I have an oil leak that just showed up today. It seems to be coming from behind the kickstand. It is not the clutch slave. It is oil and not clutch fluid. The only thing I could see was the gear position sensor around there. Can oil leak from here? Is this an o-ring seal here? Any other ideas for an oil leak in this area? Thanks.
Yes it can. Here's what happened with mine: http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200710 Hopefully your leak is not factory misassembly issue... Cheers
Wow, that might be my issue then. Can I pull the sensor off without draining the oil? How much will come out from here if I have the bike upright? Maybe it is just the oring or a loose bolt. I can only hope... Thanks for the help.
Well, I have thge same freaking problem! Way to go KTM. I can't believe they would do this and send it out. Must be an ongoing issue. I have never repaired threads and am concerned about doing this myself. It is still under warranty but I hate to trust the dealer to fix it. They may just pack some threadlock in there and call it fixed. I am also concerned since I took it out to check it, he will say I caused it. What are my options to fix this? PvtIdaho - can you give step by step details on your repair and what to use so that I can see if this is something I can do on my own?
SS - I just got home tonight. I'll get out into the garage tomorrow and get specific tap and helicoil sizes and post them. As I remember, I just got the helicoil insert size for the stock bolts. I took one of the bolts down to the local bolt store and the guys there hooked me up with the correct size inserts and the proper tap for the inserts. You'll need a complete Helicoil kit and not just the inserts if you haven't got an insertion tool laying around (I didn't...). It's not a difficult fix once you've got the proper tools. Oil loss is minimal. Cheers
Thanks for the help. Is the helicoil kit a full metric kit, or do you just buy the 5mm size for the single bolt? I have been reading that a kit is $80 - $100. That is a lot to have to drop right now. Thanks again, the help is much apreciated.
Alright, I finally got out to the garage. Here's what I found: I got the Helicoil thread repair kit 5546-5 for M5x0.8. It came with inserts, tap, and insertion tool. I Googled the kit and it looks like it runs $21 - $41. You'll need a 13/64 drill bit, a drill, a tap driver, and a hammer in addition to the kit. Since the gear pos. sensor is in a recessed area I couldn't use any drivers I had to tap the holes. I found a Tap Driver (52171, Craftsman, $12) at Sears that looks like a screwdriver handle. It worked just fine. I had to remove the piece that attaches the kick stand to the engine case to get in there. I think I left the shift lever in place and just moved it up and down as necessary. The Helicoil kit has instructions but you: bore out the existing hole with the drill, cut new threads with the tap, screw in the helicoil with the tool, break the tab off the insert (you'll need a punch or something similar), and you are done. If you haven't done this before, just make sure that you keep the drill and tap aligned as you are driving them into the holes. I'd also measure the depth of the existing holes and put some tape on your drill bit to mark the depth so you don't drill too deep. When you are cutting the threads, give the tap a reverse twist (about a 1/16th of a turn, you'll figure it out by feel once you've done it) every complete rotation or two to break the shavings. A little oil on the bit isn't a bad idea either. The good news is that aluminum cuts easily and you won't need to apply a lot of force. Cheers
PvtIdaho - Great info! Just what I needed. I had found the same kit after some time on Google too. But, verification from you is much better. Sounds like it is pretty easy. I also read about using a Permatex thread repair compound since this is such a small bolt and only torque to 3Nm. I will see what I can get locally, I will let you know how it works out. Thanks again for the detailed help!
Looks like I will be doing it the right way with the helicoil thanks to a friend of mine. He is getting the parts and we will try to take care of it on Saturday.
Running into the same problem, looked like one bolt was a little loose, snugged it up, but still leaking a bit. Hoping its just the o-ring, but am wondering if the oil needs to be drained before pulling the sensor off. Thanks, Scott
You don't need to drain the oil to pull the sensor. A paper towel stuffed into the hole is more than adequate to stem the slow leak with the sensor out.
Found the rear bolt stripped and leaking on my sensor. Ordered the kit for the helicoil from amazon, grabbed some tap handles from harbor freight, had the drill bit. After removing the side stand and side stand bracket, found my side stand wiring was cut/wired together and that saved me some time. cleaned the area and pulled the sensor bolts. Popping the sensor out was easy and I had a new o-ring and some sealant for reassembly. My problem was that the tap included in the kit is tapered and will only give you a few new threads to work with, and because of the tight workspace i had to pre-trim the thread inserts to the correct length before install. Still, having only 4 threads on a non pressure holding piece should work just fine, update if needed. Also the "dribble" of oil that comes out after the sensor is removed was understated.
Hello all, Just did this. I measured the depth of the screw, not the hole. Forgot about the sensor taking up about 3-5mm... Is the cavity a blind hole? I sprayed some carb cleaner in there after I was done and saw some leak into the gear position sensor hole. What about the engine shavings? Thanks everyone.
Screw holes are blind in the engine case. There shouldn't be any way for fluid pass between the hole for the sensor itself and the tapped fastener holes. Shavings from drilling and tapping the fastener holes shouldn't be an issue unless you penetrated the engine case.
