James gaskets would be the best. As Daven said they did have a tendency to warp. Lay the pieces on a flat glass surface to check. Back in the 90's the HD shops had boxes of bad ones.

 

Is it one gasket set per cylinder or two? I don't know if I need two $40 gasket sets or one?

 

should just need one set. make sure the top rocker cover bolts are tight before you do anything else. if you're lucky simply tightening those may fix your leak.

 

The James set includes old-style two-piece paper gaskets for the lower rocker gasket area.

For myself, i think the one-piece newer H-D one works really well. I buy the actual H-D gasket set for that reason.

Another tip... before you tear it all down, have a look at the square-section tower in the centre of each rocker box. Where the square rubber gasket goes....

If you can see *ANYTHING* of that squareblack rubber gasket i.e. if the metal is not kissing metal where the two halves of that towermeet that gasket, you probably have warpage. And some oil may be flinging to the seatpost in mist form. Happened to me. Got the rocker box surfaces lapped. Made a huge difference.

 

I've done my rear rockers twice and found that buying the rocker allen wrench tool worth the money. Using a cut off allen wrench is a PIA. The front should be easier though.

 

Thanks. I've torn the front down and I'm waiting on gaskets.

Should the umbrella valves be changed? Should I install adjustable pushrods since I'm here?

Regards,
Richard

 

JMO- If the top has never been apart, replace all gaskets on both cylinders,all seals on pushrod tubes and go ahead and put adjustable pushrods in. If you don't, a month or two down the road you'll be leaking somewhere else. Your over half way there, might as well do the job complete. Won't cost you much more money but will save you time by not having to do it all over again. I have used the updated HD topend gasket sets with good results- 95 Electa Evo. If you don't want to spend the money now, wait till cam time to put the adj. pushrods in. Won't be any harder.

 

Make sure all the surfaces are cleaned with Laquer thinner and gaskets are put on dry, I use James or cometic. The other thing no one has mentioned is you need to have 2 lifter block alignment tools to use especilly on the lower cover to make sure it's in the right place I use one in each corner of the cover then put in all of the bolts, make sure you use blue loctite and a torque wrench. The tools can be had for about 10 each. I have had the bolts loosen off especially on the top cover even when I used a torque wrench.

 

Gaskets on dry? I was thinking about a thin coat of tribond for the paper gaskets.

 

One final question. I think these are the torque specs.

4 1/2" rocker bolts 17 ft-lbs
3 7/16" lower cover bolts 12 ft-lbs
2 allen lower cover bolts 12 ft-lbs
4 allen upper/mid cover bolts 14 ft-lbs

Thanks,
Richard