Fire

Hi gang the tachometer drive drips a little oil in true z style. Adds authenticity i guess. My question to you is this, has anyone ever had a fire caused by this drip of oil on the exhaust headers? I've had leaky old bikes for donkeys years and never once so much as a flicker of a flame. Came across an article about the flashpoint of oil and it's well possible in theory as the pipes get cookingly hot, so i wondered if I'd been lucky all these years by not going up in smoke like meatloaf's chopper. Seems such a fuss to put a new o ring in the drive, and it does keep the frame from rusting. Just a thought to add to my many other useless ideas. Ride safe.

I'm not sure what you ride, but wait until exhaust pipe gets red hot with dripping oil. It will catch fire in no time.

I have a four cylinder bike (750) and I had one coil not firing due to faulty wire can't remember which two but pipes got red hot. Mine is also elec. tach, so so didn't have to worry about oil leaking from tach take out. But repair is simple enough so why not take care of it? 

Hate to see one of these classic go up in flame.

The risk varies with he type of oil you use but I have seen cars that have caught fire because of oil leaks (I appreciate that "under bonnet" temps are probably higher but the "risk is real") The risk is highest at the end of a long ride when you have put it back in the garage as there is no airflow. Why take he chance ?

It seems that you believe the oil leak from the tach drive is unavoidable.  I've had the odd weep over the years but never one that couldn't be fixed permanently.  The seal inside your worm gear probably needs changing.

Thanks guys, as i suspected it's never happened to anyone from the replies Just another theoretical possibility that's never actually going to happen. A bit like the slim chance of an electrostatic charge building up  to spark in the fuel tank as the petrol sloshes around! Never going to happen though is it? Some like to polish and fiddle on with their bikes endlessly. Chrome plate their engines etc, but for me a bikes to ride and enjoy and if it ain't broke don't fix it, after all it's a 42 year old machine and i guess i will leak a bit too when I'm ancient. 

The tachometer drive pinion has a seal, gasket & o-ring in case you want to go ahead & fix the leak. The parts are pretty cheap. Z1Enterprises has the oil seal but not sure about the other stuff.

I had oil drip onto a head pipe, it just smokes and leaves a stain.

You should fix ASAP as it leaves oil patches every time you stop. When your riding the wind will whip it up onto the bottom of the tank/cam cover.

The small engines generate a lot of oil pressure even in the top end. Oil drips off the cam lobes and settles in all the corners. When you start it again the oil splashes all over the place. The buckets act like miniature pistons as there is a oil galley right under the bucket. If you have ever started the motor with the cam cover off you will see this in about 20 seconds.

Also been riding and had oil leaking from head/barrel onto my pants... Only time I ever had a fire was electrical in the headlamp shell from chaffing wires, pulled over and shut it off.

I also smoked one side of a Dyna S leaving the ignition turned on too long on my drag bike

This is small,(12.5 in) and might fit somewhere, just in case.     www.xtremediesel.com/element-40050-e50-p...le-fire-extinguisher
 

At the end of the day the decision is yours, I just don't get avoiding a minor repair and living with the risk ( however small) and the mess. Injected has said it just smokes but there is a fine line between smoke and reaching the flash point. I have seen engine oil flame instantly when spilt on a hot car exhaust manifold (fully synthetic to be fair) 

 

I think I would be more worried about the gas tank between your legs

I just ride and try not to think about what really could happen, if you think too hard you would never get on a bike.
If your tank and cam cover were translucent you would not get on it at all.

I have a alcohol drag bike, always bring fire extinguishers - never had to use them. It is very hard to ignite, but its always the time your not prepared that it does bite you in the ass.
Nitro is a different beast, you can ignite it with a hammer strike.

The guy who crews with me burned down his garage with a jug of Varsol when grinding some steel at the far end of the door... Loose screw cap leaking fumes.

 

The oil is more of a weep than a drip and i can well live with it, it's not even enough to muck my jeans up.  One day i might get round to fixing it  a if i get bored enough, but for now it lets me know the oil condition anyway.  Kawasaki external cooling system ha ha I fried my coil too, left the ignition on by mistake on a GS thou, back in the day. Seems we all make the same mistakes but still riding so we're not doing too bad.