so yea another guy with a leak.

but instead of asking what could be the cause ill simply ask if im correct in some aspects. plus pictures. since those help everybody down the road.

2012 Fat Boy Lo, oil leak in "tunnel" under rocker box.

ive come to two conclusions.

1. i vaguely remember that the oil was pretty damn full. at least higher than the half quart low a plethora of people on here recommend. and apparently when theyre too full, they vomit oil from where ever they can, hense this.

2. the oil is coming from the umbrella valve assy because it is too full or the valve is faulty OR...its getting too hot.

with this i do have some questions though. would oil coming out of this make the umbrella valve assy bad? as in once it starts doing it, its good to replace it.

another is when i stop, the red oil light comes on. it will immediately turn off once i set in motion. i chalked this up to the sensor being sloshed by the oil and not reading it for a second. but, could the oil light come on because of the faulty umbrella valve? unsure if it reads that part at all.

as of now im out of cleaner i can use to safely clean the oil off the head. i have inspected all seams of gasket for the rocker box and head. i see none indicative of a leaking gasket. also my bike looked exactly how others did when they had an umbrella valve problem OR an over full problem

writing this out the only hesitation i have about saying "eureka, i know what the problem is" is the rare intermittent oil light.

so if you can peep the pics, offer any insight, id greatly appreciate it. some of you and your good graces on here helped me become a wrench turner on my first bike, so i cant think of another place to ask than here.

 

The umbrella valves in the breather are pretty reliable. Anything is possible but I don't think that's your problem. The breathers, if stock, vent to the AC, excess oil would be all over the right side of the bike, not the area you have pictured. Here's what the breathers look like.




The orange sponge (for lack of a better term) is supposed to separate oil mist from the pressurized air from the crank case. The air pushes the rubber umbrella valve up and it travels thru passages to the breather bolts you see on either side of the air cleaner (mine are routed to the ground via hoses). You can get a leak by using the wrong size breather assy bolts or hydro locking the blind hole with oil and breaking the bottom of the casting. But that would be inline with the two bolts you see holding the breather down. So this leads me to my first question:

Have the rocker covers/boxes or breathers ever been removed from the bike?

If they have, it's possible to put the gasket on wrong and get a leak. It only goes on correctly one way.

In my opinion, the oil light/low pressure is a separate issue and is not related. I'd put a gauge on it and figure that out first. The leak isn't as important as that.

Other questions:

When you get the low oil pressure light do the lifters make any racket?

What is the RPM idle when you get the low pressure light?

 

although this isnt my bike, this is exactly what the leak produced on mine. the leak was all over the right side of the bike. on the oil tank, the pipes, the vent and return lines etc.



now oil does drip from my air cleaner, but ive known several bikes that do this. when this went down, i took my AC off and did find excess oil pooled infront of the valve. again apparently all that (oil in AC) is solved by running it a half a quart low, so we'll see. understandable that this in the pic may be from the AC alone, i attributed mine to the umbrella valve because it appears to have originated in that tunnel.


not to my knowledge. the bike has a power commander V tuner and supposedly has an andrews 57h cam. it does have an after marked HD brand intake so as for the breather holes in that


No, nothing unusual sounding.

1000 give or take 100.

 

Ok, first things first. You need to get a gauge on it to see what kind of oil pressure you have. The factory service manual has a testing procedure outlined in it. This is really important. If you've been running the oil level low to avoid carryover to the breather there is a possibility that could be it, but I doubt it. Could be something simple like the oil sending unit switch or something a little more in depth. You may need to go in and verify the work that was done during the cam(s) install. The oil pump has to be sealed at the scavenge port tube and it has to be aligned.

All that said, the lifters aren't making a racket so that's a good thing. Don't think the worst but it does need to be figured out.

As to the leak.

Once the oil pressure thing is taken care of, clean that bad boy up real good and go for a short ride, then check the source. Use spray foot powder if you have to. Is it possible that all the oil is coming from the breather?

Sorry for not getting back straight away, we rode all day yesterday and I'm headed out again today. The good news is, there are people a lot smarter than me here so I'm certain we'll get it figured out.

 

thats what ive been reading is it could just be a faulty sending unit, or the alignment wasnt done properly on the pump when you put it on, rotate the back tire in 6th gear until the pump makes one whole revolution then tighten it down. i would hope its the sending unit. im about to go into turnaround i REALLY dont have the time to carefully take down all that and slowly make sure every-single-step is preformed in accordance with the manual, and thats the only way i work.
oh and i havent been running it low to check that probability yet. it was right at the "full" line when i have checked it previously. this ride it came down to the fill line. so basically it spit quite a bit out when this happened. i had made two separate stops on my trip, and on the way home i put some umph on it and had some fun. apparently it i didnt like that. so before riding it again my first step is to figure out how to put a gauge on it proper to make sure it is doing its job and showing the proper pressure. i dont really want to blow 150 on a gauge set that mounts to the bike. anyone happen to know the NPT size down there so i can make one? that is if it happens to even be NPT.


im pretty confident i know what a lifter tick would sound like and im not hearing anything like that when its hot, in my driveway with it idling and the oil light on.



man, i just cant see how. looking at the right side of the bike, the rear head and rocker box, there was no oil i could find on the pushrod covers. so i cant contemplate the oil, coming from the breathers, finding its way into the rear head/rocker tunnel without it getting on the pushrods and forward part of the rear head. tracing back the leak it was in the tunnel and on the back side of the fins on the head. i understand you put that gasket on upside down it will leak, but i figure it would leak in other places around the head, not just the inside where the head bolts and sensors are.

alot of the forum searcing ive done ive read some problems with the pump and the manual actually being incorrect and to align the pump proper you need to follow a maintenance bulletin. that was for Milwaukee 8s though, anyone have knowledge that the 103 has the same/different procedure for the pump?

 

welp. drove it for a quick 7 mile run because i need to find where this damn leak is coming from. i believe it is coming from the under the rocker box, on top of the gasket.

before i did this, i checked my oil and it was right at the fill line. added alittle to get it juuust above that line. rode the 7 miles back into the garage. and now the oil was way above the full line, more above than i had put in. foamy so im guessing it was circulating.




but no oil light as that apparently only happens after you run it for 20-30 miles.

im lost.

 

ladies and gentlemen, i believe i found the issue with proper lighting and wiggling my phone in there like a bore-scope.


anyone want to confirm my findings without me strewing the answers?

again, this is the view of the rear rocker/ head gasket looking forward from the oil tank.

 

Rocker cover gasket is on wrong.

You can square that away pretty easy. Checking the oil on a Softail has to be done after the engine has been running. The tank is north of the sump and some oil migrates there because of gravity. If you check it cold it'll look like it's low, you add some, then go ride it and bam there's too much. Sportsters are the same way. Dynas and Touring bikes don't have this because of the position of the oil pan.

I'd still check the oil pressure issue. If whoever was in that engine did one thing wrong, there's a chance they did something else incorrectly.

 

damn skippy nomad. apparently they have been removed and the poor bastard got bit by the wrong way bug. this isnt a good sign for the rest of the bike.

 

Carve out some time and check everything else for peace of mind. The season is still early so you haven't lost anything yet.

The other short cuts or incorrect things I'd look for, especially if I had to open the cam chest.

Inner cam bearings, should have been changed to B168 x 2.

Alignment of the pinion and cam sprockets.

Oil pump damage due to misalignment.

Oil pump o ring on scavenge port and 2 o rings in engine case.


Now all that said, this is all a maybe. Putting that gasket on wrong might be the only thing they did incorrectly. Stay with it Devil Dog.