Replaced oil leak at cam cover

[RVA804]

I had some oil on the cylinders so I took off the camshaft housing on both cylinders and noticed that both gaskets were worn out and one O ring needed to be replaced. I replaced both gaskets and the o ring and now there is no leak. I didn't replace the camshaft oil seals (they were in excellent condition, maybe the previous owner had replaced these as they looked new). Anyway, I thought I was reading something about the oil seals needing to be replaced after removing the housing. Is this correct? Again, the oil leak stopped I just want to make sure I am not doing any damage. Thanks!

 

[xjwmx]

You usually replace an oil seal whenever it gets disturbed, but in the case of the camshaft seals I wouldn't unless it started leaking. Because it's easy to get to and it's probably not going to start leaking.

 

[RVA804]

You usually replace an oil seal whenever it gets disturbed, but in the case of the camshaft seals I wouldn't unless it started leaking. Because it's easy to get to and it's probably not going to start leaking.

I will order some oil seals from mikes and replace them.

 

[5twins]

Don't do that, the ones from Mike's suck. You don't need to replace an oil seal unless it's leaking. Leave well enough alone.

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

5twins, please fill me in as to the inferiority of Mike's cam seals ( 01-9020 Special triple lip camshaft Oil Seals. - Made in Japan) . In fact, I've recently replaced these using Mike's items on three of my XS650's, and one of them (the 1980) continues to leak, despite cleaning up the cam nicely and carefully. This might be a function of accidentally filling the engine oil on that bike somewhat higher than recommended, which I'm going to fix, soon.

If Mike's are not the best, which other source would you recommend, from your experience?

 

[retiredgentleman]

Yes, Mikesxs Special triple lip cam seals are junk. You can't believe anything that they say in their advertising. Did they use the words
"High performance" as well, and Made in Japan.....................all lies! I'd say they are made in China, just like the rest of their parts. Your leaking has nothing to do with the oil level in the sump.
Those seals are too wide for the space available on the camshaft.They lasted one season on my bike before leaking started.

Go to Boats.net site and buy the OEM single lip oil seals. They work great and will continue to work for decades.

I have sent E-mails to both Mikesxs.com and XS650direct in Canada, requesting they stop selling those very poor quality oil seals. I also told them they need to log onto sites such as this one and listen to their customers.
Do you think they will listen to me? They have a long history of selling sub standard parts, so I have doubts that anything will change.

 

[5twins]

Yes, the problem seems to be that the extra lips on the "triple lip" seal were added to the front or outside of the seal. The original single lip seal barely makes it onto the stub of the cam that sticks out. Often, these added lips on the "improved" seal don't. It wouldn't matter if you had 10 or 20 extra seal lips, if they don't ride on the cam shaft they aren't going to do anything.

I haven't done so yet but I'd like to experiment with pushing the seal in deeper. Normally, you set it so it's flush with the back of the housing. I'm hoping it can be set so it hangs out a MM or 2. The amount will all depend on the space available between the housing and the cam bearing, but just an additional MM or so may help the seal work better, getting it on the cam shaft more.

I don't replace seals just for the heck of it, only if they're leaking. I still have the original cam seals in my bike and they're working fine. What I did do was clean the ends of the cam shaft where they ride when I had the housings off. I buffed them clean and shiny with a Scotchbrite pad. This is an old mechanic's trick that can be applied to any seal-on-shaft replacement. It doesn't really remove any material, just cleans and smooths the shaft surface giving the new seal a fresh surface to work upon. You can sometimes even cure a slight leak on an old seal with this trick. If your cam seals are weeping just slightly, try it before actually replacing them.

 

[retiredgentleman]

5T......................the oem seals ( part # 93101-25044-00) are 6 mm wide and they fit just fine. They are made of high quality rubber, and use just one lip, because one lip is all that is needed. I'm not surprised you still have the original in your engine. The Mikesxs part # 01-9020 are 7 mm wide. The "triple lip" thing is just marketing BS, and has to be called out for what it is............junk.

Ownership at Mikesxs changes over the years, but new owners sell the same inventory of poor quality parts.

 

[5twins]

That, and they add more, lol. Also, many of their items that used to be good are now junk. A perfect example is their fuel line. It used to be wonderful stuff, thin wall, soft and supple, identical to the original line. Now it's fatter, basically just 1/4" auto type line, and the quality is the absolute pits. I put some on and barely a year later it was splitting and pissing gas out. Absolute garbage now.

 

[xjwmx]

I will order some oil seals from mikes and replace them.

You had to be responding to me, but that wasn't my suggestion! If you have this engine apart it's a good time to replace all the seals. But I'd call the cam seals a special case. They're easy to get to and they push in and out with your thumbs so it doesn't make sense to replace them unless they're leaking.

Something people might want to try on leaking cam seals -- xsjohn replaced the old ring spring with another one of the same diameter but thicker, made from a larger spring. He reported he had been using that a long time with no issues.

 

[retiredgentleman]

I received an e-mail back from Mikesxs and they said they recognize that there is a problem with the # 01-9020 oil seal being too wide.
They also say they will now be working on finding the correct size seal as a replacement. They seem to be genuinely concerned at improving the quality of parts they sell.

 

[angus67]

Even if they (mikes) would just sell a good stock design, it would be a huge improvement.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Old threads on the camshaft seals:

http://www.xs650.com/threads/need-new-cam-shaft-seal-oring-gasket.36404/
http://www.xs650.com/threads/the-other-gasket-kit-from-mikes.41321/