If it's motor oil not hydraulic oil I would push on.

You don't say what bike it's on.

On the V2 ?? the seal can move inwards if enough crud is allowed to build up on the push rod.

If you can find the time pull the cover off, clean the push rod and ensure the seal is placed right, then leave the cover off, it's much easier to see down there without it so you can know just how bad things are.

Cleaning the push rod now and seating the seal may just fix it.

 

Appreciate the reply, Rolex and I'm glad for your advice. It's a 2015 DL650.

I pulled the cover, cleaned some gunk off the rod and from around the seal. The seal is seated properly.

When the clutch is activated, a little sploot of oil is expelled from around the center of the seal where it contacts the rod. No leak with the clutch full in or full out.

Clutch full in or out, no leak.



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It takes a thousand drops of oil to fill a shot glass.
You may even find that a good amount of use may even stop the leak. There must be a little bit of grit caught between shaft and seal. Just keep an eye on it.

 

Brockie, thanks. It's a pretty good splurt of oil with each clutch action, but I'm feeling a little more at ease. You're right, even so I should be able to keep my eye on it. I'm mostly concerned about some sort of catastrophic failure.

I'll look a little more closely and give it another cleaning before I leave. Glad for your advice, too.

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Looking at the clutch parts listing 2015 Suzuki DL650A CLUTCH | MRCycles, there are 3 oil seals, namely #28, #29 and #30. I think that more than one seal may require replacing. What do you think?

 

It will not catastrophically fail. You said that the oil comes out between shaft and seal. This is sort of like a weeping fork seal. If it gets worse rather than better you may have to spend a few days near a Suzuki dealer.
Have you contemplated the idea of making a mini fork seal probe to perhaps pluck whatever is there out? That assumes that the seal is not perished.
Are you confident that you removed all of the gunk from the shaft where it touches the seal?

 

Thanks for the link, Gert. It's definitely #29 that's the problem. When I get around to replacing it I'll take a look at the others.

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Brockie, I'll craft up a little plastic tool to see if I can get it to reseal. I should have thought of that - I just just ran a piece of milk jug plastic around one of my fork seals.

I got the rod cleaned up pretty thoroughly, but I'll give it another go just in case it helps. Thanks!

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Another couple of tricks that can buy time are to 1) turn the pushrod around backwards (as long as both ends are the same) or 2) put a piece of heatshrink on the pushrod where it passes through the seal so the seal only contacts the heatshrink.

 

 

This past Friday my friend discovered my push rod seal leaking on my 2012 Vstrom 1000 while on a trip . Lucky he’s a great Wrench and I was at his house. When we removed the sprocket cover the seal was not seated firmly. We seated it firmly. I had lost half quart of oil. I was on interstate 81 doing 75 to 90 for a few hours too. Push rod sealleaks alot less if it’s on centerstand. This is my second problem with the Vstrom in a month When going on trip. Last month was the stator and regulator rectifier. I’m Not complaiinig first real problem in 48 k miles 🤩

 

Mine leaked for a while.. just had to keep an eye on it. The turning the push rod around idea might be good. I remember mine had a bad spot on my rod when I replaced it.. turning it around might alleviate that.. check into getting a new rod when u get your seal. It was cheap.

Another thing that might help is clutchless shifting when possible.

 

Phantom - fortunately mine is still seated firmly. And I didn't even consider the center stand would be a better option. Of course it is!

Billy - definitely a cheap fix. I plan to replace the rod when I do the seal.

All - super helpful advice. I'm going to find some way to protect the rod and seal a bit better when I swap them out.

I'm off at dawn to ride the great river road.

Thanks everyone!

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Phantom - fortunately mine is still seated firmly. And I didn't even consider the center stand would be a better option. Of course it is!

Billy - definitely a cheap fix. I plan to replace the rod when I do the seal.

All - super helpful advice. I'm going to find some way to protect the rod and seal a bit better when I swap them out.

I'm off at dawn to ride the great river road.

Thanks everyone!

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Enjoy !!

 

On my V2 I made a cover for the push rod out of a very light spring with some heat shrink over it, the spring must be light so as not to push the seal inward.

I also cut a extra seal from some neoprene rubber and glued it to the front of the Suzuki seal, this was slightly larger on the outer edge, this did two things it kept the crud from reaching the Suzuki seal and it stopped the Suzuki seal from being able to move into the motor.

 

Rolex - really clever solutions. Other folks, too. I'll give one or more of them a try after my trip. Especially like the slightly larger neoprene rubber glued to the seal. Easy. I admit manipulating the push rod makes me nervous, but I'm game to try!

Thanks again!

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The reason I put on the extra seal is the clutch rod does not throw very far in and out, the new seal is thicker than that throw so no crud should ever reach the the Suzuki seal.

 

Had this same problem after a fresh set of sprockets and a chain. Running the bike on the stand for only 30s resulted in a reasonable mess on the floor. I followed the advice regarding turning the pushrod around, despite having an ever so slight bend in the rod, which worked the treat. Many thanks @slovcan