Max_Morley
Serious Thumper
Offline
LT650 Luxury Touring & sidecar rig
Posts: 1490
Moses Lake. WA
Gender: 
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On the 87 we just did, you could actually see the bottom of the rubber plug jigglying up and down at idle. At cruise RPM it seated due to crankcase pressure. That why the leak was worse on my 96 (and this 87) at around town running vs highway driving, more idleing time. Use a flashlight and look up above the bolt on the stud behind the exhaust header. The plug (Suzuki calls it a cap) stops up the access hole used to tighten that nut (it is one of the four on the cylinder). We could actually watch the oil drop down into the cavity when the egnine ran, when you put the bike on the side stand, it drips off the lower left corner of the cylinder head to cylinder mating surface and on the ground. In flight it blows back on the side covers, battery box, and saddle bags of you have them. Takes a couple hours to fix if you have all the parts on hand and decent selection of wrenches and sockets. An extra set of hands is nice to R & R the tank and wiring connection (it pulls apart w/no lock clips) =, also helps to have very little fuel in the tanl. Don't lose the rubber ring on the speedo cable lower end. One of those new 10 mm racheting box wrenches is a big help and we use mostly 1/4 drive sockets sets for the job. A 3/8 dr. air wrench is nice for the top engine stay nuts. Supplies needed are the cap, 4 new copper washers for the sealing cover bolts, grey yamaha bond or =, and some blue locktite. We used q-tips to get oil out of the cover bolt holes. Lots of great information in the tech section and I can't emphasize enough printing out Greg's template for the cover bolts and using it. If somehow you mess up all the bolts should be above the cover close to the same amount when they are just placed in the hole, if they are correct. If you have a high or low one they are incorrect and will either bottom and break or not have enough thread engagement and strip the cover. Remember the front left ,upside down one and the center one have to come out with the cover and go back in with it as the frame interfers with getting those in once the cover is in place. Use the sealer sparingly as you do not want it to get inside the engine and plug up the oil pump inlet !! A pencil lead thin line is plenty as the surfaces are machined and will almost seal w/o any sealer. We also dabbed a blob of RTV on top the plug/cap where the cover runs across the top of it. It should help keep the new plug bottomed and not leak. My 96 is still tight being done in 99. On the 87 we took the cover out the RH side but on my 96 it came out the left hand side easier for some reason. I have mine open to change the cam chain and tensioner at 26,ooo miles. If you get a noise (rattle) on the RH side down low on the cylinder, don't ignore it as I'd guess the steel/iron parts going through the crank to counterbalancer gear would be fatal. The plunger in the cam chain tensioner wears the aluminum housing to the point the plunger and spring can fall out. Mine was still intact but I could easily move it down and out with my finger. Hopefully the new part will be redesigned and have a longer life. The failure seems sporadic and may be because I like to run mine slow which would load/unload the cam chain more. I ran mine one summer with the leak but could not at the time figure the town vs highway difference in leakage. I checked at every gas stop regardless. Happy Wrenching Max
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