is supposed to be a gasket there, or some type of seal. Also, I don't know the total history of this bike as I am the 4th owner, and I don't know if the cases have been split from each other and there is some tyoe of seal or sealant that should have been used to waterproof that seam between them. Does anybody know about either of these?
This is very strange indeed.
The engine oil is clear and fine, and so is the gearbox oil and there is no oil in the housing that I could see with my scope or in the oil water that shot out.
I'm puzzled but want to fix this so that the next time I wash the bike or encounter rain, that it doesn't flood my clutch area.
I appreciate your input! Thanks.
I just acquired my second Centauro, a 1997 with 17.9k miles, about a month ago. My first one I bought brand new in 1998, so this is a bit of a learning experience for me on the used one.
3 days ago, I washed my 1997 Centauro to remove several years of road grime and grease from the the engine and I washed it in exactly the same fashion as I had my first Centauro many years ago, i.e. Simple Green and garden hose with normal flow (not high pressure spray).
After the wash, I put her in the garage to sit for a couple of days waiting for parts to arrive.
Today, upon starting the bike, water SHOT out the seam of the starter/motor housing, and blew out a steady spray past the rubber plug covering the timing inspection hole. In all, I removed about 1.5 - 2.5 cups of water. I was blown away.
My question is, where in the hell could this have infiltrated into this area from. I pulled the tank to see if there was a vent or something on the top of the engine/gearbox seam, but there was nothing that I could see. I used my lighted bore scope and looked inside of the housing from the inspection hole side and other than a few residual drops of water, there was nothing which appeared out of the ordinary.
My plan is to put a bright light over the bike in my dark garage, and re-use my scope to see where light is entering from.
I think it entered from the starter side of the bike but I've never had to replace the starter motor in my previous Centauro, so I don't know if there is supposed to be a gasket there, or some type of seal. Also, I don't know the total history of this bike as I am the 4th owner, and I don't know if the cases have been split from each other and there is some tyoe of seal or sealant that should have been used to waterproof that seam between them. Does anybody know about either of these?
This is very strange indeed.
The engine oil is clear and fine, and so is the gearbox oil and there is no oil in the housing that I could see with my scope or in the oil water that shot out.
I'm puzzled but want to fix this so that the next time I wash the bike or encounter rain, that it doesn't flood my clutch area.
I appreciate your input! Thanks.
