Air sucking tech question

[lt250racer]

This might be a little hard for me to explain, so please stay with me. I own an 85 lt250r and the seal on the clutch side of the crank was blown out (due to old age) so i replaced it and put the case all back together. and when i turn the kick starter (not hard enough to start it) i can feel air comming out from where the vertical clutch engagement shaft goes into the case. This is the part that the clutch cable attaches to and then goes into the case to pull out the clutch basket to engage it. Now when i turned the kick starter this clutch engagement shaft was not in, and i felt air comming out. This dosent make sense to me, i would think that i did not put the seal in correctly. Or is it ok for air to come out there?

[Hillclimber361]

If you replaced the seal correctly, I dont' believe that there sould be any air coming out of there, since there shouldn't be any thing to make any air pressure in the clutches. You could have a bad crank bearing which would allow the crank to put pressure on the seal and force it to leak, did you check the crank bearings when you had the cases split? Your verticle clutch rod is on the right clutch cover, am I correct?

[lt250racer]

yes the vertical clutch rod is in the right case, and the berrings look fine however i did not have to split the case since i could get to the seal from just having the clutch cover off. One more question, should the seal be a tight fit, ( should i have to pound it in there with a rubber hammer)?

[Smokin'Gun]

Yes you should have to tap it in there with (i recommend a punch and rubber mallet) but in doing this make sure you dont severely damage the seal. It is alright for a little bit of rubber to scrape off because no 2 crankcases are exactly the same. Make sure that you didnt lose the little spring that goes around the inside of the crankseal that keeps the crankseal on the cranksaft securely. The only other thing that might be wrong is that you put it in and kicked it over and it backfired hard enough to blow it back out of there again because thats happened to me on a few occasions.