Hi all, I've got an 87 Hurricane that I did an oil change to on Saturday. I switched it to synthetic, and rode it around with no problems.
I rode it an hour or so on Sunday and everything was just fine. I drove it to work on Monday and then on the way home from work, it felt a bit weak and sluggish and it was about time for me to gas up anyway, so I did and drove it home. I just figured I was running on fumes.

This morning on the drive into work I noticed scraping sound when downshifting to brake in 2nd and 1st gear, right as I initially let off the clutch. And when I got on it for the ride home from work today, I noticed it again, and the throttle response didn't feel right. So I pulled it over and checked the oil in a parking garage and there was no oil on the dipstick at all. Wiped it, stuck it back in and pulled it out and it was dry.

I checked the oil filter and drain plug for signs of a leak, but other than a
drop that was on the drain plug, I didn't see anything. All I could think was that maybe the plug didn't get tight and was slowly leaking, even though it felt tight and I hadn't seen any oil puddles where I had been parked.

I had a friend give me a ride to the auto parts store and I got more oil and a drain pan. I came back and drained the oil into the new pan and even though I couldn't measure it, it looked like it was about right. It filled about half of the 6qt drain pan.
The oil looked good so I put the plug back in and tightened it, then put the oil back in, ran it a bit, checked the dipstick and it was on the bottom of the hash marks, so I added a bit then warmed it up rode around the parking garage a bit and still had the grind/scraping noise when downshifting.

So I figured that whatever it was, I couldn't fix it there, so I rode it home on back roads. Towards the end of the ride I noticed it didn't seem to be making the noise anymore when downshifting to brake, but it still seemed sluggish.
I checked the oil a few minutes after I parked it and it showed right in the middle of the hash marks.

I'm stumped, I thought it might be a problem with the oil pump, but the oil light doesn't come on except at startup. I have it parked and I'm kind of afraid to drive it now.
Am I missing something obvious? Does anyone have any ideas?

 

You may have run the camshaft bearings dry - being right at the top of the motor.........
I know that my bike feels clunky when it needs an oil change, too. The difference between no oil on the dipstick, and a full oil level is only about 800 mils at most, and shouldn't be sufficiently low to run bearings.
I'd run the bike for a few days, and see if, once the new oil has circulated, the noises improve.
You may have to re-drain the oil to removed any metal that may have been removed from bearings or other metal surfaces, like gears etc, by the oil level being low.
Are you checking your oil with the dipstick just resting on the threads, as you should be ?

 

Thanks for the quick response. Yes, I'm resting it, not screwing it in to check the level.

 

So now that I've made the mistake of having too little oil in my bike. I will probably error on the side of overfilling it in the future. What is the worst that could happen if the oil level is too high?

 

Get sucked into the air box and burn in the motor, and foul your plugs... I think...

 

or itll start leaking out seals, like the primary drive.
also make sure the bike is standing straight up when checking oil, not leaning on the kickstand. i usualy throw a 2x4 under the kickstand when checking oil.

 

I emailed the guy I bought the bike from, and he had this to say.
"I always added a quarter of a quart more than needed just in case. If you add too much, there is a overflow port that will expel any extra that's not supposed to be there"

I drove it about 100 miles last night and it's better, but the noise is still there when I start it cold and shift. I think I'll put a bit more and and see how she does.

 

Doesn't the CCT run off oil pressure as well?

 

We run a wet clutch, that is it is bathed in oil. Up till now you have used regular mineral oil and it was okay. You added synthetic and now it feels sluggish...is your clutch slipping?
I would drain the synthetic and replace it with good old mineral oil again. That is what Honda designed it to operated with.

 

Got home yesterday and put some more oil in it, thinking I was still a bit low. Took it for a 14 mile ride then tried to check the oil level and the cap didn't want to come off. I had to use a pair of channel locks (carefully) to get the dipstick off. Too much oil, so then I was a little worried about too much oil pressure, so I drained it all, and measured out exactly 3qts per the Honda service manual and put it back in. Ran it, checked the oil again and added a tiny bit to get it to the top of the dipstick. I did find two tiny metal flakes in the drain pan.

It doesn't feel sluggish anymore, in fact everything feels good except that slight scraping noise is still there whenever the the engine is used to break in the first 5-10 minutes of the ride. After that it pretty much goes away. I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't an issue with the chain. I haven't cleaned it yet, and I have no idea how long ago the previous owner did.

The clutch hasn't had any issues with slipping.
On my ride in to work this morning, usually my CCT that rattles like all hell below 5k RPM, was dead silent even at low speeds.