I've noticed a gassy smell after riding the bike(2003 flhtpi) and parking it in the garage. I'll go out into the garage after a while and, holy cow, it smells like a gas factory. There are no leaks, everything looks ok.
I told a riding buddy about it and he said he experienced the same thing on his bike(2004 flhtc). He was having carburetor problems, took it to a local shop. They told him his intake gaskets were bad which is a major problem on Harley engines. The tech told him they usually need to be replaced every 10,000 miles or so, more common on the carb engines.
So, I've noticed my idle has been a little weird lately and the gassy smell got me to wonder if the intake gaskets are causing my issue, if its an issue at all.
Any thoughts on this?

 

I can not say for sure that this is your particular problem but I do know that many people complain of it with both carbureted bikes and fuel injected. You would be the rare individual who after pulling into the garage with his Harley who did not give it one final "cleaning out of his pipes".
That can leave a lot of unburnt fuel in the intake manifold which can then permeate the surrounding air for an hour or two.

 

gas fumes are heavier than air, crack the garage door a bit.

my 09 EFI smells nice.

most of my old stuff, I close the petcock about 1/4" mile from home and try to run the float bowl empty to help with the fumes in the garage.

mike

 

More than likely it's always been there, it's just now I've taken notice to it. I was just curious about the intake gasket thing, i haven't seen any threads on problems with these. Thought it sounded kinda fishy......maybe not.

 

Had this problem one day on my Sporty after gassin up. Solved it by returning to the station + installin the gas cap I left on the pump.

 

I'm surprised there hasn't been a fart joke yet.

 

There was a thread about this not long back. Hopefully nothing serious, perhaps this thread will be helpful.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...s-to-look.html

 

Had the same issue with my 03. Ended up replacing the gasket on the gas cap and filling up just prior to returning to the house. It appears the heated engine will heat the fuel tank and cause vapors to be expelled when left sitting after a hot ride. Never could find a leak and I found that by filling it up a couple of miles from the house was enough to keep the fuel cool and from sending off vapors. Just in my instance, not necessarily will be the case with others.

 

Does this sound familiar?

"They all do that." LOLOLOL.

 

takes a minute to work one up!