Oil Leak from back of cylinder.

Greetings,

I have been having an oil leak from what looks like the joint between the case and the cylinder. It leaks on the back of the engine above the starter motor. Has any one else had this happen? Should it be as simple as just buying a gasket kit and tearing it down and replacing all the gaskets? Should I replace the head bolts as well, are they stretch bolts?

Appreciate anyone's thoughts and especially experiences with this. I have never worked on a motorcycle but I am a decent wrench on cars and have rebuilt manual transmissions and transfer cases.

Jon

Has your top end been apart before? I had this happen to mine after installing the Athena 290 kit. One of the head bolts is longer than the others and the shop manual instructs installing it in the wrong hole. It bottoms out before bringing the head to the proper torque.

If the top end hasn't been apart, I'd say that you need to re-torque the head bolts or it's possible that one of them might be broken.

Before I went that far I would check the copper washer on the oil bolt in the back of the head.

f3joel wrote:

Before I went that far I would check the copper washer on the oil bolt in the back of the head.

Good suggestion.