Hey guys, I have a 1977 Ironhead I'm building. I've added an aftermarket oil tank and oil filter. Could someone help me with routing?

I plan to go out of the oil tank - in/out of the oil filter - .... then to the oil pump? I'm not quite sure which is the return,

vent and supply. Thanks Jason.

 

I can't help with the oil line routing on a '77, but it's not a good idea to put the filter between the tank and the pump.

The filter always goes in the return line to the tank after the oil has been gone through the engine and is being pumped back to the tank by the scavenge part of the pump.

You don't want to introduce anything that can possibly block the supply of oil from the tank to the input of the pump.

 

The lowest tank fitting would be gravity feed to oil pump. On a stock tank, the oil return is at the filler cap, or highest fitting. The vent is just a little lower than the return line fitting. Plumb in the filter into the return line. Ironhead Sportsters vibrate, so don't use copper tubing, it WILL crack, leak and fail . . . at the worst possible time.

 

This is my 1978. Should be identical to 1977. Hope this helps...

Oil Line Routing

 

Part of the reasoning I wanted to go from the tank to the filter is because there was some rust I chemically removed the rust from the tank. I do feel I cleaned it out good, just sorta wanted the filter to catch anything that might have been left over, if any. I think I'll remove the tank and inspect it for debris and go from there. Thanks!

 

 

Oil return is on the front of the pump as indicated in the photo. The vent is also correct. Best off to plumb the filter in on the return line. Ironheads have low pressure, high volume oil pumps. You could loose some oil pressure doing it your way.

 

Yes. The 1/4" ID vent line from the oil tank connects to that 90` fitting behind the sprocket cover. here's mine...



The vent line is the one underneath and behind the longer one in the foreground. I do not recall if that foreground line is run correctly - maybe it should not be behind that shaft. The inner sprocket cover would protect it from the chain.