Got my 74 to fire and run today. It ran for a awhile but I need to go through the carb because I had to keep twisting the throttle to give it a shot of gas to keep it running. I noticed when I shut it off that there was a puddle of oil on the ground in front of the rear tire maybe a 1/4 to a1/2 cup. is this normal or do I have a problem? next question how exactly do you flash the field for the generator? my book says for a 74 XLH to momentarily connect the BAT and GEN terminals with a jumper wire...where exactly are these terminals are they on the regulator? how long is momentarily? are the talking a two seconds?
good to hear you got her running. As far as polarizing the generator, on my 84 there are 2 bolts on the bottom left of thegenerator, Field and Armature, Your book should tell you which one to connect a jumper to, Then just quickly touch the other end to the positive side of your battery. Thats with everything installed on the bike. Different process with stuff not hooked to it. Can't remember all off the top of my head right now, and yours may be different.
The oil puke is caused by the machine sitting for some time without being started up.
The oil pump has a ball check valve inside the body. This is a common thing for the valve to allow oil to seep past it and collect in the lower end.
When the engine is started up, the scavenger section of the pump cannot quickly return the oil to the oil tank, so the breather pukes the excess oil out through the breather tube, located under the area beneath the generator. If you run the bike regular, this will not occur.
To flash the field on the generator:
First of all, do this anytime you have removed any wires from the connections on the bike.
Take a piece of wire and touch it momentarily to the Batt terminal and the Gen terminal on the regulator. Just a quick flash does the trick. This is done after connecting all of the wires and before starting the engine.
Just a note of caution here, not related to flashing the field:
NEVER GROUND THE GENERATOR OR THE REGULATOR FIELD TERMINAL WHILE THESE 2 UNITS ARE CONNECTED AND OPERATING. DOING SO WILL BURN UP THE UPPER SET OF CONTACTS ON THE REGULATOR.
Thanks for the info. I am going to rebuild the carb tomorrow and with a little luck I am going to get it on the road for a quick run. Quick question, how long should it take for the bike to puke up the oil before I check the ball check valve? hope I can just fill the oil and get it running.
You should not be too concerned with the oil leak, outside of it messing up your floor. Just add some oil back into the tank to replace that which was lost, and ride on.
If the ball really starts leaking, here is what you will have to do:
Buy a new ball from a dealer or indy.
Remove the end of the oil pump sending unit and remove the spring and ball.
Insert the new ball into the end of the pump.
Take a punch and place against the new ball......then give it a light, I mean very light... tap with a small hammer. One tap is all you need. This seats the new ball in the soft pump body. Install the spring and end piece and you are good to go.......pg
"Flashing the field" is still kicking my butt. My regulator has the following terminals from top to bottom FLD, ARM, BAT....There is no GEN.Do I jump from the BAT to theARM or the FLD?
Also I believe my oil leak is not coming from the tube under the generator. It is leaking from the back of the motor I believe from somewhere under the battery. I can't see where but from the flow of it it would have to be either a cut oil line or something much worse. I am going to start digging to see where it is coming from
Jump the Arm to the Bat terminals. The 'Arm' terminal is the same as the terminal on the generator body that is stamped 'A'. DO NOT touch the 'F' terminal with the wire.
The attached jpg out of the manual shows your regulator. I have marked up the two terminals you are to jump to flash the field.......pg
Thanks man that helps a bunch. Now I am trying to figure out this oil leak. My oil tank has 3 hoses coming from it. I can see the one to the oil pump and it looks solid. Going to try to trace the other two to see where they are going. The hose that connects to the top of the oil tanknear the oild tank cap is the first one I am going to check because I believe this one is supposed to be the vent I think it may be coming from this one because the oil that is leaking is cold. where do these hook up to the engine? I noticed that I can see some oil under the starter selonoid and that the foam starter selonoid gasket was torn and beaten up when I replaced it. Could this be where the oil is coming from?
Jimbo....
Sorry, I missed your comment regarding the oil not coming out of the breather tube.
If it is not from the breather, then it can only be from a couple of places.
A transmission plug that is stripped. This is on the bottom of the trans.
A crankcase plug that is stripped. This is located at the bottom of the engine, just to the left of the oil pump. If yours is a 1974, it most likely has this plug. Just inspect it, DO NOT try to tighten it. If this one is stripped, you have big problems (possibly). See if the oil comes from this plug, then get back to me with the results if it is leaking and I can explain the problem further.
The last place, and easiest to fix is that an oil nipple on the tank bottom is leaking, and/or a hose leaks.
In any event, find what is the root of the leak before you run the engine too long. If it were me, I would not ride it until you get the leak fixed.........pg
What type of tank do you have? I will assume it is a side mount rather than a center mount tank.
The oil feed line comes off the bottom of the tank and goes to the oil pump.
The oil return line comes off the top of the engine case just behind the rear cylinder base and returns oil into the tank close to the oil fill cap. That location is there to make sure the oil goes into your oil filter (again, I am assuming you have an XLH with a side mount tank). An XLCH has a center mount tank and a little different hose hook up.
The third line is a breather line for the pump. This is different that the breather pipe located under the generator.
Anyway, this 3rd line comes out of the engine about midway up and behind the timing cover (the fitting is in front of the front sprocket and cannot be viewed with the timing cover in place) and the line goes to the oil tank. The line goes into the upper part of the tank close to the return line. This is because it is a vent line and must always be free of oil. On the center mount tank this same vent line goes into the bottom of the oil tank (as does the return line) but both connections on a center mount have internal standpipes that end about a half inch short of the inside roof of the oil tank...........pg
It's ALIVE!
