hi all!

Seems that the crankshaft oil seal is leaking pretty heavily on my stock 71 1200 bug. If i do a run of about 5/6 miles or more the dripping is pretty continuous from the seal. Ive had no problems with the engine as yet, as i have kept topping up the oil.

However, im going on a long journey of 200+ miles, and havnt got time to sort the seal out :rolleyes: if i keep on top of filling the oil up i shouldnt have to much trouble should i?

I know this is not an ideal situation. I have got it booked into a garage tomorrow, just for them to diagnose the problem (im pretty sure it is the crankshaft seal) but they will not have time to take the engine out etc and fit the seal. Im going tomorrow afternoon.

really, im just hoping that someone will say, "yeah thats fine aslong as you stop every 50 and check the oil"

am i stupid to do this trip?

thanks all, Murray.

its a risk but you may be lucky. I was! I did a round trip to newquay from manchester via london with a badly leaking oil seal and didn't get it sorted out for a while after - just kept topping it up with shedloads of oil.

Eventually the clutch got so contaminated it slipped and i had to drop the engine and sort it all out.

You've not got much to loose if you make sure you stop very regularly to keep oil in there. oh and join the rac / aa :D

2 things:

Measure the crank endplay. Either you do it or have the mechanic
do it before pulling the engine to fit a new seal.
If the endplay is way out of spec, a new seal will leak again in
short order.

You can get a fair idea of the play by pushing/pulling on the
crank pulley. Max. allowed movement is 0.15mm. If the play
is double or triple that, the front main bearing may have spun in the
case and a major rebuild is in store.

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You can probably make the trip by keeping the oil topped up.
But what often happens is the oil level suddenly goes down and
the driver is unaware because the OIL warning light is not
visible in bright sun glare. A few miles down the road and the
engine seizes.

The cure for this is to add an audible alarm to the OIL light.
Electronics hobby stores can source a piezo "buzzer" or "beeper"
which will work directly on 12V (or even 6V).

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