Hi all, a question for those in the know. My storm appears to be drinking a lot of clutch fluid. About a month ago riding home from Bristol I developed no clutch. Got home and found no fluid in the reservoir. Filled it up, bled it and all appeared fine.
Now today on the run into Bristol I find the same problem again. There's no obvious leak from the master cylinder end although I haven't removed the slave end that appears fine from the outside.
Any thoughts? The bike's old, has done about 40,000km and is doing about 140 miles a day.
Many thanks,
Paul.
Storm's drinking clutch fluid
Storm's drinking clutch fluid
French import, yellow 97 Firestorm. Written off by a french madman, rebuilt by an english idiot.
Re: Storm's drinking clutch fluid
Holy crap dude - I'd say half your wages goes on petrol !plivesey wrote:140 miles a day.
Re: Storm's drinking clutch fluid
The annoyance is having to be selective about filling up with fuel, otherwise it's fill up with fuel, go to Bristol, fill up with fuel, back to West Berkshire, fill up with fuel, go to Bristol, etc. I can't quite manage Bristol and back on one tank and hate having to fill up twice a day.pmcq wrote:Holy crap dude - I'd say half your wages goes on petrol !plivesey wrote:140 miles a day.
I had a Beemer 1150RT on loan for a couple of months last year. Horrid bike but a great tank range.
Last edited by plivesey on Mon Jul 30, 2007 3:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
French import, yellow 97 Firestorm. Written off by a french madman, rebuilt by an english idiot.
Re: Storm's drinking clutch fluid
Dont I know it - I only do half your distance and I hate filling up even once a day! If I take the car for the week, I fill up at the start of the week and thats it - diesel .... 550 miles to the tank!plivesey wrote:hate having to fill up twice a day.
I've thought about putting a couple of 2 litre empty milk containers filled with petrol in my rucksack and using an ingenious array of hoses routed into the fuel tank.
MIght be a tad dodgy if I came off the bike though 
Re: Storm's drinking clutch fluid
My Mitsubishi FTO gives me 480 - 520 miles on a tank of normal unleaded and that's a sports car. Why, oh why, oh why does the storm have such a tiny tank?pmcq wrote:Dont I know it - I only do half your distance and I hate filling up even once a day! If I take the car for the week, I fill up at the start of the week and thats it - diesel .... 550 miles to the tank!plivesey wrote:hate having to fill up twice a day.
French import, yellow 97 Firestorm. Written off by a french madman, rebuilt by an english idiot.
Getting back to the problem I'm with Alan (Phaeton) there's got to be a leak somewhere 
If it's not the master cylinder on the handlebar or the slave cylinder by the front sprocket, check the metal pipe that carries the fluid from the master cylinder to the slave cylinder for a pin hole leak Like Alan said get someone to hold the clutch lever in while you investigate
Chris.
I'm with Alan (Phaeton) there's got to be a leak somewhere If it's not the master cylinder on the handlebar or the slave cylinder by the front sprocket, check the metal pipe that carries the fluid from the master cylinder to the slave cylinder for a pin hole leak Like Alan said get someone to hold the clutch lever in while you investigate Chris.
Have had a good look at things this evening and there are no obvious leeks from the master or slave cylinders and the pipework looks OK.
Points of note, it took an age to bleed the clutch and even now it doesn't feel 100%, I had to do a lot more work pumping the lever than usual. My clutch fluid always goes a dark black colour quite quickly, I believe this happened to a lot of early storms and was due to the seals. Can anyone confim or deny this?
Also small air bubbles were coming up through the master cylinder into the reservoir when I was pumping the lever. This too is pushing me in the direction of replacing the seals.
Any other thoughts on the subject are most welcome.
Paul.
Points of note, it took an age to bleed the clutch and even now it doesn't feel 100%, I had to do a lot more work pumping the lever than usual. My clutch fluid always goes a dark black colour quite quickly, I believe this happened to a lot of early storms and was due to the seals. Can anyone confim or deny this?
Also small air bubbles were coming up through the master cylinder into the reservoir when I was pumping the lever. This too is pushing me in the direction of replacing the seals.
Any other thoughts on the subject are most welcome.
Paul.
French import, yellow 97 Firestorm. Written off by a french madman, rebuilt by an english idiot.
My CBX750 had the same problem. The slave cylinder fitted to the Storm is identical to my '82 750 
.
It was the slave that was leaking but the fluid was being picked up by the chain so it wasn't obvious that the leak was there.
Check the slave again and I bet a pound to a penny thats where the leak is.
If your fluid is discolouring very quickly then yes it would be the seals. Sounds like you need to overhaul the whole system......have fun!
.It was the slave that was leaking but the fluid was being picked up by the chain so it wasn't obvious that the leak was there.
Check the slave again and I bet a pound to a penny thats where the leak is.
If your fluid is discolouring very quickly then yes it would be the seals. Sounds like you need to overhaul the whole system......have fun!
Having just got the price of the seal kit for the master cylinder (not cheap) I'm going to replace the reservoir (it's crazy paved) and the seals between it and the master cylinder. There was an amount of fluid around the join this morning. More news to follow.
French import, yellow 97 Firestorm. Written off by a french madman, rebuilt by an english idiot.
