Well, it's great that you seem to have identified the cause of the sudden oil over-consumption. Like I said, if weird shit starts to happen after one's "fixed something", that "something" will nearly always be the culprit. That's why it's usually a poor practice to do a bunch of different mods or tinkerings at the same time, like, say, fussing with the carb
AND the electrics. It just makes it harder to locate the guilty gremlin in a crowd of suspect gremlins. Of course, being a prize-winning doofus, I don't always follow my own advice.
It looks to me like the cork and rubber quill seals you've shown are very different sizes. According to
Hitchcock's Online Parts Book, the one you'd want for your '95 is
this one. It also seems like the rubber one you had put in may have been chewed up by the quill bolt end, or perhaps the oil pump worm nut, if the quill seal had been somehow inserted wrong way around. With a bit of luck all that missing rubber will have found its way into your oil filter and some biggish chunk of it won't clog some narrow oil passage and give your bike a "stroke."
Suffice it to say, that an extra oil change or three with fresh filters each time over the next year or so would probably be wise. If you were to use a separate very clean receptacle for just the stuff coming out of the oil tank drain, you may well be able to reserve that, and maybe strain and reuse it if it seems very clean. Increased vigilance would also be in order with checking that oil flow behind the tappet cover and by slackening those banjo bolts up by the valves just to see them weep reassuringly. A handy crescent wrench (or maybe an "adjustable spanner") should always be in your pocket and getting nearly as much of a workout as your ignition key over at least the next month or two. Our forum hosts, Hitchcocks and others do sell a transparent tappet cover
like this one. They're kind of pricey and maybe a little anachronistic and even sort of goofy, like having a toilet on the lawn, for a venerable old Iron Belly to be wearing one, but if only for a time it might not be the very worst idea to have one on yours, since it would let you see at a glance that at least the slippery stuff's flowing down from the valve train.
You had asked here earlier if there were any particular motor oil that reduced oil leakage. While no oil is
really a magic ointment to cure mechanical issues, at the risk of jumpstarting yet another dreaded "oil thread", at least some of your countrymen down there in Oz have had good experience with your locally-produced
Penrite MC-4ST 15W-50. It seems to have more than enough of that lovely Zinc in it (1800+ PPM) to keep our old "Iron Bellies'" mechanical tappets happy (though it's also JASO MA1 and MA2 approved to keep our younger UCE brethren's clutches from getting all
"slippy" too). Here in the Land of the Plastic Spork the stuff only seems to be available from a wise and ancient Yaqui Indian medicine man in the Mojave Desert of California well hidden out by the prickly pears in an arroyo somewhere out in those wastelands between Rancho Bernardo and Potato Chip Rock, and it'll take at least a dozen peyote buttons to even see him. Rather more conveniently for our hardy Canadian cousins to the north, they'll find it stacked neatly and politely in an igloo just south of Edmonton in the frozen wastes of Alberta. No hallucinogens required. Just hand the Inuit guy out front with the wooden duck a Tim Hortons (no apostrophe, please! / Pas d'apostrophe, s'il vous plait!) coffee with cream and three sugars, and help yourself. Just leave the toonies in the cup, Eh? As for you Fosters-sodden lot, you can probably find that Penrite stuff in any damned billabong. Of course, it's kind of pricey goo, so you might want to hold off on trying it out until whatever chunklets of quill seal that may be coursing around are well and truly purged.
As for me, just for convenience sake, for engine oil I run a cocktail of locally-sourced
Mobil1 15W-50, about a cup's worth (maybe 250 ml) of
Marvel Mystery Oil (I also add a little squirt to each tankful of gasoline/petrol, use it as a dessert topping, and also aftershave), along with a couple of ounces (60 ml) of something called
Lucas Oil Engine Break-In Oil Additive TB Zinc-Plus, as was recommended in these forums by Ace some while back for that added Zinc to keep those pushrod and cam followers happy. I can't claim any causative relation, but I can tell you that in the year I've had her, I've put about 5,000 miles (about 8,000 km) on my 2005 "Iron Belly's" clock, more than doubling what had been on it, and have yet to need to adjust my tappets even once. Apparently, just that little dab of Lucas goodness'll do ya. Both my forks and primary drive are running Type F ATF (with a bit extra--about 800ml instead of 420ml--in the primary to better bathe that wonky electric starter sprague clutch doodad), while my 5-speed gearbox is running AMSOil brand straight GL-4 SAE 90 gear oil.
As for Ace's suggestion of a compression test (and a related "leak down test"), this would still be a fine idea for your elderly ride. Nothing will give you a better idea of the state of that engine. You'll find plenty of how-to guides on YouTube. Here in the States you can very often borrow the necessary gear from auto parts joints that offer "loaner tools", but I can't say that's the case down there. Failing that, or a buddy with one, even an ultra-cheapo kit off eBay from the Far East for less than $20 should tell the tale just fine. Remember: You're not doing the pre-flight check on the Mars Mission. Even if it's calibrated in increments of Medieval Feng Shui or ginger-roasted dog nipples, for your purposes it's the
changes that really matter. For example, you test the cylinder compression dry (as-is). Next you pour a bit of engine oil into the spark plug hole and test again. The oil will fill up any wear in the rings. If there's a big difference, you got worn rings. Simple. Or, if your car or multi-cylinder bike's running a little wonky, differences between the measurements of the various cylinders as-is may at least identify the problem cylinder. The actual "measured values" are not usually the main thing. Hell, my little go-to compression tester is a plastic press-fit thing from a Kit O' Crap my Dad bought for his Dodge Dart when Nixon was President and the Beatles were still in the charts. Still works the charm.
Anyhow, very glad to hear you've got things under control down there. Sorry this is a bit long, but even here in typically temperate Virginia, I'm snowed in. Want to hear all about how I got the crumbs out of the toaster?...
Topic: Smokey Bullet. (Read 3967 times)