Went out to leave for work yesterday morn, fired up my 04 FLHTC,( carbureted, SE air cleaner, Hooker pipe, 53k mi. always synthetic oil) and I have no oil pressure. Sounds ok, no knocking. Shut it off, restart, same thing. Oil level ok. Pull the oil gauge/ idiot light sending unit, crank the engine, no oil comes out. Pull the cam cover and the relief valve spring and valve, not stuck. Restart, still no pressure. Have an aftermarket oil filter on, can oil filter failure cause this? Really looking like an expensive problem, can't believe this motor's only good for 50k miles. Can the oil pump drive fail and the motor still run? Ideas?

 

What kind of aftermarket oil filter?

 

Have the cam chain tensioners ever been replaced?

 

cam plate cracked in my buddies 2006 and caused no oil pressure

 

Pull the relief valve spring make sure its clean and nothing it blocking it from seating correctly. Next I would pull the cam plate & make sure its not cracked.

Thankfully for me it was just a matter of the spring not seating correctly ended up replacing it with the basiely (SP?) kit anyway.

I would also replace the filter and look to inspect any all oil lines.

There is no knocking or odd top end noises? no failed lifters "clank'?

 

I had a similiar problem with an 05 Ultra. Turned out the cam chain tensioners were worn down pretty good and very small pieces got into the oil pump and scored the walls, which caused the oil pump to fail.

 

The low oil pressure switch or sending unit is actually before the filter. if by chance the filter is stopped up it will bypass it internally in the filter and skip the filter media. As described your problem is before sending unit. I would have started it with a screwed in gage at the sender unit to check but it needs to be running. At 2000RPM you should have30-38lbs If pump looks good and does not have two much side clearance you may have a blockage to the feed tube coming from the oil bag. There is an o-ring on back side of pump that may have gone bad.

 

Thank you*informed me.

 

Can you do this without removing the cam plate from the engine?

 

If you are referring to the o ring, then no