Yeah, had positive pressure coming out. Another thing i did when the heads were redone was put an edlebrock carb on that came with one of those aircleaners that is raked toward the front. It didn't have a fitting to hook up the drain from the rockerbox vents so it was just venting into open air. I read on the forums that this shouldn't be an issue but yesterday I put the old air cleaner back on and hooked up the vent line to it just to see if it made a difference.

 

+1 with the warped covers, with mine it was the middle - 89 FLHS. As pre-stated, a piece of glass works the best for checking warpage.
I bought some used rocker boxes & covers off sleaze-bay - take-offs from a '98 and they've been tight ever since. Sealed them with good 'ol Mopar auto transmission black RTV.

 

Hello, new to the club. I was wondering how much warp is ok or to much? I tried to fix the front rocker box leak at the lower gasket and it still leaks. Twice in the last month and on my third attempt!! I laid all 3 pieces on my glass table and they all have a little rocking from one corner cattycorner to the other.


I'm thinking the bottom rocker box is the important one. on the glass, pushing down on the corner opposite from the leak the leaking corner raises enough to slid a 0.012 feeler gage under with out lifting it any more. Is this to much or acceptable? I'm ready to buy a new lower box from HD, but part of me wants to try some sealer of some kind. And another part of me really don't want to be on the 4th attempt next week.


Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

 

To the best of my knowledge 0 warpage is acceptable.
Someone here used a hand tamper to flatten out his rocker boxes.
If you can't flatten them out replace them.

 

Two other points.
1 Welcome to the Forum
2 It is always best to start a new thread instead of continuing an old one.

 

Thanks for the input. This is my first forum so I wasn't sure how to start. I replied to this one hoping to get "Hackd" to respond after reading he has some experience with the warped rocker boxes. I read that .000 to 005 was ok, But you cant trust everything you read, experience trumps hear say.

 

When I pulled mine off, this spring I decided to check em while I had them off. I've blown one rear gasket since I've owned the bike.
I work in a machine shop, so I have access to surface plates. About .015 warpage on the very top covers. The bottom two were ok so what I did to get em flat again was I went to Lowes & bought two packs of sandpaper. One 60 grit & one 80 grit. Think they were made by 3M & had a pretty thick backing. Each pack had about 6 or 8 sheets in them. Maybe 10 x10? Can't remember but you get the picture. Used doublesided tape to stick em down , on our work bench, or you could use the concrete floor if it's smooth enough, & lapped the bottom surface to within .004 on each one. Use a figure eight pattern & try to keep equal force on top of the cover. It's gonna take a while, but can be done.
It's cast aluminum thats been chrome plated & the chrome is tough to sand down. Start with the 60 grit & finish with the 80. I used a black marker on the gasket surface, before I started to be able to see where I was removing material.
And when I re-assembled, I put a lite coat of Hylomar on the gaskets for added insurance. It also helps keep the gaskets in place while your putting the covers back on. Got close to 10,000 miles on her & no leaks yet. Good Luck.

Ride Safe,
Harold

 

The most common cause of this warpage (to my knowledge) is not tightening the cover down correctly. especially if you don't have the tank off and don't have the right tool, it's very tempting to tighten down one side then the other.

Always put Evo rocker covers on a surface plate before installing or reinstalling.

You can also drill out the drain holes in the D rings. One drill size is sufficient, don't go crazy. Also, crank vents work and don't feed the oil back into the carb, vent it to the atmosphere.

 

Which hole is that, the one under the mushroom?


Does anyone know if de-chroming can lead to warpage?

I had some covers de-chromed, as they were corroded and peeling, with the intention of coating them. One at least one, a top, appears to be warped.

I didn't have any problems at all with leaks beforehand. I was planning on doing the same as LoweriderHarold. Good hint re the doublesided tape. It's difficult to find a engineer's plate big enough but I figured some plate glass was pretty damned good enough too.

 

1) Welcome to the forum.
2) Buy Genuine parts from The MoCo. Or go for the S&S replacements. Other's are a crap shoot. JMHO.