CLICK HERE FOR A PIC

After a recent few nights of riding, I noticed oil all over my front head and around the lower rocker cover. Here is my question.. after cleaning and inspecting the area I found that the bolt at FIG A was loose. I tightened this bolt to match the other 3 on the upper cover. The leak is right at FIG B. You can see a little oil on the top fin of the head. This was after a 10 block ride in 79deg weather. When the leak was first noticed, oil was all over the head, oil filter, and many other lower components.

Am I correct in assuming that to tighten the lower rocker cover (if that is the problem and not the gasket), the upper must be removed? Is the bolt located under the cover @ FIG C? Or does the bolt @ FIG A tighten both upper and lower?

I did a forum search but found nothing addressing this. Thanks guys/gals!

 

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh.....The infamous Harley Rocker Box leak. Obviously you haven't read my rant: https://www.hdforums.com/m_521079/tm.htm

Yeah, I know it's really long winded. But that's the way it goes. And there's more that I haven't posted yet.

You might just get lucky and get the rocker to seal by tightening it down. But.....What your looking at is taking the tank, seat, etc., off the bike and taking off the rocker boxes. I don't know what a set of gaskets for a sporty runs, but for my EVO big twin they are around $50. You should just bite the bullet and take all three of them off (of each cylinder) and clean them off and re-gasket them. Trust me, if you take the easy way out and only do the top two, you'll be back at the HD stealer and dropping another $50 for a full set of gaskets when the bottoms leak. You'll really need to have the bike up on a stand of some sort so when you remove/install the bottom rocker box (which has the rocker arms in it), you can turn the engine over (by rotating the rear wheel) and get the cam on it's base circle for the front and rear respectively. I've done this twice on my EVO big twin, so I can probably do it in around 3 hours if I'm not interupted by the wife. I believe a stealer charges around 2-3 hours of labor (+parts of course) to do the same job. Oh, and I don't know how much room you have on a sporty, but I had to custom make (Hack Fab) a wrench to get at couple of the rocker box socket head screws. Oh, and you do own a torque wrench....Right?

Sound like too much work? Take it to a stealer and pay the $200+ that they are gonna charge and get it done.

 

Hackd, that is quite a read bro. Sorry to hear about your misfortune. I am hoping its not all doom and gloom for me. I will let everyone know how it turns out.

 

Anyone know if the bolts under the upper cover are standard heads or 12 point? Just wondering if anyone knows before I dig in.

 

1/2" standard 6 side bolts on my TC88 with a 1/4" allen hole on top...do this...cut off a 1/4" allen 5/8" long and straight...use it to take off the inner rocker box bolts that are under the frame, use a 1/4" wrench on your homemade tool...save the headache, wrenches aint gonna fit

 

Man I hate to have all these questions but I really dont like diggin in without knowing what to expect. Will I be able to remove the top rocker cover and tighten the lower without replacing any gaskets? This bike has a grand total of 1650 miles on it.... Has anyone done this before? I need to tighten just one bolt unless of course that doesnt do the trick. Any thoughts?

 

Once you open it up to get to the lower gaskets, just replace it all. Save yourself problems later.

 

Websterdan, thanks for the reply. I am a firm believer in if it aint broke, don't fix it. So back to my original question;

Will I be able to remove the top rocker cover and tighten the lower without replacing or ruining any gaskets? Added a little clarification there.

 

It's a gamble, but with that low mileage I'd go for it. I had mine off 2 weeks ago and put it back together with the old gaskets and seals because the bike shop was closed. No leaks at all and those gaskets have about 3k miles on them. Be sure everything is CLEAN and alternate tightening.