1983 XT250 Oil Drain Problem

[dueckt]

First of all I'm new to this forum so hello to everyone,

I am in the final stages of a restoration of my old 1983 XT250.  The bike only has 7000km on it but had been sitting neglected for a while because it had no compression and the previous owner couldn't figure out the problem.  I determined that the cam chain had skipped a couple teeth and thus the timing was way out of whack.  I fixed that (as well as new rings, honed cylinder etc) and the bike now runs and drives fairly well (I still am working out some carb issues).  Anyway, long story short, I went to do an oil change after running it for a little bit and when I took out the oil drain plug zero oil came out.  I removed the other drain from the right side of the engine that has the metal filter and all the oil drained out of there.  I figured maybe the drain was plugged but now I'm worried that maybe no oil is getting to that side of the engine which is the side with the cam chain and maybe that's what caused the issues in the first place.  Has anyone had a similar issue?  I guess ill take off the flywheel and alternator and see if there is any oil in there and if the drain is just plugged.  Not looking forward to doing all that again but such is life.  Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Travis

[YZEtc]

I owned a 1981 XT250H back around 1989, and that bike was the same as your 1983 model except for colors and graphics.

Don't expect to see any oil around the stator or rotor because this engine does not have engine oil bathing the stator or rotor.

The outer circumference of the stator is sealed against the crankcase with a big O-ring and the center of the stator has an oil seal where the crankshaft pokes through.

The cam chain is one of the parts that does get splashed with engine oil, and if the cam chain were being starved for oil, it's probably because there's no oil in the engine to begin with (and it would not run for long, anyway).

How much oil came out?

Was it the correct amount?

What I'd do is to make sure the oil pump was operating via that little sealing bolt and washer gasket on top of the oil filter cover, and stick a suitable tool up into the left-hand side oil drain hole to see if there were something blocking it.

 

Edited February 8, 2018 by YZEtc

[dueckt]

6 hours ago, YZEtc said:

I owned a 1981 XT250H back around 1989, and that bike was the same as your 1983 model except for colors and graphics.

Don't expect to see any oil around the stator or rotor because this engine does not have engine oil bathing the stator or rotor.

The outer circumference of the stator is sealed against the crankcase with a big O-ring and the center of the stator has an oil seal where the crankshaft pokes through.

The cam chain is one of the parts that does get splashed with engine oil, and if the cam chain were being starved for oil, it's probably because there's no oil in the engine to begin with (and it would not run for long, anyway).

How much oil came out?

Was it the correct amount?

What I'd do is to make sure the oil pump was operating via that little sealing bolt and washer gasket on top of the oil filter cover, and stick a suitable tool up into the left-hand side oil drain hole to see if there were something blocking it.

 

Hi, thanks for the advice.  The reason I said I might need to take the stator and rotor off is to see if there was any oil behind it in the bottom cam chain/sprocket area which is sealed like you said.  Before doing that I will take off the top cam chain cover to see if the cam chain is bone dry.  The correct amount of oil came out once I removed the other drain on the right side of the engine but nothing came out of the normal oil drain on the left side.  I'll poke around and see if anything is plugging it but I assume there is an oil channel running from the crank case to the bottom of the cam chain and if that's plugged the cam chain could be running dry even with the correct amount of oil in the engine correct? Maybe I'm just assuming the worst, so I'll check a few more things before tearing off the flywheel and stator again.  Possibly pour some oil down from the top of the cam chain and see if it comes out the drain.  If nothing comes out and the cam chain seems lubricated then I know the drain is just plugged.

Thanks!

[YZEtc]

Please come back here and report what you find out.