About 1500 miles ago, I replaced my rear rocker box gasket because of a leak, which has been documented here. Now, my front rocker box gasket is leaking.

So, after removing the seat, disconnecting and removing the gas tank and loosening the bolts on the rocker box cover, I can't actually lift the rocker box cover off of the rocker box plate. Specifically, there doesn't seem to be enough clearance between the upper front motor mount, the plastic cable shrouding and the rocker box cover. (See Pics).

My gut is telling me that I'm going to have to either remove the front motor mount and/or the shrouding and cables. I'm hoping that somebody out there knows of some voodoo that will allow me to bypass that mess.

BTW, I did look in the FSM for my Talulah ('07 1200 XLC), and it's utterly worthless. Any ideas, guys?

 

Roni, when I did mine a few months ago I did both at the same time. I removed the coil, the front stabilizer link and the super ugly plastic that houses the wiring. I also removed the air filter housing including its back plate. Sorry to make your hands hurt worse than they already do. This is the way my leak reared its ugly head.

 

When I did my front it just took a little wiggle wiggle and it came right out torn down as much as you got yours right now.

Take the bolts all the way out and retry.

 

1. Unbolt and lift the tank, prop it up with a piece of wood.

2. Clip the zip ties that hold the cable shroud on, and remove it. You can easily put it back on later (but this would be an awesome time to do wire tuck/coil+ignition relocate, here is my guide on that: https://www.hdforums.com/forum/sport...k-no-lift.html)

3. Unplug and move the coils and coil bracket.

Now you have a bunch of room to work. This is all very easy to un-do, you won't even have to disconnect anything except the coils, and that is just a simple sealed connector just like the O2 sensors.

 

Great reason to do a coil and ignition relo and a wire tuck! All kinds of room to work after that

 

Thanks for all of the advice, fellas. It looks like I'm going to be removing all of that stuff above the rocker box cover. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to go through all of that hassle since I didn't have to do nearly that much work when I did the rear rocker box cover a couple of months ago.

And thanks for the advice on the wire tuck. I might just do that.

 

Are you allowing your bike to warm up a bit before you take off?? The word I've always heard about rocker box cover leaks, is due to not letting the bike warm up some.

 

+1200

 

I did my front rocker gaskets last year. I only unbolted the coil and bracket. I left the plastic shroud and wires in place and had enough room to maneuver around.

 

Warm up or no warm up has absolutely nothing to do with a leak. It leaks because the gasket is defective. Like right where that distortion is on the rear edge.