Greetings Beta Alp lovers everywhere,
Yesterday, whilst out my bike suddenly decided to waterproof itself and my left leg with engine oil, as you know a small amount covers a great expanse and so it looked quite serious at first. The oil is contained (under normal circumstances
) in the frame and the level was still within limits, no actual leak could be seen even after throwing a load of sandy dust over the engine and various under tank locations.
As I rode on I suddenly noted what looked like a spark from the breather pipe to frame, it was of course engine oil
. The pipe was taut so thinking that there might be a small hole or crack in it I could do nothing about it but ride home, en route stopping off to power wash the bike, my boots and over trousers
.
Attachment:
breather.jpg [ 1.4 MiB | Viewed 10071 times ]
Today, I took the petrol tank off to gain access to the breather pipe, which simply is a 7mm 'rubber' pipe, which locates between the frame fitting banjo and the breather outlet stub from behind the exhaust valve rocker cover. A slightly longer pipe, about 34cm long, has now been fitted so that if in time something similar happens again then there will be enough length to cut 10mm off and still reconnect
Attachment:
pipe.jpg [ 180.53 KiB | Viewed 10071 times ]
Apologies to you photographers out there but with a Joel the best that I could do
Whilst cleaning up the oil residue I noted that three of the four wires in the connector block, previously hidden from view, had started to show bare core strands, so a potential future problem waiting to happen. I have fitted new waterproof connectors so all should be well now.
The point of this post is simply to warn others of two potential weak points in what is normally a reliable machine.
TTFN
Hugh.