Running 89 fltcu yesterday (17k miles) and found oil flowing from rear cyclinder valve cover. Believe its more than gasket- all bolts tight- any ideas - first harley

 

Clean the oil off and run motor so you can pinpoint the leak. You will end up pulling the box so get a gasket, some cold beer, and make an afternoon out of it.
On my 99 Ultra I had a leaking rocker when I changed cams. Took it back apart and cleaned the surfaces really good, put it back together with same/new gasket and it no longer leaks. I tried tightening, re tightening, and it did not work. Something must have gotten in there during assembly and thats all it took to make a mess.

 

It's definitely leaking at about the midpoint on the side of the cover. Bolts are all tight. Was wondering if there could be anything else, blocked return port, excessive crankcase pressure, or it was just a fluke and the gasket failed. New to HD's, been on Suzuki's and BMW's all my life.

 

Clean it off and go for a ride. Put some aluminum foil all over the section at hand. If the box itself is leaking, then the oil will be UNDER the foil, if something else is leaking it will be on top of the foil. The force of air moving over the bike while riding can push oil UPWARDS and it catches on the crack. Then, when you stop, it LOOKS like the crack is leaking when in reality it is not. Do this BEFORE you tear crap apart, because the oil CAN be coming from the crack (but hard to believe if you didn't touch anything there recently), OR it is coming from somewhere else like the breather bolts, AC, etc. It is MY experience that those gaskets NEVER go bad, nor never leak, unless someone has had it apart and screwed things up.

Pull apart your air cleaner, and see how much oil is inside of there. Is it a closed intake that has a vent or two? Or is it an open intake that you can see the filter? If it is an open type, most likely THAT is the source of your oil.

There is no such thing as excessive pressure inside of the rocker boxes that can 'blow' out a gasket. Between the pushrod tubes and the oil drain back holes, that box DOES and WILL drain the oil out.

 

be prepared to spend as much time riding as working on your harley

otherwise, you should just get back on the suzuki or bmw...lol

 

Only one thing keeping the oil in the rocker box and that's the gasket; replace it.

 

My wife's '99 Heritage developed a valve cover gasket leak on the front cylinder at approximately 19,000 miles.
Had new set installed and it never leaked again.

 

Not to steal the thread but I noticed a leak on my rear rocker box the other day and rather than start another thread I'm gonna jump in here.

It is the rear cylinder and it looks like it is coming from the front rocker bolt, right side, right near the air breather. First thing I thought was the air cleaner, but it doesn't LOOK like thats where it is coming from. I haven't taken the cleaner off yet. Would it leak around the bolt??? It's a '08 Dyna.

 

My 2013 Road King Classic did that from the rear rocker box bolt, and now my 2014 Road King does it too.. both started around 10k miles +/-

It was such a hassle with the dealer last time that I am just wiping it.

Yes, I can totally fix it myself, have thought about just putting some silicone on the bolt.. but then I own the repair, and its under warrantee... joy..