Sorry, I did not take any photos. My bike developed an odd vibration at the same time as excessive oil consumption. The vibs came on so slow that it was not until I rode my dad's 04 that I realized mine was doing it. So, I figured it was time to address them. I did not know that they would be from the same failure.
I started to dig into the breather seal inside the stator cover as I knew it was probably bad after 70k miles, and it was not just bad but destroyed. Grabbing the balance shaft that is inserted into this seal I noticed I had about 3mm of side to side play. Not good. It was a pain, and I had to build a tool but was able to get the side bearing out of the case without splitting it apart. It took me a couple of hours to pull it out. The bearing was also toast. Triumph wanted a good sum of money for the bearing so I called my local bearing supplier and gave them the bearing numbers. It crossed and I had a new bearing in a few days for less than $20. New bearing and new breather seal cured both problems.
When you go in to service this seal, make sure you check for shaft play. If there is any noticeable side to side play, replace the bearing or it will just take out the new seal you install.
Good post Sas. Mine's only 37k miles but isn't quite right and I've tried a few things but so far I can't find the problem. It seems to be very noisy in the cambox area but shims are ok and camshafts seem ok, timing chain is ok too. It's gotten to the point where the noise is noticeable on any video I take while riding. I'm waiting for it to develop.... :icon_rolleyes:
I had a cam box noise that I could not find years ago. Upon really close inspection I found one of the teeth on the cam gear had a flaw that was catching on the chain. A file would not touch it since it was hardened so I had to pull the gear off and grind it smooth. Took care of that problem.
I'll bear that in mind the next time I'm in there :thumbsup