dirty oil

[Ronny Basconi]

just bought a used rebel with 2500 miles at a steal. changed oil, drained tank, she runs real sweet.logged 500 miles over the last 4 days. changed the oil again today. it seemed mighty filthy already. although i havent been riding forover 30 years, ive owned 2 trail 90s ,160 dream,sporsters, triumph, bsa(they made me learn to repair... bsa bas.... stopped again!) never had a honda that wasnt bulletproof.i think my oil is getting contaminated breather trouble?filter is clean plugs are fine. HELP!!!. YOURS TRULY GASNOIL:):):)

[GearJammer]

Welcome aboard, GASNOIL! ;)

Congrats on your new Reb! What year did you score ?

Yep.....those old Brits will definitely keep one wrenching......"Bastid Stopped Again", LMAO!

On the Reb, if the plug in breather hose coming down from beneath the bike is still in there, you might wanna remove the plug & leave it out. The bike will breathe better & that gunk won't accumulate in the hose.

500 miles is respectable & it's not usual for the oil to get dark, tho' "filthy" shouldn't be the case unless the bike has been out of action for awhile & by running it, it may be loosening up some old sludge & cleaning itself out.

[Ronny Basconi]

thanks a bunch for the reply! i scored a real nice 2002 with only 2685 miles on her for soo cheap im ashamed to tell it.it had been sitting mostly for the last 2 years(petcock left on) so drained and put in fresh oil &gas before any riding, dismantled &cleaned up carb.shell do 80 no problem!didnt get the owners manual though.where the heck can i find me one of those 30 tooth rear sprockets? can i really be getting 75 mpg &having this much fun? what a great little machine!just perfect for these twisty mountain roads. thanks again,gasnoil

[GearJammer]

hehehe......no shame in getting a good bargain, unless it was literally a "steal".....in which case, we'd be roundin' up a lynchin' party, ROTFLMAO!!!

The Clymer's Manual would be a wise purchase & you can always find those on eBay, sometimes used. 30T sprocket ? Possibly eBay or www.bikebandit.com or others may know where they bought their's & pass that info along to you.

Now that you mentioned that the petcock had been left on, then "filthy" wouldn't surprise me if fuel got into the crankcase. Fuel inside the crankcase would thin out the existing oil as well as act as a cleanser to loosen up a lot of old gunk from the internals. If that was the case, I hope it didn't damage the fibers on the clutch plates, but you'd know that fairly quickly.

IF fuel got inside the crankcase, 2 or 3 oil changes at short intervals would not be too many to insure you've gotten all the gas out of there.