TS 250/1 main oil seals

[AlanJ]

Hi All, As mentioned in previous posts I have being doing a refurb on my 77 TS 250/1 after it sitting in the corner of the garage for 28 years. Now, apart from some problems with paint and some dismantle agro I thought here we go fire it up. I had checked for sparks with new fuel and I thought ding ding ding but NO!!! after kicking it over for about 15 mins I was knackered so I unscrewed the filter trap off the fuel tap and poured it down the plug hole. Kicked it over and away it went. Well you have never seen so much smoke coming out of a 250cc in all your life, My wife was on the phone over the other side of the house and this great cloud of smoke came past her window so she stopped her call because she thought I might be on fire, the chap next door came running out thinking the same. Anyway it was a right laugh at the time. Now we come to the bit why I filed this post. The reason I got so much smoke was the main oil seals the seal grips were holding the lip seals tight on the crankshaft and spinning round thus allowing the oil from the clutch area into the fuel system. Smoky Smoky!!! Now I think the seals were probably original and I suspect that the spec for the plastic was not as stable as it is today. Incidently when I removed them they were quite brittle. My thoughts are if you have an old bike that starts to smoke it might well be the seals. Have fun
Take care all Alan