Lee
I think there are three options:
1. You've pushed the seal back in, it may stay there and be touble free. Unlikely judging by Phil's experience.
2. Leave as is and fit the Cappellini retainer. It may weep a bit but the seal won't pop out...
3. Pull out the clutch pushrod (nothing will come adrift) poke a screwdriver in there and whip out the seal. Clean everything and dry it out. Buy a new seal ($5 ish). Fit the seal dry. Oil the pushrod and slide it back in. Fit the Cappellini retainer for 'peace of mind'. Take care that the 5/16" ball is still inside the clutch actuator. Button everything up and live happily ever after...... :-)
And thank you for sharing your 'problem'. This way we all get to learn something.... :-)
I like you breather pipe in a jar of water technique. No there is no PCV valve. There is no way for the air to get in out other than the breather and you blocked that off by blowing into it....
Theoretically the Superhawk with 180 degree crank should not do any pumping. One piston goes up while the other goes down. Any pressurization comes from blow-by. The Dream, on the other hand is a 360 crank and will pressurize the crankcase momentarily on every rotation. The breather is the same - go figure......
G
Clutch rod oil seal
Last edited by G-Man on Wed Mar 30, 2016 2:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
'60 C77 '60 C72 '62 C72 Dream '63 CL72
'61 CB72 '64 CB77 '65 CB160 '66 Matchless 350 '67 CL77 '67 S90 '77 CB400F
impending successI don't know how this could have gone better, thank you all so much. I went ahead and ordered the Cappellini holder kit with new seal...$36.98 a small price to pay for happily ever after.
Knowing I can just pull the pushrod out makes me much more confidant I can pop out and replace that seal. I've learned some new stuff here myself appreciate it...I'll report back when done... thanks again, Lee '62 CB77. "It's a rider."
an international adventureWell I'm sure everyone's on the edge of their seats to hear about my clutch rod seal. It actually turned in to an international adventure of sorts.
Part came in mail Monday (April 4). Tuesday morning I got to work, popped the oil seal out, cleaned seat and installed new one. Had to tap it in gently last part of the way with a 14mm socket and extension. Replaced the clutch rod, seal holder installed easily, put side cover on and tightened up exhaust pipe. Quick and easy. Started the bike on stand; when I put it in gear and let out the clutch I heard what seemed like a familiar ticking noise and saw the lever jumping around indicating I hadn't indexed the kick starter correctly. Been there. However, after taking the cover off and replacing it way too many times, trying different positions with the gears without affecting the ticking, I noticed that the heads of the screws holding the seal cover on were dinged up a bit, not like when installed. Oh, my.  damaged screws by Lee's CB, on FlickrLooking at the KS gears, the lower gear showed faint corresponding scuff marks.  where it's hitting by Lee's CB, on FlickrI took the screws to the grinder and ground down past the dings as far as comfortable. It helped but the ticking was still noticeable. I considered drilling out recesses in mounting holes to drop the screw heads down close to flush but wondered if that would compromise the strength of the holder. Decided to go to the source for advice, and glad I did. I emailed my sad story with photos around noon Tuesday to Cappellini's US distributor, John McCoy, and was extremely impressed with his response. He got back almost immediately, said he'd forwarded my question to a number of their expert advisers and Mr. Cappellini himself and would forward responses to me as they came in. By the end of the day we'd heard back from a couple of folks who only used them on race bikes without kickstarters, and someone else who noted they'd work fine on CLs but he machined the lower gear for clearance on CBs. Another fellow said his cover had 2mm recesses in it and screw heads were almost flush. Apparently an anomaly, none of the units that John had on hand had such deep recesses. It was bedtime in Italy, but John assured me that Mr. Cappellini was aware of the problem, concerned, and would get to work on figuring it out the next morning. He also said he'd modified their ebay listing for the holder to note that it might have a clearance problem with a CB77. I thought that was a really responsible thing to do. So that was Tuesday. By Wednesday afternoon, if I've got the story straight, they'd decided that Mr. Cappellini would machine 2mm recesses into some holders and get them to John for folks who wanted them. Gave me the OK to try and drill mine out with assurance that if I messed up they'd send me a new one. By Thursday morning local time, Mr. Cappellini had come up with a more elegant and sturdy solution than recesses, made 16 of them, and already expressed them to John.  New seal holder by Lee's CB, on Flickr Problem solved by Lee's CB, on FlickrI decided at that point I didn't want to bother using my minimal machining skills and my brother's woodworking drill press to molest a precision engineered part that might fail, jam in the sprocket, and leave me in a ditch, so I asked them to send me a new one and returned the old one. It took a while for my new seal holder to make its way from Italy to California and thence to me, but once it arrived it was a piece of cake to install and has plenty of clearance from the kickstarter gear. So Ol' Blue is back on the road.  New seal holder installed by Lee's CB, on FlickrThis probably won't be news to racebike folks who have dealt with Cappellini, but I just have to emphasize how blown away I was by their response to my problem, and by how fast it all happened. Problem reported around noon Tuesday, part re-engineered and problem resolved by Thursday morning. Most impressive. I also note that their ebay listing has been modified again to show this improved version of the holder. John even thanked me for pointing out the problem. These folks are obviously committed to "Quality," I think St. Pirsig would approve. I guess it's no use speculating what caused that seal to pop out after less than 3k miles. No excess crankcase pressure, stock oil pump. Possibly overkill to install this racebike part on my rider, but worth it to me for peace of mind; seeing oil all over my rear tire shook me up a bit. Worst it can do now is ooze a little. Thanks to all who helped me through this. It's been interesting and educational. Thanks again, Lee '62 CB77. "It's a rider."
Hi,
Been there, done that. It seems that Cappellini does an almost good job everytime. I had the same experience with a Cappellini oil filter set-up for my CB450. The clearance between clutch and oil filter body was just too critical, aluminium shavings in the oil as a result. read here for further details : http://www.hondatwins.net/forums/55-eng ... 0-a-5.html Jensen assembly of Japanese motorcycles requires great peace of mind (Pirsig)
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