Nappy Pumpkin

[Slonishku]

I just got home from a 2,000 mile ride recently. Before I left, I have replaced both tires, and I'm pretty sure I got everything mounted back up just fine. After I got home, I peeled off the bodywork and am in the process of installing some HIDs up front.

while I was taking a break from wiring and electro-crap, I decided to do some more menial stuff. The bike got pretty dirty driving on wet & gravelly roads through some mountain passes, so I started cleaning off the back undercarriage. I realized that, while everything around the rear wheel and underside was pretty filthy, the pumpkin itself and aft end of the final drive housing was completely coated in a flat black oil/ dirt compound. Pretty nasty. The coating was so complete that one might have guessed that the pumpkin actually had a flat black finish. Road testing to follow, but is such a condition normally attributed to a particular leak? I'll take it out soon to see if any particular spot is suspect.

 

[Donal]

I just got home from a 2,000 mile ride recently. Before I left, I have replaced both tires, and I'm pretty sure I got everything mounted back up just fine. After I got home, I peeled off the bodywork and am in the process of installing some HIDs up front.

while I was taking a break from wiring and electro-crap, I decided to do some more menial stuff. The bike got pretty dirty driving on wet & gravelly roads through some mountain passes, so I started cleaning off the back undercarriage. I realized that, while everything around the rear wheel and underside was pretty filthy, the pumpkin itself and aft end of the final drive housing was completely coated in a flat black oil/ dirt compound. Pretty nasty. The coating was so complete that one might have guessed that the pumpkin actually had a flat black finish. Road testing to follow, but is such a condition normally attributed to a particular leak? I'll take it out soon to see if any particular spot is suspect.

I would be inclined to check the oil level in the rear gearbox before I went anywhere. While down there have a feel under the swinging arm close to where it is joined to the gearbox. There is a drain hole there and will give you some idea if the oil is coming from the usual suspect oil seal.

Don

 

[FJRMGM]

I just got home from a 2,000 mile ride recently. Before I left, I have replaced both tires, and I'm pretty sure I got everything mounted back up just fine. After I got home, I peeled off the bodywork and am in the process of installing some HIDs up front.

while I was taking a break from wiring and electro-crap, I decided to do some more menial stuff. The bike got pretty dirty driving on wet & gravelly roads through some mountain passes, so I started cleaning off the back undercarriage. I realized that, while everything around the rear wheel and underside was pretty filthy, the pumpkin itself and aft end of the final drive housing was completely coated in a flat black oil/ dirt compound. Pretty nasty. The coating was so complete that one might have guessed that the pumpkin actually had a flat black finish. Road testing to follow, but is such a condition normally attributed to a particular leak? I'll take it out soon to see if any particular spot is suspect.

I would be inclined to check the oil level in the rear gearbox before I went anywhere. While down there have a feel under the swinging arm close to where it is joined to the gearbox. There is a drain hole there and will give you some idea if the oil is coming from the usual suspect oil seal.

Don

+1 - sounds like too much oil to me.

 

[Slonishku]

I just got home from a 2,000 mile ride recently. Before I left, I have replaced both tires, and I'm pretty sure I got everything mounted back up just fine. After I got home, I peeled off the bodywork and am in the process of installing some HIDs up front.

while I was taking a break from wiring and electro-crap, I decided to do some more menial stuff. The bike got pretty dirty driving on wet & gravelly roads through some mountain passes, so I started cleaning off the back undercarriage. I realized that, while everything around the rear wheel and underside was pretty filthy, the pumpkin itself and aft end of the final drive housing was completely coated in a flat black oil/ dirt compound. Pretty nasty. The coating was so complete that one might have guessed that the pumpkin actually had a flat black finish. Road testing to follow, but is such a condition normally attributed to a particular leak? I'll take it out soon to see if any particular spot is suspect.

I would be inclined to check the oil level in the rear gearbox before I went anywhere. While down there have a feel under the swinging arm close to where it is joined to the gearbox. There is a drain hole there and will give you some idea if the oil is coming from the usual suspect oil seal.

Don

+1 - sounds like too much oil to me.

Does changing the rear wheel tend to put any seals at risk?

 

[Ignacio]

Does changing the rear wheel tend to put any seals at risk?

Not unless you're doing it a crazy way. You jostle around the wheel to get two splined areas back together, but in my experience it's not an issue.

I concur on checking oil level. I've only seen seals go out on one bike (skooters) and there was an obvious smearing.

Personally, my pumpkin has been coated a bunch, but I think because of an area of oily road I'd been riding. A little oil goes a long way when covered with dirt.

 

[Tree Doc]

I can't likely add any ideas to the solution but I just wanted to thank you for the great idea on a name for a Rock and Roll Band, Screen Name on an LD site, etc! :lol2:

Nappy Pumpkin! :rofl:

 

[RaYzerman19]

My guess is if your entire pumpkin is covered, it's not likely a leak but something you picked up from the road. If you happened to overfill the diff oil (can be done but you'd have to try hard), then some may have blown out the breather, but that would be concentrated around the breather. Same for a leak from the weep hole, should be more concentrated in one area, not all over.

 

[ionbeam]

Just a fringe thought here. My V-Max had an almost identical rear diff as the FJR (gear ratio slightly different, everything else is identical) and it also periodically had a dirty pumpkin like it had been fogged in a light mist of oil then dusted with dirt. It had one common cause, when the weather was hot and I rode for long lengths of time near red-line in top gear the diff breather would lightly fog the pumpkin with oil, leading to the dirty housing. I'm sure you have never ridden your FJR this way so this probably isn't your problem.

 

[Slonishku]

I'll try taking it out for a few miles and see if anything laeaks out on the now clean pumpkin. Like I said, the bike was clean before the ride started and was filthy at the end. I rode several hundred miles each on I-5 and Highway 101, and over the pass on Highway 299. 299 had a lot of gunk on the road in a lot of places. It was wet, and there was a bit too much de-icing gravel on the road for comfort. The left side of the wheel doesn't have a level of oily dirt corresponding to that on El Pumpkino Nappio.

If you do get around to starting a heavy metal band, feel free to use Nappy Pumpkin!

 

[e2b]

I just got home from a 2,000 mile ride recently. Before I left, I have replaced both tires, and I'm pretty sure I got everything mounted back up just fine. After I got home, I peeled off the bodywork and am in the process of installing some HIDs up front.

while I was taking a break from wiring and electro-crap, I decided to do some more menial stuff. The bike got pretty dirty driving on wet & gravelly roads through some mountain passes, so I started cleaning off the back undercarriage. I realized that, while everything around the rear wheel and underside was pretty filthy, the pumpkin itself and aft end of the final drive housing was completely coated in a flat black oil/ dirt compound. Pretty nasty. The coating was so complete that one might have guessed that the pumpkin actually had a flat black finish. Road testing to follow, but is such a condition normally attributed to a particular leak? I'll take it out soon to see if any particular spot is suspect.

Does your bike have a hot/burning oil smell coming up from the bottom?. if it continues to get black then you might try and eliminate the possibility that the seal on the output shaft from the engine isn't leaking. My son's 2004 has this problem and the seal is not easy to change. Right now it is a nuisance leak and seems to come and go and I think you have to move the engine to get one of the bolts out.

Ed

 

[Slonishku]

No burning oil smell, thank goodness!

 

[escapefjrtist]

Based on the description, I'd place my bet on just good old fashioned road gunk. Take it from someone who occasionally rides in the wet ( ) the amount of oils and fine tire debris coming off the roads and ending up on the bike is...well, disgusting. It's especially true when you add some moisture to the soup...

Ride it like you stole it and w/o any obvious signs of oil, you're good to go!

--G