slight oil leak

[Youngsmoke]

Hey all,
  I bought a 98 tourer in may and began by changing out all the fluids.  I live in LAs vegas so when I changed the oil I switched to synthetic to give a bit more protection against the desert.  I noticed a faint odor that I just recently pinpointed as a slight oil leak (just drips) coming from the gasket around the gear shift spline.  the gasket appears to be intact and i can't find any other leaks.  The bike has aroung 50k miles and I was warned when i thought about the switch to synthetic that I might develop leaks due to the milage.  any suggestions?  is this an easy gasket to replace?  should i just switch back to conventional oil at my next change?
thanks for all the great info
Ari

[sandy]

No: Don't switch back. That seal is not very expensive and isn't too bad to change. Look in "Shop TalK" and find the link to changing it. As I recall, you use an icepick to poke a small hole beside the shaft. Run a small screw in and use pliers to pull it out. Lube a new one and tap it back in. 50K is pretty common for these to go out. You have to remove the foot shifter and maybe the pipes (but I don't think so). My rememberer is older than it use to be.

[greggh]

This is not a problem.
Order yourself a new seal for the gearshift arm and replace it.

It may take all of 15 minutes or so to replace.
This is not to uncommon for this seal to leak.

Good Luck.

[Sharkey]

I just replaced mine with help from Daniel Meyer's site
look here http://lifeisaroad.com/valkshiftseal.html
everything you need to know. It took all of 30 minutes

[Don07tncav]

I used Daniel Meyer's excellent directions and it was an easy fix.