Just "De-oil" With It and First Ride on new-to-me 1996 Connie

As I got ready for a monster motorcycle maintenance session today, I told my youngest daughter I was going to degrease my 1986 Connie to try to find an oil leak.  So we started talking about why the term is degreasing instead of de-oiling, since in most cases we are removing mainly oil but sometimes grease, other lubes, brake and fork fluid, etc.  So "de-oiling" became our term, and one of us coined the phrase that is the title of this post-"Just De-oil With It".

The 86 Connie has a pretty consistent oil leak, maybe two, and is really dirty, gritty and nasty on the bottom of the bike from the oil getting everywhere and then picking up road dust, dirt and other junk. Besides not looking good and making the bike probably run a little hotter, it's starting to get on my pants when I ride.  I'd like to find the leaks and repair them.  Originally I wasn't going to if they had stayed small and I was closer to 100K, but I'm at about 92.6K and the leaks are sometimes pretty bad.  So I spent about an hour and a half wiping, cleaning and generally taking care of Miss Swail.  The final drive housing, aka the "pumpkin" used to be almost solid black!  It appears the leak is coming from the back of the water pump or the alternator shaft, which means a pretty major job.  Not routine motorcycle maintenance, but not pulling the bevel gear either!

I also got most the critical parts back on and working on the 1996 Connie.  The replacement front brake set isn't bleeding quite right still, but I was dying to take it on a test ride, and needed to get some fuel through the carbs, so I got the main fairing and mirrors back on, suited up and went for a short, conservative test ride, especially since I didn't have much in the way of brakes.  I had to cross Miss Swail's tank over, as "Belle's" tank leaks badly in the usual lower "corner" spot.  Very difficult to fix, so I may just move the tank over and repaint it when I retire Miss Swail.  It also appears the left front fork seal is failing, but I can try a few things and have an upgrade set of springs from the Connie forum.

Over-all a good day and I got a good deal done.  I'll look for leaks again tomorrow and see if any are more apparent.