I am working on a 1986 1100. My nephew brought me this bike about a week ago to rebuild the carb & give it a pre-season service and a good going over. I drained all the fluids & changed the oil filter while I was re-building the carb. Put fresh 20w-50 oil in and a new oil filter on and started the bike up and I'm not getting any oil to the top end and not getting enough oil pressure to shut the oil light off. I pulled the new filter off and installed the old filter (thinking maybe I got a bad filter) and I'm still not getting enough oil pressure to shut the light off. I removed the filter & started the bike and I'm getting a slow steady flow of oil. Any ideas? The bike does have a oil cooler and I've flushed it out using trans fluid but it didn't seem to be plugged.

 

Did you put three quarts in?

 

Keep moving back up the line checking for pressure. If you get to the pump outlet and still don't have any, then you know it's a faulty pump. Otherwise you should see the issue somewhere along the way.

 

one, is there enough oil and two did you put the right weight in. Most of the sportsters use 10w40 and the ones with the cooler can use upwards of 5 quarts of oil.

 

[quote=ewoods8393;11217183]one, is there enough oil and two did you put the right weight in. Most of the sportsters use 10w40 and the ones with the cooler can use upwards of 5 quarts of oil.[/quote
WRONG

 

Wrong,most Sportsters do NOT use 10w40 oil.20w50 is the correct weight.

 

Your oil pump may have lost the prime. I think you need to get air out of your oil feed line. My 1991 has a threaded hose fitting connection (not clamped) on the front of the pump for when this happens, you loosen it (start engine first) so gravity flow from the oil tank will push the air out of the feed line. Once you get some oil, just re-tighten the fitting. If you have one, it will be obvious to see. Has not happened to me, because I change the tank oil first, then the filter, so no air gets in the tank feed side. I don't care about a little used oil left in the feed line.

Plus, it sounds like this bike ran fine, the guy was just giving it a seasonal service and some carb cleaning. Nothing said about a prior oil pressure problem.

John

 

No, just no....

No Sportster in the entire history of the bike has ever used 5 quarts of engine oil. Since the early 80's (pretty sure all Sporty's, but won't say without checking first), have all had approx. 3 quart bags. One usually runs slightly less than that with the newer breather systems. An oiler cooler only adds maybe 8 oz to the system, give or take. And I'll add that an oil cooler is not necessary on any Sportster, period.

Also, 10W-40 is only recommended in sub 40*F weather. Nearly every bike out there runs 20W-50 seeing as most people hang up the vest at those temps.

 

Well I got the oil pump primed and the light went out about 10 seconds after start up. Took it for a ride down the road and after about 1/4 mile the light came back on. I slowed down to turn around and the light went out. As I headed back to the house the light came on again. As I turned in to the driveway it went out again. I pulled up to the garage and sat there letting it idle. after a couple min. the light came on again but went right back out. I shut it off and checked the oil level and it was OK.
Started it up and let it idle for a couple more min. (no light), so I took off for a test ride. After about a 1/4 mile the light came on again and stayed on all the way beck to the house (but no change in engine noise). As I pulled in the drive it went back out.

Any ideas???

 

Sounds like you may have a bad pressure sending unit. I've installed a guage on mine to read the actual oil pressure vs. a warning light.