Hi, I have a 1980 Electraglide FLH (shovelhead) that I rebuild this past winter. Everything runs and looks good, except every now and then I get a large amount of oil pouring out of my breather hose. It's enough that when I moved my bike from my neighbor's driveway (house is vacant thankfully hehe) to my back yard, a solid line about 3/4"-1" wide was left behind my bike. The oil isn't overfilled, it goes to just below the fill line on my thermometer/dip stick. I'm using 20w50. This doesn't happen all the time, the best I can figure out is if I let the bike warm up on it's kickstand, then when I ride it the leak happens. The most recent time it happened, the stream of oil left on the neighbor's driveway and the street was probably 20-25 feet long. One thing I noticed while rebuilding the entire engine was the oil pump had been slightly damaged - it looked like it sucked in a piece of metal maybe and one of the teeth on the gear inside had a small divot in it. I was wondering if that would be enough to cause the pump not to work sufficiently and cause the case to get too full when the bike tilts to the side when sitting on the kickstand. After the initial leak, no more oil leaks out while I'm riding or after I stop. I've even let it idle on the kickstand after riding it around and no more oil dumps out. In the past month and a half it has dumped oil three times. Any suggestions would be great. I am planning on replacing the oil pump but if that isn't the problem I'd sure appreciate saving the money for a different oil pump. Thanks!

 

Try reseating your oil pump ball check valve first. Wet sumping is not uncommon. Search the forum for the how to.