My fuel-injected 96 Ultra (58,000 miles) is leaking oil from either the air cleaner or somewhere on the right side of the cylinder casings. Interesting thing is that it only leaks when the bike is moving in 4th or 5th gears - no leaks when stationary or 1st-3rd gears. When I get into fourth gear I can almost immediately see a stream of oil streaking down the chrome side of the timing cover. By the time I stop to see where the leak is coming from the leak has stopped and oil is everywhere, making it hard to diagnose. Looks like a substantial amount of leakage when I'm riding, but the dipstick reading isn't lowered significantly.

Any ideas?

 

Have you adjusted your pushrods lately?
Only reason I asked is once when I didn't put the pushrod cover on right, (can't drink and work) I had a bad leak in that area. And the next ride was the day the Wife came along.
Always carry a small flat blade screwdriver and two 7/16 in open ends.

 

Let's boost the problem up to an 08 Ultra Classic only modify it a bit. what would cause oil to blow back into the throttle body and cause oil to collect in the cylinder stud housings? Both issues were discovered during the rebuild.

BD

 

Have you tried running the rpms to 2500 while the bike is in neutral. The reason I ask is that at idle the oil pressure is only 5 psi. It is possible that at higher rpms for an extended period you will see where it is leaking. Just my thoughts.

 

I have tried running in neutral at higher rpms and higher oil pressure - no luck. I'll try again. Really, the only time I can get this leak to occur is on the road in 4th and 5th gears - and then it is a really significant leak.

Thanks.

 

Thanks for the help. Ran it for a while at 2500 rpm and found bubbles and oil coming out of the base of the front tappet guide. Just need to find a 12point socket small enough to fit on the bolts to tighten it down. Hope that fixes it.

On a side note - this bike runs oil pressure (according to the on-dash gauge) at idle at about 20psi - about 35psi when running at 2500rpm. Is this high? Could this be causing the leak? What could be causing the high oil pressure?

Thanks again!

 

It's fine.

Thats a good result. Sounds like a gasket leak. That is just a "oil present" area, but not a pressurized area. Just give that area a tightening.