I put a 1000 miles on it with the new catch can assembly... it has collected about 1/3 of an once of oily watery goo... Interestingly, the first day was 250 miles and an unusually cool morning, I checked it when I got in, after it had cooled, and it had about this same amount (I never dumped it, just checked it), but it was mostly water (condensation) with hardly any color. As the days went on the volume hasn't change much, decreased slightly if anything, but it got more oily and sludge like... still thin/watery just more color. bottom container holds a little over 2oz, this was about 1/6 of that. The bottom side of the divider did have oil on it (I may have splashed it up there when I was taking it apart), and the top side of the divider just had a film. Inside of lid was dry, no misting... nothing on outside of catch-can. Also redid these clips (snaps on the down tubes and holds catch can) because the nuts weren't low enough profile and could scratch down tube or catch-can... so I epoxied them together and put a rivet through the holes. So it looks like its going to serve my purpose, catch the liquid and have enough volume to not have to do anything with it between oil changes...
Man I tell you what, I am happy with the way it turned out lol really cleaned it up nicely and I don’t have to mess with it, except when changing the fluids. My bike has a HD Chisel Extreme Breather. I’d bought 4 of those canisters, and practiced on them till I came up with what I wanted... they all came out ok, and after I got done I changed them all to be like what I am using... but some of the holes aren’t on a perfect grid or I scratched a lid up and my painting skills leaves a bit to be desired! So I now got back ups lol
Got the idea for the plumbing on this from the DK Customs kit I bought, but wound up not using anything but their small catch-can originally. After measuring the factory banjo bolt’s breather opening, on the threaded end of the bolt, and seeing it was just 3/32”... I changed some things up a little, to try to make it as clean as possible.
I plugged the breather plate’s vent holes (tapped them and put 1/4-20 X 1” set screws in them with thread lock on them).
Then drilled and tapped the breather plate’s two mounting holes for 1/8” NPT - 1/4” hose barb fittings (where the banjo bolts run) as near the bottom as I could and clear everything. The cast aluminum was soft and really easy to drill and tap.
Ran 1/4” hose down from those barb fitting on either side and behind breathe plate.
Behind the breather, near the bottom, joined the two hoses to a 1/4” hose barb Tee.
From there ran a 1/4” fuel line from behind breather, between the front cylinder and the header pipe to the catch can. Routed it so it sets about in the middle as it passes between the two, so it’s not touching anything.
Painted all fittings black, and with the black fuel line and catch-can... it all kind of disappears. Most wouldn’t notice it if they weren’t looking for it.
Material List:
2- 1/8” NPT - 1/4” Hose Barb Fitting $3 each
2- 1/4-20 X 1” Set Screw $ 0.50 each
1- 1/4” Brass Hose Barb Tee $6 each
3’ of 1/4” Fuel Hose $1.50 per foot
Around $20 For that stuff
Catch-Can Materials
6” of 1/4” Rigid Air Line $1
4- Catch-Can Mounting Clips (see link in post above) $8 a pair
1- Aluminum Canister (see link in post above) $16 each
1- 1/8” NPT Elbow, One End Male, Other Female $4 1- 1/8” NPT - 1/4” Hose Barb Fitting $3 each 1- 1/8” NPT Cap (drill 1/4”hole in center for hose to pass thru) $2 Around $45 for catch-can and mounting clips
You’ll need a couple taps if you don’t have them (I had all the tools)
a 1/8” NPT Tap and appropriate size drill bit - for drilling and tapping the breather plate for hose barb fitting - probably $20
a 1/4-20 NC Tap and appropriate sized drill bit - for drilling and tapping then plugging the breather back plate’s vent holes - $12 maybe.. and red thread locker for the set screw (don’t want those coming loose!)
Then for the catch can, I used an 1/8” bit to drill the 8 breather holes in the divider and in the canister’s lid. A 1/4” drill bit for the hole in the center of the divider and the “cap” on the inlet fitting, for the 1/4” rigid air line to pass thru... this is the inlet line inside the catch-can. Then a 3/8” bit for the hole in the canister’s lid for the brass elbow fitting... or you could tap it if you want, but I scratched one lid’s paint up bad trying to hold it while tapping it!
And access to even a small drill press makes it all so much more easier...
Paint all fitting a couple days ahead of time, so they’re good and dry when you get started... because honestly it went together in a couple hours.
That's a pretty nice system! I built mine from scratch. Welded some aluminum tube and pretty much did the same thing. Routed the braided around to it. Had a petcock on the bottom to drain the fluids. But ultimately got tired of doing that. So ended up just venting under the bike. 1/8" npt to 1/4" parker fittings and some 1/4" stainless tubing. Couple quick bends, tack welded them together and done.
Ssitruc, you deserve at least a gold star for this and another one for spending so much time to share it. Thank you for all of that. It is outstanding.
Plumbing it would be interesting, I believe the blue end has to be up or else the oil/moisture would just leak out. Then it would "fill" from the bottom up, so your lines could/would fill with oil/moisture and the system would have to "breathe" thru it, or the "pressure" would have to push it into the container. There might be enough pressure created to do that, I don't know. Those types of dryers are made for air compressor's pressures, which are high enough to have no problem pushing moisture thru the lines. The container would need to be emptied when it got up into the foam area. I'd also change the foam to a much coarser material, so it would "breathe" easier.
Not saying it wouldn't work, but all that is why I route everything in a downhill method (gravity drain) and use a catch can that feeds in from the top, so I don't create more pressure.
Also, this time of year I get hardly any moisture in the catch can, easily empty it at oil changes. But in the fall, winter, spring when riding with temp below 60F, I empty it after about 300 to 400 miles.
08-05-2019 | 05:10 PM
