I have an 04 GSA that started leaking FD oil in the past week. I was assuming it was just a bad seal but I am concerned it may be more now that I've drained all the FD oil. Below is a picture of the oil as it came out. Kind of a milky brownish color to it. I know these bikes have FD failure issues and wonder if this is just the first sign. I checked for lateral play and didn't notice much of any movement at all. There was a small metal shaving on the magnet drain plug. I removed the seal and nothing looks damaged inside. Any thoughts as to why the oil looks like this? I had my fair share of muddy water crossings this past year. Any chance some of that is making it into the oil?
Your oil is contaminated with water. If your doing water crossings you should change your FD oil more often. Hot FD meets cold water so it cools rapidly making the air inside contract which then sucks the water in.
Thanks for the reply. That makes sense that water would be contaminating the oil. I'm going to replace the seal and make sure I start changing the FD oil more regularly.
I would flush with ATF, replace the seal, clean the magnetic plug thoroughly and fill with fresh GL-5. Remove and inspect the mag plug in 6 months.
The one veatch84 <sup> OP </sup>was mentioning about :) Also... Check for play in the rear wheel. Do the test for the big bearing or the small needle bearings. I can't imagine how the big bearing spins in a water/oil mixture like the one in the pics above. Dan.
