Ok, right now my bike is parked in my driveway while I wait for my jack's arrival tomorrow. My neighbor dropped by to inform me there's a "not rain" puddle under my bike (yeah, mechanics love him). Checking the dipstick reveals what should be in the pan is now on the ground.

I'm more used to working on cars... much older cars (I replaced the plugs and water pump in a Chevy Citation without too many contortions). But motorcycle engines are new territory for me. Given that the bike was walked, not ridden, to its current location (all of 20') and the leak developed after being pushed I'm suspecting the oil pan. It sat in 1 place for several days without dropping oil before being moved. And once moved, dumped the oil in a couple days.

Am I on the right track here? And will local auto parts places like Pepboys and Autozone stock the oil pan gasket?

 

You'll find that working on the bike is not too different. Things are located in different places and tucked away to make them harder to work on.

Unfortunately the local parts place isn't going to have any gaskets at all for your bike, or any other bike for that matter. ( I don't count form-a-gasket as a real gasket). Your local Honda dealer is sorta good for information, but not for purchasing parts. There are a number of good OEM parts places online for buying parts. 2 That I use regularly are Service Honda and Ron Ayers, both with good pricing. Not knowing where you are I don't know what shipping would be.

You may have oil coming out past the counter shaft, which is what the front sprocket is on. First off, I'd reccomend giving the bike a good bath with soap and a hose. It's easier to discover the source of a leak when it's clean. Don't be afraid to get the bike soaking wet and use a degreaser like Simple Green to help with the heave stuff. Naturally don't squirt he water directly into any hose openings like the ones right under the headlight.

Let us know what you find and I'm sure someone here will be able to help. Pictures are great if you have them.

 

Bookmarked Ron Ayers while scanning threads earlier. I held off even taking the fairings off till I got replacement bolts, which arrived today. I might strip her down tomorrow after work.

However I do know an approximate location of where the leak ends. It dripped down from behind the left lower fairing near the kickstand. I'll post pics once I strip it down, emphasizing anything suspicious on any level. The bike was a steal at $500 but part of doing all this myself is to build confidence in the bike and my knowledge of it. The girl I bought it off of was definately glam focused (might explain why she's a stripper). But this bike will eventually get a workout

 

Well, sounds like you're in for a great learing experience. Welcome to the forum. We love pictures, so post away. Make sure you edit your profile on the forum so people know what area your located in. Maybe even pick up a riding buddy ( or at least you could point him in the direction of that stripper ).

 

Fixed it... sorta



As you can see, the oil is collecting on the oil pan screws. On closer inspection of the oil pan, I figured out whoever opened the pan last used a liquid gasket


Tightening up the oil pan screws gave it a temp fix. Doesn't seem to be dripping oil any more. I'm waiting for a new gasket to arrive and I'll dump a quart of perfectly good oil when I put it on.

 

Glad to see you're on track to getting it fixed. For me, I think I would have done a little more cleaning to be sure, but that's just me. If you're going to pull the pan, make sure you cean the bottom of the engine real good before. You certainly don't want anything falling off the engine as you start to put the pan back on. When tightening the oil pan bolts, the manual mentions using a criss-cross pattern to prevent warping the pan as it's tightened.

 

Aye, I know. Right now it's just a temp fix to see what was causing the leak. I have oil pan and water pump gaskets on the way from bikebandit right now. After tightening everything up and running her for about 10 min (my neighbors are pissed), no more drips.

Tomorrow... cleaning the carbs (tried seafoam and she sounds worse)