Oil explosion

[max]

Sorry, forgot about the chain tension.

As you sit on the bike and ride through a pothole the rear swingarm moves up against the spring ( s ) this causes the chain to tighten as a result of the geometry of the pivot shaft, the position of the front sprocket and the swingarm.

This is the reason for the prescribed slack of the chain and is different but similar for most bikes, if the chain gets too tight it wears it and all relevant parts out prematurely.
This can be verified by watching the slack with someone sitting on and off the bike to alter the angle of the suspension and slack of the chain.

Also as the chain shackles wear over time it could be that part of the chain stretches more than the rest of the chain and you have to allow for the slack to not go tight in the shorter part of the chain, rotating the wheel and watching the slack is a good way to prevent this from happening.

to align the wheel i use some string ; starting at the left lower brake disk going around the rear wheel back to the lower right disk, this is the least critical way for the front wheel to be straight.
Looking for even gap between the string and the rear wheel on both sides with the bike on the sidestand.

[Streetshark07_imp]

Internet friends. I don't know a lot, but that helps me to be able to UNDERSTAND.
What I mean is that it is RELATIVELY hot on the island of Oahu. Relative to Kuwait, it's quite cold here.
The point is that my CB1140 overheated one time for sure.
But, that was probably more a factor of godawful traffic than anything else.
But happily, I replaced the dirt oil the Honda shop gave it with fancy 15w50, double ester Motul oil. Ever since (3.5 years plus) my Honda has kept its cool!!


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[GoldOxide_imp]

Chain lubrication, as most know the chain is already lubricated for it's life with grease from the factory.

What you need to lubricate is the o rings between the link cheeks and the rollers on the links.
Cleaning with kerosene does a wonderful job and the kero needs to evaporate for a day before oiling should be done.

Honda recommends oil up to sae90, so i use hypoid sae 90 ( because it is thick and sticks therefore better ) mixed with petrol ( add 150% ) and use a small brush to smear the mixture on the inside of the chain so the centrifugal force moves it to the outside when the wheel rotates and coat the o rings and rollers with it and rotate the wheel initially by hand and then start the engine on the centerstand to motivate the mixture to " wick " in between all the moving parts.
once that is done i leave it for a day to let the petrol evaporate and the oil to settle, if you ride straight away the mixture will simply fling off and defeat the purpose as i found out.

O or X rings without lubrication will wear much faster and for that reason i also lube the front and rear bearing seals on both shafts/bushings of the wheels.
Too much oil will of course attract dirt so the idea is to do this regularly and watch the chain for dryness.

Every body has their own way of lubrication and some may just spray some lube on the chain and be done with it and that's fine, it's his chain but by talking about our methods we may learn something from each other

I hate chains. I use a passive gravity feeder unit from the U.K., typical on Triumphs and the likes. It has worked out perfectly for me now for three years. Almost zero maintenance. I have to fill the small reservoir about every 750 to 1500 kms with 10W30/40 engine oil. Chain stays just about damp. I pull the chain through a clean hand rag maybe twice a year - that is it.

[Streetshark07_imp]

NEW QUESTION:
I just remembered a few decades of beatings and mistakes, but the worst (or best) was when I filled a newish lawnmower completely with oil (thus destroying it).
I recall that Cessna single engine airplanes burn oil as a matter of course, so we give them oil, lots of oil. Now I am not dumb, but questions unasked are a sure way to regret. My question is, "Does it matter that my sight glass has been full for nearly 100 miles?" Thank you.
But I can't leave it there because I also must ask whether it is appropriate for a machine shop to order (seriously, he was quite aggressive) me to adjust my oil to be about one half of what OK means. I ask because even though I'm not a mechanic, I can grasp the meaning of "AIR COOLED and OIL COOLED, which means precisely that "NOTHING ELSE WILL COOL THE ENGINE" and mind you that the intention was to redline the bike more than once. In the end: happy bike, happy person, but I still wonder what right is. I mean my BEST mechanic ever did a great deal more and he never made me mess with oil!
Thank you again.

-StreetShark

[Cormanus]

Like Sergeant Schultz, 'I know nothing'.

But ... I'm sure you can overfill the oil and the general consensus around here seems to be that, if you can see oil in the sight glass on the engine, the CB will be OK. I think that akso translates to, if you can's see the top of the oil level at the proper testing conditions, you may have too much.

[Streetshark07_imp]

Like Sergeant Schultz, 'I know nothing'.

But ... I'm sure you can overfill the oil and the general consensus around here seems to be that, if you can see oil in the sight glass on the engine, the CB will be OK. I think that akso translates to, if you can's see the top of the oil level at the proper testing conditions, you may have too much.

"You can say what I only can see." - Priest
To reply to you, I know from experience that bad things can and do happen, but my garage floor below the CB remains clean and dry.
I acknowledge that I have been a little too lucky as to traffic lately, but I just bet next week holds much oil burn and engine stalling because most island gas is already rotten!

-StreetShark

[max]

The bike i ride at the moment has no centerstand and i have to check the oil level by sitting beside it and balancing the bike so it is level and reading the sightglass.

here's what i found and keeping in mind that i have no way of telling if it is actually true;

Story: My other-half's car was sounding very tappity, but otherwise ran okay. Wasn't till she was driving the car up a decent grade that the oil pressure light came on. It was 2 litres low, and barely registering on the dipstick at all. A couple days later, she drove the car out of the garage and then checked the oil. It read real low because the motor had just been running. So she put an extra 2L in and drove for 30 minutes. Car was running really badly, blowing blue smoke as the oil was forced around the rings past the pistons and into the combustion chamber. We drained some out and all was well.

This is probably the best way to explain why it's important to maintain a good level, the pistons and cylinders are affected first by an incorrect level, the cooling and lubricating of the pistons relies on the correct amount of oil splashed against the cylinder walls, and there is no warning light when the level is not correct, the only way to know this is to use the sightglass.

Here is a dramatized version of an oil check on a new goldwing; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNfgkLuZyaI

Thinking back some time ago a member had an unusually high carbon deposit on the pistons and some wear on their sides on a low mileage cb1100, i'm now wondering if that could be explained by too low/high oil level, we did not get an update of the end result

Thanks for the question, i have not thought about exactly what happens when you overfill and was told " the seals blow out ", i had a hard time trying to understand that one.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Yikes! Oil level checking on the late model Goldwing, um, sucks!

Thanks Max for sharing the flick.

[Streetshark07_imp]

Alright, and I really hate to do this (I MEAN THAT), but if there is no smoke, is there anything to worry about?
Mind you that I ask this as a boy who WAS beaten for waisting literally ANYTHING (this is all true).
And besides, messes are caused by draining or etcetera.

-StreetShark

[Cormanus]

Well, noting the Scultz disclaimer above, it seems to me that you should be concerned about overfilling because by the time you see the smoke, damage will already have been done.