4th gen (96 VFR750) Leaking Clutch Fluid Problem

First a little background info. Last year I purchased a 96 VFR750 for my wife Angie. The bike was fairly dirty when we purchased it but nothing that a little cleaning and scrubbing could not fix. The lower cowls (the black textured plastic pieces) were badly scraped from a trip in to the bushes by the previous owner. I had the lower cowls removed and repainted last year before we stored it for the winter. This spring I pulled the bike out of the garage for a good once over and to change the plugs, oil, coolant etc.


When I removed the lower cowls I noticed that the paint on the joint area of the left lower cowl piece was bubbled and peeling. Uh - OH was my first thought. After some careful checking we noticed some clear fluid leaking from behind the front sprocket cover. I had sprayed the chain with some degreaser to clean it before I applied some fresh chain lube, but that was the week before so NOPE. Feeling a bit lost I decided to continue on and think about it. I went ahead with flushing the front brake fluid, and then went to do the clutch. TADA, the reservoir was empty (and I know it was full because I had topped it up with a small amount of fluid before putting it away for the winter) so there must be a leak somewhere.


I refilled the reservoir and continued on and bled the clutch line. Afterwards I placed a piece of tinfoil on the floor after shaping a pan out of it of sorts and put some paper towel on top to see if I could pinpoint approx where the fluid was leaking from. It appears it is leaking from behind the sprocket cover behind the clutch slave cylinder. After looking at the Honda Service Manual I noticed that when removing the sprocket cover there are three gaskets that are supposed to be replaced. One looks to seal the speedo drive to the front of the sprocket cover, one seals the the clutch slave cylinder to the front of the cover, and one seals the back of the sprocket cover to the side of the engine case.


Is there somewhere else that the clutch fluid could be leaking from other than the gasket behind the clutch cover. I know the previous owner mentioned that he had replaced the chain and sprockets shortly before we purchased the bike. Since the bike was soooo dirty in the sprocket cover area that I couldn't tell if there was a leak. The PO was very liberal with his use of chain lube so the area behind the sprocket cover was dripping with goop.


Any help would be greatly appreciated. I was going to order the gaskets from Honda, but I thought I would check with the members here to see if there could be any other cause for the leak, such as the slave cylinder itself.

 

Those (greenish?) paper gaskets are not in contact with fluid, so if there's a leak, its the slave cylinder seal. Cheap and easy to fix.:biggrin-new:

 

So does this mean there is a seal inside the slave cylinder itself??

 

There are 2, dust seal (not your problem) and piston seal.

 

Thanks Squirrelman, I will check that out and see if I can replace the seal.

 

If it was me. I would pop for a new slave cylinder, you know a slave is something every man should have, especially one that does not leak. Seriously though, the re-build kit from honda as my foggy memory serves me is a wash-oot compared to buying a new slave cylinder and my experience rebuilding them is not good. I bought a brand new slave cylinder only to have a problem with the bleeder hole, I ended up using a special liquid sealant, if that did'nt work (which it did) I was ready to use a marker (as machinists dye) and then either a pencil, q-tip etc, with a conicle shape at the end with either valve grinding compound, semikrome (you get the idea) and burnish 0ot the marker. Seems the new unit oot of the box weeped at the bleeder nipple, came right oot of the thread area. You get the seal at the base of the bleeder, its the conicle part that gives you the seal, not the threads, anyway so as not to get too wordy which I already did, the liquid teflon tape worked, that is until I have to bleed the clutch, "I will cross that bridge when it comes."

 

I checked the cost on Partzilla and the cost of a new slave cylinder was $69, so I have ordered a new one. Sometimes the shipping costs from the US to Canada can be a little costly but Partzilla was only $29. I doubt I can purchase a new slave cylinder from my local dealer for that price. I remember wanting to order a turn signal light for my wife's bike and Partzilla wanted $40 and my local dealer wanted over $120

 

I also had a clutch fluid leak. I got a slave cylinder gasket, oil seal, and slave cylinder cup and that seemed to do the trick! You should try to get a master cylinder rebuild kit while you already have the clutch fluid drained too. Hope you fix your problem soon!

 

Checked with a local parts supplier today and the cost of the rebuild kit for the slave cylinder (piston, oil seal, and cover gasket) was $35.00 more than the cost of buying a new OEM slave cylinder, sprocket cover gasket and brake line crush washers from Partzilla.com.

Thanks for the suggestion Username about the master cylinder but the PO had replaced the clutch master cylinder about a year before I purchased the bike. The bike fell over in the garage and landed on some shelving and snapped the lever off and cracked the lever mounting bolt hole so he needed a new master cylinder assembly.