How To: Overhaul Crankcase Breather Housing

[ninjaneer]

So you pull in from your joyride with a stupid ass grin that your Max stretched across your grill. Another satisfactory run. You look at your machine with awe and delight, but it quickly morphs into disappointment when your peepers spy oil splattered across your stator or clutch cover. Upon further inspection you notice oil weeping out of the wuchmuhcallit that's wedged between the V thingy. ARRRGGHHHH !

Well son, wucha got dare iz ole drippin' frumyer Crankcase Breather Housing (CBH). Intimidating at first because of the all the doohickeys and thingamabobs stacked up over the CBH, it really is an easy fix?if a pooter jockey (translation, computer enthusiast) can do it, so can you. First things first, a parts list:

• 1 Service Manual
• 4 quarts (3.8 L) of your preferred engine oil
• 3 quarts (3 L) of your preferred coolant
• 1 each Thread Sealant (optional, as required, I used good 'ol Yamabond)
• 2 each 214-11198-01-00 (Oil and Coolant Drain Plug Washers, as required, optional)
• 2 each 90401-08006-00 (Oil Cleaner Assembly (OCA)'s External Delivery Pipe (EDP) Cylinder Banjo Bolts, as required)
• 4 each 90201-08087-00 (OCA EDP Cylinder Banjo Bolt Sealing Washers)
• 1 each 90401-10108-00 (OCA EDP CBH Banjo Bolt, as required)
• 2 each 90201-10128-00 (OCA EDP CBH Banjo Bolt Sealing Washers)
• 1 each 26H-12427-00-00 (CBH External Gasket O-Ring)
• 1 each 26H-12428-00-00 (CBH Internal Gasket O-Ring)
• 1 each 26H-13171-00-00 (OCA Internal Delivery Pipe (IDP), as required)
• 2 each 93210-06667-00 (OCA IDP O-rings)

I felt that the Steps 1-4 were trivial enough that explicit steps weren't warranted. As such reference your service manual if in doubt.

1. The engine oil and coolant meet up in the CBH so that I guess the oil can release its heat to the coolant. As such I thought it was best to drain the bike of these fluids.
2. Pop the lid
3. Remove both side scoops
4. Remove airbox
5. Remove carb rack
6. Remove the V-Boost Intake Manifold Assembly

Now that the CBH is accessible, use the following steps to remove it.

7) Back out the three banjo bolts that connect the Oil Cleaner Assembly's External Delivery Pipe (OCA EDP) to the CBH and cylinders. These are pointed at by the orange and red arrows in the following pic.

• Note that each banjo bolt has two copper sealing washers (yellow and green arrows)--these are discarded (or saved for other uses like sloppy clutches) and replaced with new ones.
• Consider replacing the banjo bolts. I'm not too sure as to the longevity of them, but I tore a crack in an old one with not even 50 in-lbs.
• When reassembling, torque the "orange" banjo bolts to 18 N-m (13 ft-lbs or 156 in-lbs). I recommend working your way up to the torque spec (e.g., torque 100 in-lbs, then 115, then 125, then 135, then 145, then 155) because I sheared one in half otherwise--freaked out until I used an allen key to turn the shaft out of the cylinder head.
• When reassembling, torque the "red" banjo bolt to 20 N-m (15 ft-lbs or 180 in-lbs)

8) Detach the coolant feed from the CBH


9) Back out the 6 bolts holding down the CBH.

• When reassembling, torque these bolts down with 10 N-m (7.3 ft-lbs or 88.5 inch-lbs) of force.
• Note you may have to clean out the old thread sealant. If you do, be sure to apply a fresh dose after cleaning.
• I went nuts and applied Yamabond on all of them.

10) Attempt to dislodge the CBH by pulling up the left hand side of the CBH. If you are met with resistance, it is because of the Oil Cleaner Assembly's Internal Delivery Pipe (OCA IDP). Give the CBH a gentle pop to dislodge the pipe from either the engine or the CBH and slide the CBH out the right-hand side of the bike.


11) Remove the old gasket/o-ring from the bottom of the CBH and clean out the gasket/o-ring seat


12) Back out the bolts holding the two halves of the CBH together.

• When reassembling, torque these bolts down at 10 N-m (7.3 ft-lbs or 88.5 inch-lbs).
• Note you may have to clean out the old thread sealant. If you do, be sure to apply a fresh dose after cleaning.
• I went nuts and applied Yamabond on all of them.

13) Remove the old internal gasket/o-ring and clean out the seat
14) Clean out all of the tubes and holes, install the new gaskets/o-rings, and reassemble.


15) I freshened up the CBH and EDP with a couple coats of High Temp. What d'ya think? Wishin' I had the presence of mind and the cojones to 've painted them Holley Red.


16) Withdraw, clean, and inspect the Internal Delivery Pipe. Discard at your discretion. Here is a pic of the engine side of my IDP after I cleaned it up with hopes of salvaging it. Man, it was 20x worse when I pulled it out, and when it looked like this after the cleansing, I said eff it and replaced it.


17) If the "old" IDP is to your satisfaction, replace the old O-rings with new ones. If replacing the "old" IDP with a new one, mount new O-rings on each end.


18) Clean out the IDP's engine-side seat and push it into place. You should feel it "pop" in.


19) Slide the CBH in from the right-hand side of the bike, align the IDP (green arrow) with its CBH-side seat, and push the CBH into place. Use the delivery port (yellow arrow) as a peep hole of sorts to help line up the IDP and its housing seat.


20) Reassembly and installation are the reverse of disassembly and removal.

 

[COP RUNNER]

i VERY AWESOME WRITE-UP , AND PLAY BY PLAY PICTURES ! .unk:.. WHERE EXACTLY WAS THE OIL COMING OUT OF ? . :confused2:

 

[ninjaneer]

i VERY AWESOME WRITE-UP , AND PLAY BY PLAY PICTURES ! .unk:.. WHERE EXACTLY WAS THE OIL COMING OUT OF ? . :confused2:

Look at the very first pic. There was oil dripping from the screw pointed at by the arrow. Left-hand side of the bike. I had just brought the bike in from a run after a washing and found oil splattered all over the stator cover. When i finally popped off the CBH, the gasket was a mess. i imagine that that was where the oil was finding its way out.

[edit] and oh, thanks for the complement

 

[dannymax]

Another great pictorial!! :thumbs up:

Did you take it out for a verification run yet?

 

[ninjaneer]

Another great pictorial!! :thumbs up: Did you take it out for a verification run yet?

thanks and you bet. i was running out of daylight by the time i got the carbs back on and synched. i was so excited to get back on after two weeks of downtime, that i almost forgot to fill it up with coolant :shot:. drove over to my favorite "drag strip" :whistlin: and let'er rip. unk: i pulled to side after each run and made sure things looked OK. :eusa_dance:

 

[dannymax]

thanks and you bet. i was running out of daylight by the time i got the carbs back on and synched. i was so excited to get back on after two weeks of downtime, that i almost forgot to fill it up with coolant :shot:. drove over to my favorite "drag strip" :whistlin: and let'er rip. unk: i pulled to side after each run and made sure things looked OK. :eusa_dance:

Perfect!!:clapping:unk::clapping:

 

[Rollie]

Nicely done , thank you . unk:

 

[[email protected]]

Nice How to!

 

[PATMAX]

Great write up Ninjaneer! You know how much we love pictures but the text was good too. I have a few of these powdercoated since the motors were out and it was easy to get to. I never pulled the delivery pipe to check the end so I'll be sure to do that. Great having another Florida brother even if you are on the "wrong" coast. By the way, " One wheel can move the bladder or sphincter". Think about it...
PATMAX

 

[ninjaneer]

Great write up Ninjaneer! You know how much we love pictures but the text was good too. I have a few of these powdercoated since the motors were out and it was easy to get to. I never pulled the delivery pipe to check the end so I'll be sure to do that. Great having another Florida brother even if you are on the "wrong" coast. By the way, " One wheel can move the bladder or sphincter". Think about it...
PATMAX

Thanks PAT. I'll bet PCing looks amazing. Hope your pipe's not as bad off as mine. I grew up on the gulf side (emerald coast) and miss it tremendously and except for a yellow Max I saw on eBay and another one trying to pull into traffic last year, I can't seem to find any other Maxes--so yes I do think I'm on the "wrong" coast HAHAHAHA. As soon as I can find the nads, I'll try moving the bladder...and the day I do, I'm stealing your line.

 

[SpecOps13]

Man, this title must not have blown my skirt up the first few times...:confused2:

But I got desperate and clicked on it. Ninjaneer, you are doing some
impressive write ups. You So Gotta come to the next Central Florida
Tech Day......:biglaugh:

 

[shicks16]

Looks like i am going to have to do this to my 85, and i just got the carbs all put back on the bike and running good, oh well at least it will be done and shouldn't have to do it again, i might actually use your idea of painting it (or even powder coating it) red!

 

[ninjaneer]

Looks like i am going to have to do this to my 85, and i just got the carbs all put back on the bike and running good, oh well at least it will be done and shouldn't have to do it again, i might actually use your idea of painting it (or even powder coating it) red!

shicks16, please note that I failed to mention that the steps were performed on an '04. I am not savvy enough to know what, if any, are the differences in this area between the two years. please don't hesitate to offer improvements to the steps. and if i don't have the pic that helps with the improvement, offer it up. good luck unk:

 

[one2dmax]

All years are the same

 

[ninjaneer]

All years are the same

unk:thanks sean

 

[Elimax]

Hi everyone...I really need some help in answering this question!

In this excellent thread, there were a few mentions of "Yamabond"...

I see on the Yamaha website that there are a few types of Yamabond, so do any of you know which type, exactly, I should use?

Thanks very much!

Elimax