Went for a nice spring ride today. 100 miles up to a nice little mountain reservoir on federal land here in Colorado. Lots of bikes out today even though it was overcast. Right when I pulled the bike into my garage it started raining hard. My timing was good that I managed to miss the rain. Saw a bunch of riders get stuck in it when I was heading over to Saturday night church w/ the family right after I got home. No fun for them

On a more somber note my rear cylinder (rocker box) is leaking oil. I am going to get some new gaskets tomorrow from the dealership and go in there and see what's up. It didn't affect the ride but noticed dripping onto the transmission cover when I got home. I need to do an oil change also so I guess it's a wrenching kind of day for me tomorrow. I'll take some pics and share.

Is this a common thing to have a leaking rear rocker box? Wondering if I did a bad job there since it's so tight when I did my base gaskets a few weeks ago. I plan on just propping the tank up a bit and sneaking in there without removing anything else hopefully.

If you have suggestions or thought on the issue and how to solve it... please share you opinions.

Going on a big 2,000 mile + ride here in 3 weeks and I am excited.

Thanks.

 

Check your rocker boxes to make sure they are flat.

Check to make sure you got the right 5/16 bolts in the right holes. The 4 bolts are 2 different sizes.
On mine the bolts are color coded. The silver colored bolts are longer and the brass colored ones are shorter. If you look at the bottom rocker box you can see which goes where.

 

Oh no. I didn't realize they are different sizes. Hopefully that fixes it. That would make it easy. Thanks

 

Warped rocker boxes are fairly common, even on Sporties and TC's.

 

Did you put the rocker boxes back on the cylinder they came off of? More than likely it's just the gaskets. Good luck.

 

4 different places the rocker boxes can leak, the 3 rubber ones and the paper bottom - if you had replaced the bottom with paper i would switch it to the cometic metal, a few years back when the metal was not available we were stuck with the paper and every once in a while had to re do a set after a cam change or what ever went on - never happens now

 

I put a 1 piece James gasket on there when I did my base gasket change a few weeks ago. No problems with the front cylinder so not sure why the back one is leaking since it's the same gasket. I realize now that it's Easter Sunday today so figure my dealer must be closed. Oh well... I will add a little oil and ride it today and keep an eye on it. I will fix it tomorrow hopefully if I can get some gaskets.

Are the metal James gaskets reusable? I will check for warpage as well.

 

The 1/4" bolts are all the same length on my bike, it's the four 5/16th's bolts with the 1/2" head that are different lengths. The rocker arm retainer bolts are shorter than the ones on the opposite side. The 5/16th allen head bolts, well.. it's obvious where they go.

Did you torque everything down correctly? IIRC, the 1/4" bolts get 10-12 ft lbs, and the 5/16th bolts get 15-20. Check your FSM. I would go get mine but it's in the garage under a bunch of crap right now.

 

Okay I will check that I've got my bolts in the right place... pretty sure I screwed that up now that I think about it.

I will torque to spec.

 

It is very easy to confuse them.
I think they are only about 1/8th difference.

It doesn't seem like much but it matters.