Oil Leak question having trouble locating the source

[visimpact]

I have a 80 Im finishing up right now. I have a oil leak that Im trying to find where its originating. I thought maybe it was coming from the counter shaft seal or the shift seal. I have replaced the shift seal. I also replaced the sump gasket and the starter gasket as well. I came in after a ride the other day and there was a significant amount of oil under the bike the next morning. I was thinking maybe the counter shaft seal or the shift seal didnt seat right or got ripped(NOT THE CASE). I took the cover off and I bent back the washer holding the nut on the front sproket and did notice that the nut was not tight. From what I have read this should be torqued to 80ft lbs? Can someone confirm that? Anyway I took off the sproket and inspected the seal. It looks to be fine and I didnt see any excess oil leaking anywhere. I did notice when I pulled the side cover off most of the oil was right under the stator dripping on to the top of the kickstand area and sitting right around where the wires go thru the rubber bushing. What is leaking here? Is the countershaft nut not being torqued properly the issue?
Oh and I also put everything back to together and cleaned it all up and took it for another ride. After I got back most of the drips and oil where over the kickstand area again and the shift seal was dry and the countershaft looked pretty clean as well. Thanks for any help you guys can give me.

If pics would help I can shoot some later tonight.

 

[gggGary]

A loose counter shaft sprocket will cause a seal leak. While rare, crank shaft seals have been known to leak. Use paint thinner get it clean of all oil run it for a few minutes and watch. Blow a bit of flour or baking soda on the area it will show up the leak quickly.
A slow oil leak on my 79 turned out to be the starter gear case gasket.

 

[visimpact]

Ok, I will first try to torque down the nut. That was loose enough to actually remove without a socket so Im glad there was a leak or I might not have seen that someone did that. That could not have been good. I cleaned everything really well once and ran it but I could not see where that leak was. I also just thought about the fact that I put 10w40 in it instead of 20w50 in along with the loose nut. Maybe its to thin and coming out easier with the nut loose? Sound like that is possible?

 

[deadchef]

i changed my pushrod seal and counter shaft seal. put in a new long push rod and new bushing. torqued down the sprocket nut and put everything back together. after a ride i started noticing oil drips on the floor and my kickstand was oily along with my chain.

opened everything up and found oil was leaking out the countershaft. turns out i had put the sprocket nut on backwards. the side that is 'cupped in' (for lack of a better term) needed to be facing the sprocket. after i changed that everything has been good.

 

[gggGary]

10-40 is a bit thin for these but I'm betting on the loose nut....
That thin washer under the nut is a bit of a trick to get and keep aligned with the slots in the shaft while tightening the nut, if not lined up perfectly it will create a "false tight" nut. The washer is often bunged up from previous episodes.

 

[visimpact]

Well it's good the hear that the loose nut could cause it. That is literally all I could find wrong so I will start there. The washer was seated fine and the nut was on right so i will tighten properly and see what comes. I'm going to change the oil to 20w50 as well. I felt it slipping in first and second gear anyway which it wasn't doing prior to me putting the 10w40 in so I will drain and change. It's all I had in the garage at the time and I used it up. I will post up my follow up findings so maybe it can help someone else in the future regardless of the turn out. Thanks guys.

 

[visimpact]

Follow up for internet searches on why the bike is leaking oil. It looks like the loose nut the PO left on the bike was causing the oil leak. It was dripping down the wires under the front sproket and running down the stator wires underneath and then dripping out right at the kickstand. So far, tightening it seems to have fixed the issue. NOTE, when you buy a bike from a tweaker, check every nut and bolt even the ones you think they would have never touched.

 

[weekendrider]

visimpact, While PO's come in all sizes and do all kinds of things this isn't one you can blame on them. You will want to keep track of it, they loosen on their own despite the locking tab. Some have reported finding them only finger tight like yours( and two of mine).