You learn something new everyday. I recently found some oil near the front head and thought it was just a loose stabilizer bolt which I tightened. By virtue of another thread I discovered that I have the dreaded leaky rocker boxes. It's now making a mess. So I'm going to try those "cometic" gaskets.
Whew, this bike is turning into a maintainence headache. Only 5K miles and I gotta do this?
Good thing I bought the manual. Wish me luck, I'm going in....

 

Flats, mine is leaking at the left rear corner of the rear cylinder, I am still stewin on how to handle it. I have the Cometic gasket in my Shopping cart at J&P. My front does not leak at all, yet.

 

Flat4.., & 1200c...

Change out both, the other will start leaking shortly. The Cometic Gaskets are the same as HD's in shape & material, I have used both with the same results. I wish someone would come up with a better Gasket, I have replaced them twice on my 07 in 23,000mi, and once on my 08 at 5000mi.
It's not a hard job, just time consuming.

Best of luck

 

Welcome the world for sportys. I have had my front rocker box gasket fone twice and the rear one once as well as one head gaskets all before 16K. For the life of me I have no idea why HD can't make a rocker gasket that does not leak.

 

I ride with several guys who have Jap bikes and in August of 2007 when my wife bought the 1200C for me they teased me unmercfully about buying a shaky, leaky Harley, I used to tell tham that Harleys haven't done that for many years. Now what do I tell em? It's downright embarassing. Not only is Harley not doing a thing about it, they won't even admit that a problem exists. Based on past observances no amount of prodding will move Harley into action. They just don't care. There's my vent.

 

Your right when you say HD needs to "Fix the Problem". My last set of gaskets that I bought (just a few weeks ago) the parts guy tried to make light of the problem until I put a bag of used gaskets on the counter, then he got a lot "Humbler".

But I have worked on some "Rice Burners" in the last year, and I'll take a Harley any day.

 

HJ, I'll take a Harley any day too but it does make me skittish about trading up to a SwitchBack. If Harley gains a reputation as the "do nothings of Milwaukee" that won't be good.

 

This has been an issue with Harley all along. They're selling enough bikes, and "Harley guys" are so often willing to put up with the "character" of the bike that Harley doesn't feel the need to fix things. Maybe if people would stop buying new Sportys until Harley ponies up and fixes the problem it might actually happen. There's no reason a modern motorcycle should spring leaks at 5k or less. We wouldn't put up with that with our cars, why should we with a bike?

 

Good luck! I did that work on my rear rocker box two months ago. It just takes time. Make sure you have a torque wrench and a VERY FLAT little wrench like this one to remove the top rocker box cover screws: https://www.denniskirk.com/motion-pr...prd/282560.sku

 

My rear gasket started leaking at the beginning of this year. So I had the chrome top and bottom pieces put on both cylinders. I bought Custom Chrome tops and had Harley bottoms. I tried to do the job myself, but they kept leaking, so I took them to the dealer. The first time they still leaked. They told me Custom Chrome tops need special thicker gaskets. The 2nd time they still leaked. Then the dealer tells me I need all Harley parts, beacuse Custom Chrome peices don't always match up correctlly with Harley parts. The 3rd time they STILL LEAKED. Finally after the 4th time at the dealer they FINALLY got them to stop leaking. Well so far anyway. I keep looking after every ride to see if they are leaking again.