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I just replaced my chain inspection cover the other day and read in the instructions that the gasket should be replaced as well. Of course, the gasket did not come with the new chain inspection cover......makes too much sense Came with 8 damn Allen set screws though.....go figure. Anywho, I've been monitoring around the cover checking for leaks and have not seen any for the past 2 days.....until now. I noticed a small gathering of oil around the bottom of the cover. I tightened the 4 screws (original screws) as tight as I could get them using my trusty Torx screwdriver when I installed the new cover. Think I sould go get a new gasket? The bike has 1560 miles on it and the original gasket was in excellent shape. But, I did break the factory seal when I replaced the cover though. Whadda ya think?
If you were going to reinstall the original cover and gasket then there may not be any problem as the gasket and cover are already formed together. Trouble is, the new cover may not be formed exactly like the old one (were talking very small differences here) and may not seal correctly. The gasket is about $4.00. I always replace the gaskets just to avoid having to fix another problem.
And I'd recommend using a torque wrench on the screws. HD calls for 84-108 in-lbs. Torx heads are easy to strip out and over torquing can either make screws hard to remove the next time, or worse yet, strip out. Just my 2 cents worth.
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