Motorcycle Repair: 1983 honda vt500c stator cover?, honda vt500c, bikebandit com

Question
I was changing the stator,due to it going bad.As I was doing that i removed the cover, and that is when a black fluid poured out. I thought it was oil but it was very thin and smelled like gas. So my question is should there be any fluid in there? and if not were is it coming from? and how to stop it? Thanks

                        Keith

Answer
Keith,

http://houseofmotorcycles.bikebandit.com/honda-motorcycle-vt500c-shadow-1983/o/m...

for illustrations.

First, I thought maybe you had a model with the hydraulic clutch system, but this one seems to have a cable, instead. If the stator was short circuited and got very hot it may have burnt the oil in that area, which was trapped in the recesses of the cover.

The stator is oil cooled, so maybe your crankcase is full of  gasoline from a leaky carburetor or bad petcock diaphragm, leaking back into the vacuum line to the carburetors, then into a cylinder, washing down past the rings into the main oil supply. At any rate, you will get into the oil supply when you pull either of the engine side covers.

Do drain your oil and change the filter after you fire it all back up again.

Bill Silver