'98 EV Temp Sensor "Oil Weep"

[Bill Havins]

I am slowly getting my '98 EV just the way I want it.  One of the frustrations with this scooter is the "oil weep" that occurs around the temperature sensor mounted in the left valve cover.  Another EV owner told me that the 3mm socket head screws that hold the temp sensor to the valve cover tend to back out just enough to allow oil to seep past the paper gasket under the temp sensor.  He suggested I put nuts on those screws.  Let's see, two pairs of 3mm washers and nuts mounted on the ends of screws inside the valve cover - heck, what could go wrong with that?

The holes in the valve cover are threaded.  And I had a bag of these in my 3mm fasteners drawer:  http://www.mcmaster.com/#92095a187/=txr9n5.

So I decided to pull the valve cover, cut a new paper gasket for the temp sensor, and then run the screws through from the inside of the valve cover.  Once firmly in place, I put a little gasket sealer on the paper gasket, and sandwiched it between the valve cover and the temp sensor.  I used pairs of 3mm flat washers and lock nuts to firmly hold everything together.  Here's a photo:


Oops!  That's not it.  Here it is:


Oops!  Boy, I really have the fumble fingers today.  Maybe this is it:


Ah!  Success!

No more temperature sensor weep.  And with the lock nuts on the outside I don't have to worry about small parts coming loose and falling into the engine's internals.  I just need to trim their lengths a scooch more....

Bill

[Muley]

And with the lock nuts on the outside I don't have to worry about small parts coming loose and falling into the engine's internals

No, not unless the nuts back off and the screw ends up inside :o

I look at leaking oil as both self-sealing (when enough dirt mixes with it to form a crust) and a corrosion resistant coating ;D

[Madtownguzzi]

I use non hardening Permatex on both sides of the gasket seems to last about two years before I have to re do it.

[pehayes]

I did similar with screws going up from inside and nylok nuts on the outside.  I also added a small, stout steel plate so that screw pressure was more evenly distributed instead of pressing only on the warmed plastic.  Still leaks.  Bad design from day-1.

Patrick Hayes
Fremont CA

[twhitaker]

I stripped the threads in the cover so I made a couple nuts out of 1/8" thick sheetmetal. One side had a notch to straddle the sensor protector that keeps the nut from rotating. It's weeping but the bike is 18 years old and I go along with Muley's attitude.  ::)

[Bill Hagan]

Brilliant fix, Bill, Patrick, Russ, et al.

More on that in a moment.

Well, I finally used my Moto Grappa as a proper shop today instead of the “too pretty” man cave it was starting to become.   ::)

Got the EV up on the lift, dropped the sump, pulled the spark plugs, and removed the valve covers.







Well, lookee here … or, more accurately, lookee at what ain’t here.







Wayne has always annoyed me by being able to walk up to my machines and with the most casual of brief glances point out missing fasteners.  Actually, now I wish he had X-ray vision as he would have spotted this long ago.

If there ever was a matching nut it’s long gone.  Have not split open the oil filter and haven’t checked in the screen trap, but the drain-plug magnet was clean and I looked pretty closely through the oil in the drain and sump. 

So, while I'll do the inside-out fix now, not sure what to do about the missing pieces if there are any or, as mused muley, dwell on the screws following the possibly AWOL nut. 

Maybe Scarlett O’Hara had it right ... I'll just think about it tomorrow ... and use this clock -- which is how I tell "garage time"  ;) -- to decide when morning comes.    ;D







Bill

[Bill Havins]

Ugh!  Once you've checked all the places it might get trapped there ain't really nothing to do about it.  Maybe it was thrown out inside an earlier oil filter when you changed it - how do you know?

When you do the "inside-out" re-assembly just snug the screws/lock nuts.  There is little likelihood that a screw will fall in the internals with the lock nuts in place.

Ain't motorcyclin' grand?  ;)

(NOTE:  edited meaning of first line.  Now it says what I meant to say.)

[Chuck in Indiana]

Looks like it might be a timing problem, Bill.  ;D
Shortly after we were married, Dorcia made a clock for me with the Ducati logo. Once I saw the light, and got the Centauro, I needed a Guzzi clock for the garage, so I bought one. Within a week, it had stopped.  ::) There was a burr on one of the gears, so I filed that, put it back together, and it's never missed a beat since. Just like a Guzzi. A little fiddling, and they'll run forever.

[tris]

OFF-TOPIC
Assuming that the oil feed on the EV is similar to my 95, it strikes me that the temp sensor is unlikely to ever give an reasonable value for the oil/engine temperature

On the one hand the oil is cooling down to some extent in the feed pipes from the block and the other the sensor is only going to get "splashed" with oil once it gets to the rocker cover.  ???

[twhitaker]

I should have mentioned in my earlier post that I used only one of those nuts. The other tapped hole in the valve cover was still in good shape. Studying the area around the screw might suggest whether or not there was ever a second nut installed. Is the screw still tight?