A curious thing happened to my Shadow this past Tuesday. Before going to our monthly section meeting I started the Shadow and warmed it up. I looked and checked that I had a nice steady oil return, I did. I warmed up the bike and rode the 22-24 miles to the meeting and parked the bike for a couple of hours. After the meeting the bike fired right and I rode away. After going a few mile I had to stop for a light and a cloud of oily smoke blew past me from behind. I looked down and back only to see that I was fogging for mosquitos! If the smoke pouring out was horrendous. There was smoke pumping out the breather even. Crossing my fingers and praying quietly to myself I continued on, hoping the oil would last and the engine wouldn't seize. Well I made it home without further issues. I checked the oil in the tank and it wasn't down too much from when I had left home. Wednesday morning I pulled the plugs and the valve covers to see if I could determine if it was one or both cylinders oiling (both) and if a there was an issue with the valve gear (doesn't seem to be) so I put everything back and started it up. It smoked from the exhaust and oil and vapor dribbled from the breather for about ten or so minutes and then just quit. Now I had the tank cap off and was watching that oil returned (it was) then all of a sudden the volume of oil exiting the return dramatically increased for a few moments and returned to normal, that was when the problem stopped.
Never having had this happen before, is this indicative of wet sumping? If it is, what would cause it to happen in this fashion, in the middle of a ride and not immediately upon start up after sitting for awhile?
Any thoughts or suggestion greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Steven
Never having had this happen before, is this indicative of wet sumping? If it is, what would cause it to happen in this fashion, in the middle of a ride and not immediately upon start up after sitting for awhile?
Any thoughts or suggestion greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Steven