The Hodaka Club Forum

I finally got my kickstand complete over the weekend, I fabbed one from some steel I had. But since I did it, it was fine over the weekend when the bike just sat. I rode it twice since and now after riding I got a oil leak on the left side under where the front sprocket is. I see it on the under side of the shifter assembly casing. Is there a popular seal that leaks on the shifter shaft or sprocket shaft?

Could be the countershaft seal that is easily replaced from the outside OR! the control shaft o ring thats a bit more involved, Could be a simple as a loose countershaft nut which would permit a leak between the colar and the sprocket

Rich

9 times out of 10 a leak behind the sprocket is just that the sprocket nut is loose. It has to be tight to seal against the shaft itself. But if it is tight then as Rich said it could be the outer seal or the O ring.

I just recently replaced the front sprocket, im sure the nut is tight as I bent that nut keeper washer over to hold it. Now that I think of it, does the recessed side of the sprocket go towards the outside facing you. It sounds like that seal may be bad. I will have to investigate further.

Amanda,
The recessed side of the front sprocket does go out toward the shift cover. The recess is there for the dust seal that goes between the shift cover and the front sprocket. It is item # 60 on Paul's parts illustration and fits on the shifter inner cover. It is only a dust seal meant to keep dirt and debris out of the shift cover. There should be no oil in the shift cover only grease. That is as long as no oil is getting in there from the two seals mentioned already.

Danny Cooke

Glad you brought this up, same issue just came up on my 94a, haven't looked yet (too many broken things, etc) but now I have a head start, let us know what you find.
-Forrest

I think this issue came up because I now have a kickstand and the bike leans to that side now. I was previously sitting the bike on a milk crate straight up. Im gonna investigate it this weekend.

I am in the process of restoring my 94A now, and upon reinvestigating this, and removing the motor from the frame, it was my sprocket nut loosened up a bit.

I took off my side cover today to find my leak, and my sprocket nut was also a bit loose, could rock it with my fingers. I could see oil swamping around the washer lock nut and the control shaft seemed dry, so I'm guessing that is it. Flattened down the lock washer and now wondering how I can tighten the nut, so far I have used a large clean crescent and move the nut maybe an 1/8th of a turn. Anybody have a tip with the engine mounted, not sure if that will stop the leak or not.

Also the PO had uses some silicon sealer on the outer case, I found this also on my Steens 100cc engine, common practice, or un-neccasary?

Thanks much,
-Forrest

When I put the engine back in I used a large deepwell socket I have to tighten it, it fits over the shift shaft and all, then I made sure I bent that washer over securely this time around. I also put a thin layer of silicone around the engine side of the sprocket where it contacts that collar that goes inside the oil seal in the engine casing. No more leaks after doing this.

I too used a crescent wrench the first time around.

I got this problem solved, but I do have a new Hodaka problem to start a new post about though LOL.

What size was the socket? Glad you have solved your Hodaka problems.

I got it 26mm off to Autozone to get one.

Thats how I ended up with a socket to fit the sprocket nut, i was always buying these large wierd sized sockets for vehicles Ive restored individually. I have so many now, that i seldom have to buy them any more.

Yes me too, buy it once, use it once. I went to 4 stores nobody had one. If I pull off the air cleaner the crescent will probably get it, but I'd like to torque it down, but I don't see a spec in the manual.

In my area Sears, O'reilly Auto and Auto Zone all carry individual metric sockets.

250 inch pounds.

I suspect that my 94 is leaking around the control shaft O-ring. The countershaft seal is new and the nut is tight. The bike now has about 2900, mostly off-road miles, and hasn't needed any other mechanical repairs so far.

Synthetic gear oil can also aggravate the leaking situation insofar as it sneaks past the seals more easily than dino oil. My 250SL was also a leaker until I drained the Royal Purple Synchromax and refilled with old-school Castrol Hypoy C 80w90 -- then the leak went away.

To delay splitting the cases on the 94 I'm going to try an automotive seal treatment product, like Rislone Rear Main Seal Repair.

It might work - I don't want to dig all the way into an engine just to get at a 35 cent O-ring gone bad.

Darrell, Just to clarify, it is a little work to change the o-ring on the control shaft, but it does not require splitting the cases. I would tackle the o-ring replacement before adding seal treatment personally, but I admit that I have zero experience or knowledge of these types of treatments.
Dale

dcoooke007 wrote:250 inch pounds.

Thanks Dan....
-FT

ddvorak wrote:Darrell, Just to clarify, it is a little work to change the o-ring on the control shaft, but it does not require splitting the cases. I would tackle the o-ring replacement before adding seal treatment personally, but I admit that I have zero experience or knowledge of these types of treatments.
Dale

Thanks Dale, that would be a better scenario than I thought - I'll take a look at a shop manual.

It's been more than a year since I put a Hodaka transmission together, but at first blush it seems the detent balls would roll onto the floor and out the door if one pulled the control rod out of an assembled engine.

In theory, the seal treatments chemically restore the rubber in the seals/O-rings and restore some of the pliability. In practise I suppose they might have little effect on the rubber - or conversely, turn it too mush.

Darrell

Darrell, The balls can not go anywhere. I understand what you are saying as that was my first thought too. Below is a link to one posting that describes the steps required to extract and replace the components of the control shaft. There are other postings as well and of course the shop manual. Consideration should be given to replacing the shift springs and ball receiver at the same time.
Dale

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=502&p=1837&hilit=co ... +rag#p1837

Here Dale it was on our Technical Tips page
http://www.strictlyhodaka.com/v/vspfile ... ment00.pdf

Paul

Thanks Paul, I'll keep this handy.

I might not need to do anything for awhile because the leak just stopped - shortly after I changed the synthetic out to regular gear oil. The 250S/L countershaft/control rod leaking responded the same way.

Finally got a deep 26mm and 2 seconds later I had it torqued up and it seems to have done the trick. Now something I hope isn't a problem. After a great ride yesterday I decided to change the gear oil. I had been using Belray, but since getting laid off I decided to go the ATF route. So I drained, and filled, and then realized someone mentioning "Type F" only. I drained it out and re-filled with Type F. I hope this isn't an issue, I didn't run it with the wrong ATF.
-Forrest

No problem there Forrest. Type F is the version I have used and actually was recommended back in the day by Barnett clutches for my 1975 Kawasaki 500 triple. Just filling with non type F and then draining it should not cause any problem.

Danny Cooke