New to working on Shovelheads, I have an oil leak on the right side of the rocker box.I can't find my service manual so I need some help. Can I remove the cap bolts and replace the seals without causing any problems to the rocker arms? Please advise.

 

There's o-ring under those so your good to change them no problems , they leak regular . While you have it this far apart do yourself a huge favor and pull the rockerbox's and change out the the old gaskets to the new metal/silicon wafer type please , now is the time .

The old paper gaskets get hard and leak after a couple years and the new type are install and forget , best thing they have done for shovels in years .

Where you at in the Cal. ? I'm bay area and I do shovels all the time be glad to give a hand or educate you a bit if your close . I'm about the only guy around here anymore still doing them .

 

Lots of opportunities to take care of things like o-rings in the rocker shafts, shimming the rocker arms while the boxes are off and new gaskets. Might as well go ahead and freshen up the valves, guides and seals, and the cylinders. Nothing of real expense, but a pain in the *** if you have to pull it back apart six months down the road. Sounds like Twisted is in your neighborhood. Support your local businessman.
Might as well bead blast the heads and cylinders and give them a shot of high heat paint. They will look soooooo good.

 

silicone/metal is the way to go... bay area -- been there lots of time and other areas -- was in tracy,ca in Dec of 1969 -- flying burrito bro's lol lol lol -- never bring a knife to a gun fight -- GG/MC those were the days.. still love THE AVENUE OF GIANTS best.. love that ride along the eel river.. then i had a 39 knuck with two 1 1/4" Linkert M-51L's -- large port heads ... ole chet herbert --IN .382 50/77 307 103.5
EX .385 80/47 307 106.5 like a lightning cam but 1 step up.. ran that ole knuck till the .090 rear cylinder blew on night on the way home from the dungen off bourbon street... 70WT bath... lol lol

 

Never had a knuck as much as I wanted one , that deal never came by my broke *** . Sure you know how that goes . Had my share of 70wt showers with the rat bastard pan chop I had in the 70's

 

best i can remember i had 16 panheads-- most stock except for my 1961.. it had a 5" stroke and a sifton #1+ (.436 lift and hyd for 90") it had a 15 over durfee and a 21" front wheel.. and of all things a lake injector (drip-drip).. i used the 3.5" flywheels from 61" pans to build trock's 3 13/16 bore (makes 82") REALLY a revvvvvv scooter... had 1 indian a 52 chief 74" -- thats when i found out that indian swapped the rods around and the bore was smaller and the stroke longer to make 74"-- the old indian dist were used to make dual plug set ups back in the day..

 

Thank you for the*informative*posts.