Came home from Reserves today with every intention of installing the Arlen Ness Big Sucker on my Road King.....took off the stock air box which was pretty simple to do.....a bit of oil was in the breather tubes which made a little mess but nothing major.

First step in the Ness is to peel the backing off of the gasket and adhere it to the back plate.......simple enough right? Grab the gasket...no paper backing to peel off...just a cardboard or whatever the material is gasket...great!

So that sorta stopped me dead in my tracks...no way to install without that gasket sticking to the back of the back plate so I gotta make some calls....


Should I call Ness or the dealer I bought the Big Sucker from? Figures....such an easy install and being held up by this...jeeesh


Anybody else buy a Big Sucker and get a non adhesive gasket?

 

Should be the same as the 29241-08 throttlebody gasket that comes in the SE kit. I can't recall, but I don't think that is adhesive backed. Why can't you install it?

 

The Big Sucker one shows in both the instructions and the video install that the gasket does have an adhesive side that adheres to the back plate...the one I received does not.

Maybe I'm just really overtired from the weekend and probably should not have set out to install this tonight. I'm not sure how to get the gasket to stay in place on the back plate as I go to put it (back plate) on the throttle body without falling off. I need to get some grease to for the little O rings to stay put in the breather tube bracket holes as well


Guy in the Arlen Ness video didn't have any issues getting them to seat although he does suggest either a little wax or grease to help them stay put.

Make sense what I said about gasket not staying in place on back plate? I'm not thinkg to clearly so hopefully it made sense

 

use a gas/oil resistant rtv silicone, lightly coat the gasket, llet dry to tacky and stick it on.

OR I use "gasket dope" Permatex "Indian Head" Gasket Shellac compound.

light coating, let it dry to tacky

stick it on.

Or you can just put that gasket on dry, just make sure it stays lined up.

No big deal.

remember the gasket is there to seal any imperfections---- use the suggested torque specs- you don't have to go super tight


for the O rings, got any vaseline, or blistex- anything like that--- probably not peanut butter though

mike

 

Like I said not thinking clearly...duh...too simple....

Can't do it dry as it won't stay on back of back plate

I'll pick up some rtv silcone tomorrow at Wally World...and thanks for tip on Vaseline....man I gotta go to bed lol

 

You can simply put the grease on the o-rings and stick them in and then hold the gasket up to the back of the plate and put two of the screws through the holes to kind of hold it there as you put it up against the throttle body. You really don't need to have an adhesive backing on it.

 

Better have the dealer do it for you.

 

I was thinking it, you said it.

Rick

 

I did what Dawg said. just put in two screws and slide the gasket over them. It will hold the gasket in place perfectly!

 

You are right Dawg...I guess that is another way to do it as well...a little out of order on the install instructions but I think I could make it work if I don't want to use any adhesive. Ness wants you to install the 2 Banjo Bolts first then the 3 for the filter