suspect crank seal

[2-strokes-4-life]

i think my left side crank seal may be leaking on my 2001 cr125 but want to be sure. i pulled the mag cover and a little puddle of oil was underneath the flywheel, whiped it out rode it a few more times and checked again and found no more oil.the bike starts literally always first kick seems to run fine, i seem to have alttle bit of a surging problem when i would slow down it would hold a higher rpm for a second or so then go back to normal i played with the air screw alittle and the surge went away but made the rest of the powerband to rich i changed my clip position last winter from second to third so maybe if i set that back it will help with the richness my plugs have always come out wet and black but now i've switched to one of the new iridium plugs from ngk and it comes out dry black with a whitish gray insulator except for the back portion which was tan.is the a definite way to check to see if the seal is leaking? if this seal is leaking can i put some sealant around it just for a temp fix if i clean the area up well first? it would only be for a week or so. any help would be appreciated

 

[nickyd]

pull the cover and spray carb cleaner under the flywheel while the bike is running to confirm a leak - the bike will rev if you have a leak. more likely than not if you have some oil in there, you're seal is failing. Silicone won't really work - If its short term and the leak is not really causing surging problem, I'd ride...maybe fatten the jetting up a bit richer if you plan to run a little longer term with the seal failing.