The Case of the Mysterious Oil Leak

[SheRidesABeemer]

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a small puddle under my K75.
The puddle was about the size of my fist.
It looked like oil.
It felt like oil.
The mysterious part was the location of this puddle.
It was under my left hard case. :scratch
I wiped it up with a shop towel. I looked directly above the puddle and wondered why my hard case was leaking oil. Sure enough the underside of the bag was coated in oil.
I wiped the the oil off the bag.
I looked forward of the bag, thinking maybe it was being sprayed from the front. All was clean.
I opened the bag. All was dry.
I threw the oily rag away, and not feeling like dealing with a problem, I decided to forgot about the whole thing. :doh
I subsequently saw the puddle a few days later. I continued watchful waiting and ignored it some more.
More ignoring this weekend as I took the GT for a ride.
Yesterday, I decide to pull the bikes out of the garage to wash them. By now I've completely forgotten about the oil leak.
As I pull the left bag off the K75, I put my hand underneath to pull it off.
It is coated in oil.
Hmmm, seems it's time to trouble shoot the case of the mysterious oil leak. :help
The back of the bag is coated with oil.
The rail that holds the bag is coated with oil.
Did I mention that this is clean oil?
Hmmmm, the oil is coming from above.
Like maybe....the tail fin :idea
Where a spare quart of oil has been tossing around for the last year?
I open the tail fin...things are very...moist. :doh
The cover of spare quart, which had been opened at some time, came loose, and filled the tail fin, and found some hole to slowly drain out.
I pulled everything out.
Cleaned what I could, threw out the rest.
Put the spare quart into a zip lock bag :whistle
And finished cleaning the bike.
Another mechanical mystery solved. :D

[DcnDog]

:dance

Happy endings...

[BlackHoof]

Good story, you had me a mystery... :bow

[rideoregon]

Hehehe. Good story. I was imagining my heart sinking upon seeing the oil, then the mirth of finding the reason.

It reminds me of the care one has to take with containers of any liquid when going to either warmer temperatures or higher elevations. In both cases, the air inside the container expands and can force the liquid out of an imperfectly sealed bottle if the liquid is at the opening (like a previously-opened bottle of motor oil on its side).

I learned this lesson the hard way after spending 1/2 of a week-long backpacking trip with all my clothes smelling like tequilla and having only 1/2 the tequilla I planned to have. :doh

[mrich12000]

:deal :stick :buds :buds Good story. I had to think where the oil would be comming from as well as I to own that model whith the same arangment.:D :bow :bow :heart :heart

[cjack]

The cover of spare quart, which had been opened at some time, came loose, and filled the tail fin, and found some hole to slowly drain out.
I pulled everything out.
Cleaned what I could, threw out the rest.
Put the spare quart into a zip lock bag :whistle
And finished cleaning the bike.
Another mechanical mystery solved. :D

Kind of reminds me of a gal that I will call Joyce who had lowers installed on her airhead Vetter fairing. When she got to a rally, she had oil dripping from the cylinder on one side. Turned out to be that the tech had drilled a hole thru a can of Tuna in the fairing pocket while installing the lowers and the juice dripped out of the fairing pocket drain hole onto the cylinder.
Ack...but inexpensive to fix.

[deilenberger]

Gail - the good part is - it won't rust back there. I'm guessing you don't have ABS since a quart wouldn't fit if you did..

[Braddog]

If only all oil leaks were fixed as easily as that one.

Good work.
:clap

[NateVentura]

You had me thinking that we’d finally gotten proof of the fabled “muffler bearings”…
:bolt