01 Sportster 1200. 50k miles. About 6k this year. Started getting some weeping oil where top end and bottom end meet. Do most of my own wrenching, but Ive never done a full overhaul of the gaskets and seals. Is it gonna be super difficult or just really meticulous?

 

Not difficult, but you need to be meticulous.

When I did a 1250 kit on my 1991 a couple years ago, the original gaskets for the rocker boxes and cylinder bases were stock paper, and the base gaskets leaked for years. All of them crumbled like an Egyptian mummy. When I pulled up the 883 cylinders, my buddy held it as I made sure none of the base gasket fell into the crankcase. I caught a large piece that easily could have. On the plus side, there was no residue left to speak of and the new Cometic base gaskets are made of steel with some kind of sealing surface. Both cylinders and rocker boxes are dry as can be, not even the hint of a seep. Big, big difference. Get Cometic gaskets.

I have a spare 91-03 Cometic rocker box gasket kit I can send you for a bargain price ($25?). Then, all you need are the base and head gaskets. PM me if you are interested. The rocker gaskets are also steel, not paper, super high quality.

John

 

Adding to Mr Harper's comment, clean room type meticulous. Think of it as open heart surgery on you best friend. You have to remove the cylinder to get at the base gaskets, so it's easier to have a cylinder hone and a fresh set of rings ready and waiting to in it.

 

So finally prepping to replace all seals and gaskets. Any unusual tools I should grab to complete the job?


Thanks.

 

New gaskets may not be a perminent fix for your problem of weeping at the cylinder base. I had this issue and after a lot of research found that even people with new bikes were dealing with this. Some say the issue is poor machining of the cases where the cylinders and the case meet. They make a kit to prevent it. The kit bypasses the gasket using a brass tube inside the oil passage. Bassically you tap the oil passage on the cylinger and thread in a short tube. The oil is gravity fed to the bottom end so it is not under pressure and thus the oil never even comes in contact with the base gaskets. I installed one when I rebuilt my engine and it has worked like a charm with no ill effects. This is the kit I used. They even supply the tap.

https://mid-usa.com/60145-hardware-b...win--sportster

They make kits that don't thread in but in my opinion that is risky as it is real easy to loose one of those in the bottom end on install. Also hammer performance has detailed videos on disassembling and reassembling the entire top end which make the job pretty simple.

http://www.hammerperf.com/ttvideos.shtml