Hey guys,

Well i just got home from school and was havin a puff and a look around the sporty and noticed at the top of the engine to the front, where the horn is and a little ground wire (im thinking for the horn) there was some fresh, hot oil - in the pictures, you can't see it, but the oil was on that little wire and also on the front engine mount. What could this possibly be? First time I've ever seen it. Im worried I haven't been letting her warm up as long as she needs. Checked the oil and though shes parked *** downhill slightly, the oil was right at the add line

Also, Im living in the Okanagan for the summer for trade school and there are alot of hills here in and around town, fairly steep too.. maybe im being to hard on it? have to work alot on downshifting still and especially downhill riding - any help there would be sweet. Get at me if you are from the area!

 

If I recall from my sporty days, head gaskets have been an issue in the past. I would clean that area real well and put some miles on her to locate the exact area the oil is coming from then proceed...

 

Looks like it would be coming from the rocker box. May be able to just tighten them up. If they're tight might need to replace gasket. Keep an eye on oil level and keep riding it til you get around to it

 

Appears to be leaking rocker box gaskets. No need to remove the heads. You will need a service manual and torque wrench. Not a terribly difficult job provided you take your time and closely follow the service manual directions.

 

I think I can tackle this.. going to be doing it on the side of the street so only going to do the front (one that is leaking) for now. Will head over to HD in the morning - surely they would have what I need in stock

I have a few questions.. I went through the countless threads on here about this exact issue and went over the manual at least 5 times now - it doesn't say anywhere about taking the rocker arms out, but the pictures has them removed.

Also, is the instruction involving the wire only used if you've take the push rods out?



Thanks

 

what year is your bike? not sure what wire you are talking about but mine only has a wire down the middle of the back cyclinder.

 

Duh!!! I meant rocker box gasket.

 

bike is an 01..

from the manual "insert the wire through the pushrod depress the check valve in the tappet (Figure 1) while pushing the pushrod down"

for what i'm going to do, must I remove the pushrods and rocker arms? the manual kinda confused me because nothing i've read on here mentions that.

thanks

 

No, you dont have to do any of that. Just the top four bolts. New gasket, then torque the four bolts back down.

 

It looks like you have two gaskets for your upper rocker box covers. In my parts manual it looks like the rocker arms are installed in the lower rocker box cover. I assume you can just lift that cover with rocker arms attached. I believe you want to be at TDC so all pressure is off the rocker arms, especially when re-installing.

Hopefully, it's just one of the top two gaskets, looks like 4 bolts and you can change them.

John