Radial Shaft Seal (Alternator)

[tominator]

Has any of our members heard of the Radial Shaft Seal leaking premature at 26,000KM? One of our fellow S'ers has this issue and is out of warranty. Item # 1 in the picture attaches to the upper timing shaft.

Symptons include excessive amount of oil on the exterior Timing Cover.

Doesn't seem like a big job....just wondering how the alternator pully is attached. Looks like a nut, and shaft is keyed? Strong Back required to pop of the shaft?

My concern is the Magnetic Gate, part of the ignition system. Timing needs to reset correct? (Item # 2)

See photo attached....Page 11.32 of the service manual.

Cheers
Tomas

[Micky Motor]

Tomas,
I've just been into this area a few weeks ago doing an oil leak out of the bottom of the alternator mount cover (or timing cover I would call it) It's the large cast cover that the radial seal mounts in. They use 3 bond to seal it, and you have to remove the lower telelever arm and the oil lines to do the job! Needless to say , the whole thing turned into quite a learning experience in relation to your questions !

1 : The pulley with the hall effect rotor attached is held on with the bolt and washer. The rotor locates with a tang and groove set up in the end of the crankshaft. When you put these two back together, glue the rotor to the inside of the pulley to make it easier to line everything up. The manual says to use superglue , I did'nt have any and used contact cement. It worked fine.
The bolt is only about 50 ft/lb, so I used a socket and bar, put the bike in first and got a mate to stand on the rear brake. Then load the bar up by winding it anti-clockwise and undo the bolt. If you can't get it, give the bar a smack with a hammer to shock it loose. It should'nt be too hard.
When I put it back I held the alternator nut and re-tensioned it that way.
2 : Just mark where the magnetic gate is before you remove it, and put it back in the same place. When you remove the whole cover and aren't changing the seal (as I did) you can leave it in the cover. However they don't tell you that in the manual until after the part where you already have the cover off. GRRR
3 : Now you can just pop the seal out of the cover with a pointy implement taking care not to mark the cover or the crank where the seal runs. When you put the new seal in, you have to be careful getting the lip of it over the step on the crank just before the area where it runs. In the manual they us a tool to guide the seal over the step. Its just a thin sleeve that slides up to the shoulder to make the shaft all one size, and make it easy to feed the lip over the shoulder. I just turned something up to fit, but I reckon if you use plenty of lube (vasoline or oil) and are careful it would go on alright without the sleeve. Use a suitable size socket and tap the seal in. There is no shoulder to locate the seal so don't push it too far in.
You should'nt need to slacken off the alternator mounts to take the belt off or put it back on, it should just be a neat fit, and should go on ok when you r&r the pulley.
It's not that bad a job to do (I've had plenty worse) and once you've done one, you will be an expert like me!!!

EX= has been
SPURT= drip under pressure.
Good luck
M Motor

[tominator]

Micky,
Thanks for the awesome response.
Could you not use a "Sneaky Pete" to lift the old seal out?
Was the telelver in the way of removal?

Thanks for you input!

Much Appreciated....

Cheers
Tomas

[Micky Motor]

Tomas,
The seal can be removed quite easily with anything you want, although I tend to keep my "sneaky pete" in my trousers.
The telelever arm is only a problem if you are removing the whole alternator mounting/timing cover. There just is'nt enough room to take the thing off unless you do. Getting to the seal is no problem though.

M Motor

[tominator]

Thanks Micky!
Sneaky Pete is a seal removal tool offered by CTC tools. I didn't refer to anyone shalong ;-)

Thanks for your help!

Tomas