can anyone identify this bit on the engine

[spitfire]

hi,
found a little oil below the bike this morning and looked underneath to see where it was coming from. its on the left side behind the metal clutch/gear casing. the oil was coming from a metal plate that has 5 or 6 bolts around it. there is a picture of it in the haynes manual page 21, 4.16a, the top right quarter of the picture. just wonder what this is. i tightened the bolts up as they were a little slack but when i tried the kick start it acted a bit funny, felt different , a bit spongy and was reluctant to come back up. just wondered if this was in some way related to me tightening up the bolts on the other side. starting to get a bit supersticious about fiddling with anything on the bike now as it quickly spirals until i cant get it going.

 

[Travis]

That's the box for the starter reduction gears. There is a seal under that cover. The leak could also be from the seal where the starter shaft enters the box on the other side. The oil could be leaking there and running to the "front" of the box when you put the bike on the side stand. I'd drain your oil and pull that cover off and see what's going on in there.

 

[grizld1]

The plate covers one of the two starter motor gear clusters (the other is under the primary cover, behind the clutch basket, low at the forward end). It has nothing to do with your kick starter. Clutch adjustment does affect kick starter action, since the kick starter works through the transmission output shaft, and you had the clutch actuator and cover off. Readjusting the clutch will probably eliminate the problem.

 

[grizld1]

Gotta type fast around here!

Another thing to check is torque on the countershaft sprocket; the countershaft seal will seep oil if the sprocket nut isn't run down correctly (don't ask me how they loosen up with a good tab washer in place, but they do).

 

[spitfire]

thanks everyone for such speedy replies.

whilst the mechanic had it recently i asked him to check out my electric start which never worked and sounded just awful. he said the bendix was worn or maybe the shaft ( cant remember which and have temporarily lost the bit of paper with the info on) and i shouldnt use the electric start in case i knacker it. is this related to the problem with the
starter motor gears.

this old bike is certainly giving me a crash course in motorcycle repair

 

[Travis]

Probably has nothing to do with your oil leak. The clip on the bendix loses tension and causes it to not fully engage so it grinds. This can be fixed by pinching the clip and reinstalling it. I had a bike that sounded just like the bendix problem but turned out to be a missing spacer in the reduction box (the one that is leaking). I'd dump the oil, pull that cover off, and also the right side cover and clutch to get a good look at your entire electric start system from the motor to the crank.