Riding back from Memphis, TN, about an hour and 15 minutes from where I live, the Low Oil Pressure light came on, at which point I pulled over to the side of the road on HWY 98. When I pulled over, the engine still sounded fine, and revved freely. My best friend who was riding behind me said that he didn't see any smoke, the bike's oil level was fine, and the engine didn't seem to be any hotter than was warranted for riding on the highway. We weren't too far from a service station, so I made the decision to try and limp to the service station. On the way there, the bike cut out but immediately fired back up, so we kept crawling towards HWY 57. Once we were on HWY 57, the bike started to seize so I pulled the clutch in and coasted to the side of the road. Still no smoke or excessive heat, and oil level was fine. While waiting for another friend to show up with trailer, for %$% and grins, we added about 1/3 of a quart of an oil, started the engine with no problems, and checked to see if the light went out, which it didn't.
So, right now, my preliminary guess is I have a failed oil pump, looking through the service manual, the rear pump is the pump that sends oil through the main oil gallery and up to the low oil pressure sensor. My intention right now is to break the frame and drop the sump plate to inspect the oil pick-up strainer, and try to get a look-see at what portion of the oil passages are visible with the strainer removed. Once I put the sump plate back on, then I'll remove the clutch and pull both oil pumps and the oil feed pipes, and clean and inspect in accordance with the service manual. Hopefully the cause of the low oil pressure will be readily apparent at this point, so then I'll put everything back together, possibly with a new oil pump(s), and then fire the bike up to see if I still have low oil pressure. Provided the stupid light goes out, then I'm going to pull the cams and the head to inspect the camshaft bearing journals, the camshaft bearing saddles and bearing caps, and the Cylinder walls, for any scoring or other visible damage from my little baby-it-along stunt (yeah, I knew what I was risking), and make decisions based on that. If I find scoring on the cylinder walls and camshafts, then I will most likely choose to drop the engine and disassemble to look at the crank and rod bearings / journals. I'm hoping not to find anything out of whack, and if the cams and cylinder walls are clean, then I'm going to put everything back together, and just keep an eye on oil consumption. My ride is probably going to be down for a couple of months, any comments and insight would be greatly welcomed. Yeah, I'm pretty disappointed, my bike has less than 26,000 miles, and I'm pretty conscientous with regards to the maintenance and oil changes, so at this point, anything is possible.
