starter cover leak

[stingerbtry]

So I decided to change the oil in the bike (97 600) as part of my process of getting the bike up and working. I just got the bike 2 weekends ago and got it running this past sunday after cleaning things out and changing the oil among other things. So monday morning I come out and there is a puddle of oil under the bike. Well today after work I got a chance to pull the bike out again and take a close look at the leak. It seems to be coming from the bottom portion of the starter cover. I talked to my buddy who is the previous owner and he said that it never leaked a drop the whole time he had it. It also hadn't been run in a year until when I got it running on sunday so who knows. Maybe I cleaned it up too much and freed up all of the gunk that was plugging the leak before It almost looks to me like the gasket isn't in there right in the bottom area where it's leaking but I have nothing to compare it to. The cover is also scraped up a little but doesn't look bent and isn't cracked anywhere that I can see. He said that it fell over in the driveway and slid a couple of inches and has never been dropped while riding. So I guess I am looking for some expertise on this to point me where to start fixing before I just drain the oil and replace the gasket (which is what I paln to do either way but would like to get this fixed right). Is this a common problem? Has anyone seen this issue before? Any comments/suggestions are greatly appreciated. Here are a few pics I just snapped:

[tone]

About all you can do imo is put a new gasket on it & see what happens

[GytRDunKat]

Holy crap, your camera kicks butt! I say new gasket.

[stingerbtry]

Holy crap, your camera kicks butt! I say new gasket.

Haha, yeah they would've been even better if i didn't get my oily mits on the lense at some point while i was laying under the bike taking these. I just ordered a new gasket from my local shop and will be installing it when it gets here next week. Hopefully that fixes it but I guess while the cover is off I'll be able to see if anything else is wrong anyway. Man it'll be nice when I can actually ride this bike.

[Newbie2it]

When you have the cover off, Look good on the inside of the cover as well for any cracks. Check especially around the bolt holes and where the scratches are just to be sure its not from there.

[stingerbtry]

When you have the cover off, Look good on the inside of the cover as well for any cracks. Check especially around the bolt holes and where the scratches are just to be sure its not from there.

Will do. Just from looking at the pictures closely now though i really looks like the gasket is was either not put in right or is pushed downward a bit too much. If you look in the center of that last pic you can see to the right of the bolt where it looks like it's leaking right past the gasket. I wpied the whole thing down and everything stayed dry but the areas you see with oil in the pics. Hopefully that's all it is.