Leaky Main Seal

[rasow]

Hi,

The main seal on my 2002 TC Deluxe has blown and the belt blew oil all over the place. I realized I had a problem when I got stopped in traffic and my bike smelled like a tar truck. Made it home but the rear brake was'nt working to well.

Is there any tricks I need to know about to pulling the sprocket drive and removing the seal. I would like to fix it myself.

Thanks,

[TBIRD]

Holy cow, never heard of that one. How many miles on the bike? If nobody posts information here I would check posts on the VMC and see what others have done.

[John Ritter]

Hi Ralph,
can you post some pictures?

I don't know which seal you are referring to? Is it the one on the output shaft located on the inside of the front pulley (where the shaft exits the case?)

If so, I would suspect a bearing could be an issue as well.

[rasow]

Hi,

It is the front drive sprocket seal. I bought the bike used in August of 2007 with 3000 miles on it and now it has 25500.

This is what I found:

When I removed the nut lock plate from the drive sprocket I found that the nut was loose. I spun the nut off with my fingers. When I took the drive sprocket off I couldn't find the seal. Then I looked at the back of the drive sprocket and the seal was sitting on it. Can't figure out how that nut could loosen up lke that. Now I have to wait for the seal (they had to order it) and put it all back together. I am missing some great riding weather.

[rasow]

The parts came in at Northway Sports. I had ordered a new belt since I was in there. I sent my wife up to get the parts and they didn't give her the belt.
That is the third strike for Northway and me. The first time I walked in there one of the guys looked at me as if I was pimple on a flea and I stood at the counter for a long time before they asked me what I wanted. I gave them a second chance and had them work on my bike before I took it to the Grand Canyon, and the rear wheel loosened up going from Sedona to Flagstaff and the belt almost fell off. The dealer in Flagstaff was a pretty good guy.

God I miss Warners

[flatsboy]

The parts came in at Northway Sports. I had ordered a new belt since I was in there. I sent my wife up to get the parts and they didn't give her the belt.
That is the third strike for Northway and me. The first time I walked in there one of the guys looked at me as if I was pimple on a flea and I stood at the counter for a long time before they asked me what I wanted. I gave them a second chance and had them work on my bike before I took it to the Grand Canyon, and the rear wheel loosened up going from Sedona to Flagstaff and the belt almost fell off. The dealer in Flagstaff was a pretty good guy.

God I miss Warners

Ralph, apparently this was a fairly common issue with the V92 series. My front pulley nut also loosened up and Andy at Warners said they replaced the early front pulleys with ones that had hardened splines so make sure your splines are OK before putting the old one back on, I replaced mine. Apparently the splines start to wear and the resulting slack loosenes the nut. Mine was also an '02 Freedom motor but they weren't immune. Make sure you get it properly torqued, that could also be an issue with one loosening up. Expensive little buggers.

John makes a good point on the bearing but I was lucky and mine didn't fail, Andy said they rarely did.

The canyon road between Sedona and Flagstaff isn't a good place for a repair (although there is precious shade along the way). Don't know why but all of the dealers except Mies seem to be out of belts. Belts and oil should never hit zero inventory at any dealer anytime. Schamby had to drive from Lakeville to Mies to get a belt, that's ridiculous. As far as Northway I've had just the opposite experience, they've been great and dropped everything to help me when I blew a tire earier this year. Hard to figure. As with any dealership issues I'd let the ower or GM know how you feel, they don't always get the real story. I'm sure Dan at Northway would be more than sympathetic.

[sks700]

Re-torquing that nut was a maintenance item on the earlier Vics...

[06shooter]

Thats exactly what the insurance puke said on my 02TC.

[rasow]

Thanks for all the info. I found that they made a kit and called Kit 2000 for the new drive sproket. Looks like they want about $275 for it. I didn't see any problems with mine so I put it all back together and tightened it up.

So far so good.