I have a 2003 super glide that I recently bought. I recently ran into some issues with it and would like some advice/help. It started with gas coming out of the air filter/carb...so I bought a new carb and tuned it along with a new air filter. It then started to pull oil through the breathers...the oil was way over filled from the previous owner (so I think) I drained the oil and changed the filter and got the oil to the correct hight. But now when I run the engine and check the oil, the oil level raises almost to the brim of the cap??? Any suggestions on what is happening? Thanks and sorry for the long read.

 

Gas coming out of the air filter is what would happen if your float needle wasn't working properly. That's the valve that closes off the fuel supply when the float indicates the float bowl is full. If there is a hole in the float and it won't float, then the valve will keep supplying more fuel, causing it to overflow the intake. If the needle is stuck open, or worn-out, or anything else is affecting this function, that will also cause this issue.

You said you got a new carb though so I'm not sure how likely this is. A lot of this diagnosis stuff is about systematically discriminating between what should be and what actually is. It should be fine, but is it?

An overflowing bowl will also run gasoline down into the engine's oil by way of the combustion chamber and slipping past the rings. This would increase the volume of fluids to the point where it might splash out the breathers.

The next thing to double-check is whether or not you actually did the oil change properly. A common thing that I've already done myself is to accidentally be draining the transmission when you think you're draining the engine. There was a thread yesterday with a picture.

As I understand it currently, the right way to do the engine oil is to warm it up to operating temperature, which will take about 30 mins of actual driving first. Idling the motor for five minutes won't cut it. Then you drain it while the bike is on the side stand. Then you add the estimated amount for a wet change, and verify it by once again getting it to operating temperature, waiting a couple minutes for it to settle back down into the sump, and then reading the stick and adjusting based on that.

Since it sounds like you know what you're doing, my advice would be to list and re-examine your assumptions. You probably assumed the carb was perfect because it's new and you paid good money for it: maybe it's not. Maybe it's got a wonky float needle or they cut corners rebuilding it. Maybe you assumed you did the oil correctly but you actually pulled the wrong drain plug. Maybe it's something I'm not familiar with yet, like a leak between the primary and the engine seals causing the fluid volume to raise. I didn't mention it because I don't have any experience with that one yet. Finally, you don't really know anything about how anything actually is on that bike until you look at it yourself. Whoever had my bike before me, thought putting fresh fluid in one fork but not the other was the right choice, so I try really hard to remember to allow for the possibility that something I haven't checked yet is completely wrong for completely incomprehensible reasons and that's just how it is. Good luck, posting what you find will help anyone who finds this in the future.

 

It turns out that the old broken carb was leaking gas through it and down into the motor. So every time I started the bike it would bull all the excess gas out of the motor and fill up the oil tank. I had to do about 3 oil changes with running the bike in between to get all of the excess gas out.