Ok What the heck happened?

[Charro]

Was out of town for a month, before leaving I put the RE on a battery tender, shut off fuel, and thought I put it on TDC.

Well yesterday I went to start it, blew enough smoke out the pipe to kill every skeeter in the county. Blew oil out the duckbill breather all over the floor, what a mess. Rode it down the road, to clear it up stopped smoking, and ran fine. Checked oil level, was about  half way down the stick.

So what happend , wetsump? What do I do now? always thought that TDC was when the altmeter needle was on top. Maybe I was on BDC?

Good news is it started first kick.

Andy 

[RagMan]

Kind of alarming thing to happen - I ain't had that happen. It sometimes blows a bit of smoke, but when I remember to TDC it parked, it doesn't. 

[HRAB]

If the engine smoked on startup, but then ran fine without smokeing it probably was wet sumping. The worm gear seal is often the cause of start up smoke.

[Spitting Bull]

Easy solution - get ready to ride, sit on the bike, start it up, ride away, don't look behind for the first 30 seconds. 

The ammeter is in the central position nearly all of the time.  When you feel compression through the kickstart and see the ammeter needle move to the left you are coming up to top dead centre on the compression stroke.  That's where you need to leave the piston.  (There's another top dead centre at the end of the exhaust stroke.  That'll do too, but the compression one is easier to find.)

Tom

[dewjantim]

Was out of town for a month, before leaving I put the RE on a battery tender, shut off fuel, and thought I put it on TDC.

Well yesterday I went to start it, blew enough smoke out the pipe to kill every skeeter in the county. Blew oil out the duckbill breather all over the floor, what a mess. Rode it down the road, to clear it up stopped smoking, and ran fine. Checked oil level, was about  half way down the stick.

So what happend , wetsump? What do I do now? always thought that TDC was when the altmeter needle was on top. Maybe I was on BDC?
If my bike sits very long it does the same thing. Usually I go out every week or so in the winter and give it a few kicks and maybe start it. If it sits for a couple of months, just drain the oil from the engine before starting. I think it is the front drain bolt on the bottom of the engine. I have 5 more bikes to keep up with so I am not sure of its location until I crawl under there and look....Dew.
Good news is it started first kick.

Andy 

[Charro]

Update, went out today kicked ur over, started first kick. No smoke, no oil out the duckbill, no drama, just a smooth tickover.

Thanks for the help, guess it was wet sumping.

Andy