I have a 2001 FLHRI. I just bought the bike recently. Since the bike had 38,000 miles on it, I replaced the cam bearings and chain tensioners. I did not cut the pushrods, just took the OEM ones out. Replaced O-rings on oil pump and aligned by turning motor over.

I got the bike back together today. It started right up immediately just like it always did. I let it idle for a few minutes and checked for leaks. Everything was fine.

I went for a ride and immediately noticed that the bike sounded different. It seemed to be louder, with a more metallic BLAT to the exhaust note. I thought I was just being paranoid until I shifted. When I did, there was a small hesitation when the power came back on and the bike definitely sounded different. Before it would sort of make a "purr" noise as the RPM dropped as I shifted. Today there was really nothing at all, just a rumble as the engine slowed, then a slight stumble as I got back on the throttle. The bike seems to be down in power, but I have nothing to measure that by other than seat of the pants. Idles fine, starts fine, just sounds different.

I did slowly accelerate and noticed a weird engine tone at what I guess is about 4,000 RPM. Once I got back home, I let the bike idle and slowly increased the throttle. When I got up to about that RPM range, there was a drastic change in exhaust note. Not nearly as loud at all, sort of muted, with the sharp edge of the exhaust note gone. I could back off the throttle a few hundred RPM and it would pick right back up, then start again if I increased the engine speed.

Soooo, after about 30 seconds of playing with the throttle that way I shut it off. When I walked around to the left side of the bike I noticed a small puddle of oil under the primary. Looking through from the right hand side and behind the rear cylinder I could see some oil running down the inside of the primary cover. WTF??!?

I initially thought I had an exhaust leak, but now am wondering if the bike is sumping. If so, where in the hell is the oil coming from that would exit under the primary? Where should I start to trouble shoot this?

 

first thing you do is take the bike for a ride and get it fully warmed up then take it out fro a ride and bring it back home immediatly take the crank case plug out and see how much oil comes out of the case.
should be in the hood of 2-6 oz. no more .
if its more shes sumping
if its sumping
go back to the last thing you did which will be the cam tensioners and shoes.
pull the cover and proceed to re -check the oil pump and things.
now you mentioned it was leaking near the rear cylinder from the cylinders or the cam cover???

 

No, everything there is tight. No leaks. The oil was coming from somewhere either behind the rear cylinder or over the transmission, looked like. As near as I could tell it was running down the inside of the primary cover...hard to explain. As I looked through from the right hand side, behind the rear cylinder, I could see some oil on the inside of the primary, on the cover. It's running down somewhere and puddling under the tranny on the left side of the bike. Not coming from the oil cap or from any gasket or anything I can see. At idle, no problem. At RPM it was getting out somewhere. I can't for the life of me think of where it would be coming from. Is there another breather back there somewhere I don't know about?

Is sumping going to cause the other symptoms I described as well?

 

yes it could cause oil to come out of the air cleeaner . and blow all over the place.
check the sumping thing first take it on the highway if possible then get it home and pull the case plug and see how much oil. that will tell you if its sumping also are you sure the cams were aligned propely?????

 

Pretty sure it's not coming out of the air cleaner. I was worried about cam timing...I aligned them per the manual. If there's an issue there it would be with the inner. They were tough to align since when I released the inner tensioner it changed the alignment of things...any way to check that without removing the cam plate and the pushrods again?

 

Did you removed the rockerboxes to take out the push rods? Did you put them back in the same position as stock? Intake pushrods are shorter than than the exhaust pushrods.

Were the lifters on the heel of the cam when you tighten the rocker arm support? Did you allow the lifters to bleed down and seat the valves before you turned over the motor?

A bent valve can cause poor engine performance and cause oil to pass by the guide.


Also check the breathe hose that snakes around and connects to the transmission for leaks.

A leaky pushrod o-ring can cause oil to run down the crankcase and drain to the left side when the bike is on the stand


There are alignment dots on the front side of the cam journal. Align the sprocket's timing mark. Remove the sprockets and check the cam timing marks.

 

Sounds like the marks may be off.

 

WThat's what I'm wondering. Would the bike still run good at low RPM if that was the case? Is there any way to check the alignment of the cams on the inner chain without removing the cams again?

 

Study the attached PDF file.

The file is too big for the forum rules. Send me your email address and I will email the PDF that shows how to check cam alignment with the cams in the plate.

 

Great, thanks. PM sent.