Help - oil leak from left crankcase cover, yamaha xv250 (virago)

[aum108]

Hi,

I'm feeling pretty dumb to be having to ask for help after what's happened.

Earlier today I took off the left crankcase cover from my Yamaha XV250 (Virago). On the Virago the left cover contains the stator.
After putting the cover back on and riding into town, I noticed a terrible oil leak coming from that left side cover.

In town, I took the cover off again and tried to put it on with a better seal. This seems to have slowed the leak a bit, but by no means stopped it.

What makes it tricky is there's a wire which enters the crankcase at the bottom front, and a thicker wire which enters at the bottom rear. The wire at the bottom rear has a grommet, which is tricky to line up.

At the moment, the bike is parked with a bowl underneath the crankcase. Just a couple of hours after my last ride, the bowl already has about 200mL of oil in it.

Can anyone offer any words of wisdom to help me eliminate the leak completely, without having to take the bike to a mechanic and getting screwed.

I'm in Hamilton. If there's anyone there with some expertise and some free time, I'd be grateful if you could help.

Cheers
David

[Sable]

Smear RTV silicone on the mating face of the cover after cleaning with degreaser.

[Gareth123]

New gasket will probably help. Or you can cheat and just use gasket cement the whole way around.

[aum108]

Thanks guys. I was kinda leaning in that direction myself. SuperCheapAuto has a range of RTV cements, many south of $20. OTOH I'm guessing a genuine gasket would set me back at least NZ$50.

Cheers
Dave

[NinjaNanna]

is it leaking from a spot on the gasket, or is it leaking from the orings you speak of?

[Taz]

Why'd you take it off?

[aum108]

The RTV silicon cement did the trick. Not a drop leaking.
The gasket might have been factory original - well, it fragmented severely when I took the cover off.
Took a while to scrape all the fragments from the cover and the case.

Thanks for the tip guys. All good now

Cheers
Dave