LOL. I reckon that's good advice for an IRONhead. I tried that approach with a shovelhead when I was in my 20's and pulled the studs out of the aluminum head.

 

When they are lose, you can take a big screwdriver and poke the head of the bolt with the bit and tell they are lose. They have a different sound.

Point well taken though. From the sounds of it, the OP should use a torque wrench.

 

Jamz, if you don't have a manual for that Sporty, PM me. I've got Clymer on my shelf I'll mail ya. It's not a HD manual, but there's still good info in it.

 

Jonesee, I can see the oil/smoke weeping from the rear rocker cover, and with the bike off I was able to see that the old gasket (maybe permatex rubber gasket maker was used?) was falling apart and away from the rocker covers.

I am 99% sure the gasket (whatever it is comprised of) is gone- can't be 100% sure until I lift the rocker cover off....

Thanks for bringing that to my attention, tho. I also checked to see if any bolts were loose, and there is one, right where the gasket came apart, so that loose bolt may also be the part of the reason the gasket failed.

 

olskooklblu,

I have a book that came with the bike, however, if my book falls short of useful info, I will definitely contact you.

 

update: So I changed the front rocker cover gasket, the three pushrod gaskets on each pushrod assembly.. NO PROBLEM!

Went to dig into the rear and two of the rocker bolts (one on each half of the cylinder) hit the frame, and will not allow the rocker cover to come out.

My options were to take cylinder and rocker off as one assembly, cut the two bolts off at the heads and vise grip the rest of the bolt out with the rocker cover, or use some RTV high-temp gasket maker..... I chose to start with the latter, and it is still curing for another 12 hours.

I will let you all know if the RTV gasket maker holds up or not.

 

Quick question; has anyone with a 79 ironhead, or bike with similar rocker bolt-to-frame issues as mine, ever tried cutting the bolts out and using shorter bolts.... and were successful at it?

If so, I would like to hear about it

 

Cutting them won't do much good, you'll still have to put the proper bolts back in. The rear rocker box and head have to come off as a unit. Not really any more difficult than what you just did with the front, plus you'll be able to see the condition of the cylinder. Look for scoring and such. Change the gaskets and put the two back on as a unit. Just tighten the head bolts in a criss-cross pattern, in stages, good-n-tight by hand and then give the end of the wrench a lil tap for a lil extra. It takes a little "feel" for it, but I've never used a torque wrench on an iron head.

 

when removing the rocker box and head as a unit, will I need to disconnect any internals?

I did read in the manual about that being the way, but, it looks like the bolts that are in there now could be a lil shorter and would make it possible to remove the rocker cover without interference.

However, JUST NOW thinking about it....one of the longer bolts from one rocker cover is used to anchor the rear engine mount in place... geez there goes my shorter bolt plan!!!!!!

 

I was trying to find an easier/better faster way to remove the rocker cover, without removing the head and rocker as a unit, removing the carb and having to deal with getting everything else hooked back up properly.

Maybe this is just me being lazy to learn about my bike....hmmmm hahaha!

Please do let me know if there is anything to watch out for while removing the heads and rocker as one unit...