Magnet18's 1983 310

[Magnet18]

Made it to alamogordo, NM! Incident free .. almost

Yesterday was a perfect travel day. Got a late start out of Peter's, cruised across fredericksburg through hill country, and to I10 stopping just shy of Van Horn. 400 miles in total, gained 2500ft of elevation, average 6.8mpg, all systems behaved great. With everything balanced it was smoothly gliding down the road perfectly happy at 70mph. Pulled over at a roadside pull through park for $20, had a couple drinks at their bar, couldn't have had a better travel day.

Today was pretty good all things considered, just some minor stuff. For being half as far it took twice as long.

1. Ran a load of laundry first thing in the morning forgetting the tanks weren't open to drain. Doh. So the bathroom floor is up until that dries, no biggie.

2. Tried traveling with a full fresh tank thinking we would boondock tonight. Combined with the 30mph headwind... Gave up on that real fast and dumped it after a couple miles

3. Fiiiiiiiinally found propane in van horn, the whole stinking state was sold out.

4. Got past VanHorn and one lone person tried to flag us down. He was also all smiles and thumbs up, very confusing. Couldn't make out why, checked the mirrors and the wife ran around all the windows making sure everything looked ok. slowed down to 60 and exited as soon as possible... To find the license plate gone. Go figure. Wasted a couple hours running up and down 20 miles of I10 & frontage road, just in case... Found 2 other license plates, but not ours. Oh well, a call to the BMV this week and a campground booked in alamogordo since we're now getting in after sundown.

Then the rest of the way to alamogordo was an easy cruise.


I do have a couple new things to address though

1. Looks like I'm leaking a bit of oil past the hubcaps, more on the passenger side. May need to pull the hubcap and re-do the RTV I'm thinking. Used OE seals and careful when putting them in, that's the side I replaced the 5 hubcap bolts on after the rtv was done, so hopefully that's all the problem is.

2. I don't think the propane regulator is supposed to have brown goo there

[PeterH-350LE]

Originally Posted by Magnet18

Made it to alamogordo, NM! Incident free .. almost
...

1. Looks like I'm leaking a bit of oil past the hubcaps, more on the passenger side. May need to pull the hubcap and re-do the RTV I'm thinking. Used OE seals and careful when putting them in, that's the side I replaced the 5 hubcap bolts on after the rtv was done, so hopefully that's all the problem is.

2. I don't think the propane regulator is supposed to have brown goo there

Glad is going well for you! Remember to be higher on the side you pull the cap or else you will loose more gear oil and dont have a clean surface for the sealer to adhere to.

[Magnet18]

Originally Posted by PeterH-350LE

Glad is going well for you! Remember to be higher on the side you pull the cap or else you will loose more gear oil and dont have a clean surface for the sealer to adhere to.

Thanks Peter!

[cmadmaxman]

And the axle in place!

[cmadmaxman]

Not good with this app! Anyway:
Try cleaning up everything with acetone, if there is not a gasket, I made one out of cork gasket material. I use copper coat spray on both sides of the gasket, let it dry 30 minutes +, and install. Make sure cap is not warped.
Don't over torque, just holding gear grease back an keeping the axle in place. Also if 5/16-24 bolts don't have lock washers, put some on.
Be safe!

[Magnet18]

Originally Posted by cmadmaxman

Not good with this app! Anyway:
Try cleaning up everything with acetone, if there is not a gasket, I made one out of cork gasket material. I use copper coat spray on both sides of the gasket, let it dry 30 minutes +, and install. Make sure cap is not warped.
Don't over torque, just holding gear grease back an keeping the axle in place. Also if 5/16-24 bolts don't have lock washers, put some on.
Be safe!

Thanks Chris!

I'll dig up my service manual to make sure I get the torque right.

[cmadmaxman]

If you want to make sure that the bolts don't back out, like all good Harley owners, put a little blue loctite on em!

[Magnet18]

Originally Posted by cmadmaxman

If you want to make sure that the bolts don't back out, like all good Harley owners, put a little blue loctite on em!

Noted, definitely will do!

So I was looking at the motorhome gearing up to do the hubcap seals this afternoon. Noticed telltale oil specks further forward than the wheels, and a drop on the dust shield in front of the parking brake. Trying to determine how concerned I should be. The parking drum is fine so it's not the output of the gear vendors. The oil pan is also dry so not the front anywhere. I snugged up my valve covers at Peter's because I noticed they were leaking a bit, may be leaking from there.

I figure it must be the valve covers or rear main... Can't imagine why the rear main would be acting up.

[Magnet18]

Pictures not working with the website... Let's try the app

[PeterH-350LE]

Did you replace the rear oil seal when you pulled the yoke?

[Magnet18]

Originally Posted by PeterH-350LE

Did you replace the rear oil seal when you pulled the yoke?

On the gear vendor no, didn't seem to need it
I had had that drum off and back on a handful of times and never missed a drop

[Magnet18]

The body of the gear vendors itself is wet with oil, so I'm thinking it must be in front of the output seal.

[PeterH-350LE]

There should be 2 rear trans seals. 1 for the trans and 1 for the GVO. Does the GVO use gear oil or trans fluid? The fluid type should narrow it down.

[Magnet18]

Re-sealed the hubcap yesterday afternoon, wasn't confident in my ability to cut a cork gasket sitting at a picnic table so i used RTV green for gear oil, same stuff I used for the diff cover. We'll see how it holds.

Also crawled around looking at/for oil drips. Everything looked to be motor oil with the exception of one lonesome drop of transmission fluid on the transmission pan.

I think the drips on the spark plug wires are a giveaway it's just the valve covers.

[Magnet18]

Originally Posted by PeterH-350LE

There should be 2 rear trans seals. 1 for the trans and 1 for the GVO. Does the GVO use gear oil or trans fluid? The fluid type should narrow it down.

Didn't remember offhand, looked it up, the gear vendors uses GM#12346190, gear oil. Doesn't smell so I'm confident it's not the gear vendors, which is a relief since that's probably both most sensitive to getting low and also the only thing without a dipstick

[bkahler]

I hate leaky valve covers!

I don't know why it's so hard to keep one from leaking but it is. I've had minimal luck keeping them from leaking

[Magnet18]

Originally Posted by bkahler

I hate leaky valve covers!

I don't know why it's so hard to keep one from leaking but it is. I've had minimal luck keeping them from leaking

Glad to know I'm not the only one!!

I never noticed the leaky valve cover until this trip. Could very well just be that I simply never noticed. Will check that they're all snug before hitting the road.

Just realized this is the side with the PVC check valve, so ill check that too, but I would think any excess pressure would vent back out the breather on the other side, right?

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by Magnet18

Glad to know I'm not the only one!!

I never noticed the leaky valve cover until this trip. Could very well just be that I simply never noticed. Will check that they're all snug before hitting the road.

Just realized this is the side with the PVC check valve, so ill check that too, but I would think any excess pressure would vent back out the breather on the other side, right?

Excess pressure will find any avenue of escape that it can. If the rubber seal in the valve cover that the PCV valve pushes into is hard then oil will weep right past it.

[Magnet18]

Originally Posted by bkahler

Excess pressure will find any avenue of escape that it can. If the rubber seal in the valve cover that the PCV valve pushes into is hard then oil will weep right past it.

I just meant that the breather would be much lower resistance than pushing out the valve cover gasket. Not sure how restrictive the flow of air between the two valve covers is.

Or just as likely when I noticed the small weep and snugged them up I inadvertently overtightened and turned it into a big weep.

I think I've fought valve cover leaks on almost every vehicle I've owned. The best solution is probably covers that aren't thin stamped steel, maybe when I get back to the home shop I'll swap them.

[bkahler]

Originally Posted by Magnet18

I just meant that the breather would be much lower resistance than pushing out the valve cover gasket. Not sure how restrictive the flow of air between the two valve covers is.

Or just as likely when I noticed the small weep and snugged them up I inadvertently overtightened and turned it into a big weep.

I think I've fought valve cover leaks on almost every vehicle I've owned. The best solution is probably covers that aren't thin stamped steel, maybe when I get back to the home shop I'll swap them.

It's been my experience that if there is enough pressure inside the engine block it will find any avenue of escape. On my Triumph TR4, even with an fully functional crankcase breather system oil would find it's way out any place it could. I found lots of bolts on the engine block that had oil weeping by through the threads.

I think you're on the right track looking at different valve covers. Good cast aluminum valve covers that are machined properly should go along way towards stopping the leaks. Let me know when you find a good set