Aghhh, I ran the gear oil to near zero!

**sefer** · 4th November 2009, 20:31

Ok guys, stupid I know, but I've hardly ridden my bike in two years due to being overseas, and have put more on kms in the last month than probably the last year I rode it, so it was unexpected that it actually ran out.

What happened is that last week I noticed that my bike was a little sluggish, and had intended to do a full service on the weekend, but never had time. Over the past couple of days it's felt worse, and today I noticed a sort of "shish, shish" noise when accelerating (but not while idling in or out of gear). Suddenly realised it was probably the oil when riding back today, and sure enough oil is just showing in the sight.

Everything was closed by the time I got home, so have put a litre of 20/40 car oil in to hold it over until I can get some better (10/40) tomorrow after work, but real question is, what might I have fucked? Give me some ideas so I can decide whether I need to be pulling it apart/getting it serviced asap (weekend at the best though, since it's my daily transport).

Thanks.

**sefer** · 4th November 2009, 20:35

PS. where is a good place to get some cheap bike oil (and 2-stroke oil as well, since I'll need some soon)? I'll likely be doing two bikes on the weekend, so four or so litres of cheapish oil is needed.
(In Auckland BTW)

**NewRob** · 4th November 2009, 21:03

Hi, If you are in Auckland...I would say super-cheap has 10/40w bike oil(Silkolene),I got mine there. So far I have looked around and have found that their price is the cheapest. Cheers.

**AllanB** · 4th November 2009, 21:14

What are you riding?

I'd wonder where the oil went .......... presumably it was full when parked up.

Cheap oil in CHCH

Super Cheap have Castrol bike oil in stock and is usually well priced.

Sport Zone do a semi-synthetic at $60 ish a 4 litre pack (name brand , I cannot recall which one).

If you have a brand favourite you'll need to do a ring around - all the shops appear to have different brands!

I'd get the car oil out pronto in case it stuffs your clutch plates .......

**sefer** · 4th November 2009, 21:49

Well I must admit I haven't checked the oil in about three weeks, however it's gear oil only, and it's never gone anywhere in the past.... No leaks as far as I can tell

**JMemonic** · 4th November 2009, 22:23

Gear oil, guessing 2 smoker, umm it does not evaporate, its not a consumable so you must have a leak somewhere.

**YellowDog** · 4th November 2009, 22:55

Hey look, if you have ran out of Gerbox oil (and you still have engine oil) then you must have a separate sump for it.

You need to get a properly specified (as per the manual) hydraulic oil. You can't just stick anything in there.

If you have been running the gearbox with no oil, you may have added 20k to the age of the gearbox.

Best thing to do is to drain it out and fill it with the right stuff asap.

Good luck.

**CookMySock** · 5th November 2009, 07:23

If its actually showing on the sightglass with the bike level, then I wouldn't panic too much.

Steve

**Pixie** · 5th November 2009, 14:56

Originally Posted by YellowDog

Hey look, if you have ran out of Gerbox oil (and you still have engine oil) then you must have a separate sump for it.

You need to get a properly specified (as per the manual) hydraulic oil. You can't just stick anything in there.

If you have been running the gearbox with no oil, you may have added 20k to the age of the gearbox.

Best thing to do is to drain it out and fill it with the right stuff asap.

Good luck.

It's a two stroke

**sefer** · 5th November 2009, 18:55

^^ Yeah I'm glad some people picked up its a 2-stroke, so needs gear oil

Engine oil turned out to be a bad error on my part, would have been better to have left it very low for the day, caused much clutch slipping (I assume, it didn't feel like slipping as I've had before, but nothing else could be the cause), only managed to get to 110 in sixth after much effort.

Sadly being new (and temp) to Auckland I don't have a full tool kit here, and as it turns out you can't loosen the oil drain without a socket set (well I can't), so it'll have to wait for the weekend when I can borrow/buy one and do it. In the mean time:

1.Does anyone know of a cheapish place to get oil in Auckland?

Must be somewhere surely. Recommend me some too. Supercheap is useless for gear oil.

2. Does SAE30,40 sound right? My owners book is well written almost everywhere, but declines into Engrish in that one section...

3. Ideas on the best way to flush the box?

There's no visible leak, but I'll clean it up underneath on the weekend and check it out, it's got to be going somewhere, right? Any chance it's getting through to the cylinder somehow? Does seem to be smokier than usual lately, but I thought it was the change from synth to semi synth 2t.

Thanks guys

**Racey Rider** · 8th November 2009, 14:23

I find diesel engine oils work fine in two stroke Gearboxes. They don't have the slippery additives that affect your wet clutch apparently.

Top it up and keep an eye on it over the next week. I have noticed that there can be fluctuations on how the oil level reads at the viewing window sometimes though. Sometimes on a level surface it will show a low reading - then after the next ride, it will show a normal reading again. Don't know why .... just something I've observed.

If after a few rides you are sure the level is going down, then there are only two possible reason's.
1. It's leaking out. You should see sign's of it leaking out of the gearbox somewhere.
2. It's leaking in. An internal seal has blown, and it is getting into the combustion area and burning.
Or I guess .....
3. Your Mate can't afford KY lube and is siphoning out your oil to use for 'other' things.

Racey

**gwigs** · 8th November 2009, 21:02

I bet you have a fooked crankshaft seal and the gear box oil has been sucked into the crankcase and has been burned as fuel...this happened to my sons bike ,a 2 stroker......he used up all his gear box oil and when he topped it up you could see bubbles in the sight glass......

**kwaka_crasher** · 9th November 2009, 10:00

I always used ATF in my 2-smoker gearboxes. And like someone said, if it's disappearing without obvious leaking it can only be being drawn into the bottom end through the crankshaft seal and burned off.

**imdying** · 9th November 2009, 10:40

Originally Posted by sefer

1.Does anyone know of a cheapish place to get oil in Auckland?

Must be somewhere surely. Recommend me some too. Supercheap is useless for gear oil.

2. Does SAE30,40 sound right? My owners book is well written almost everywhere, but declines into Engrish in that one section...

I use GL5 synthetic Valvoline Duragear from Repco in mine. I think it's about a 75/85w.

**Bender** · 9th November 2009, 12:33

Sefer - you should get the crankcase seals checked as that may be where your oil is going. I bought a brand new PE175 a ways back and it had been sitting in the dealer's showroom for 18 months. One of the seals had gone hard and I didn't know anything was amiss until nasty grinding noises started coming from the innards.

This is relevant in your case because the bike has been sitting. It's not uncommon.