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I went with a new set of HD seals and that did the trick! The manifold went in easily. I like the James gasket kits but their seals did not work well with my setup. Thanks for the comments.
Yeah, I tried to get the lifter screen out last weekend during the oil change but I was unable to loosen the plug with a screw driver and vise grips. So I just got the special drag socket off of eBay. I was planning on changing out the gaskets this weekend with the James kit but I was wondering about the lifters. The bike has approximately 30,000 miles so do y'all think I should just change them out since I have the pushrods out? I saw online that some folks claim a HD service bulletin recommends changing them out at 25,000 miles but I couldn't find the bulletin.
Pro Motion makes a tool to remove the lifter screen screw. It works like a charm!
I finished putting the bike back together.. after a warm up and short ride I'm happy to report no oil leaks, however, the bike is running rough! The idle goes from 800 rpm down to 500 rpm then back up. At stop lights I had to open the throttle a little to maintain 1000 rpm. Before the teardown the bike idled consistently at 1000 rpm w/o opening the throttle. Also, I'm getting a hiccup at the carb / air filter especially riding at low rpm at low speed. I suspect it's an air leak at the intake manifold. What do y'all think? I replaced the HD spark plugs with Autolite 4265 (gap 0.40). Also, do I have the saddle bags orientated properly? I have the curved portion of the yoke
at the rear.
The bike is running pretty good! I also found a leak at the plastic inlet fitting to the carb so after researching I purchased HD part 27371-76A and pressed it in with a vise. CV Performance has a nice write up the procedure.
I started the bike this morning with full choke and the bike slowly started and ran for about 3 seconds then conked out. I hit the start button but it wouldn't restart. I only heard a spinning sound. After researching it sounds like a bad starter clutch.
Does anyone know how to take off the chain inspection cover? I believe the bushing is attached to the cover but it sill will not come off after pulling on it.
A little penetrating oil where the inner dark gray plastic meets the metal bushing around it and the inner shifter shaft. The gray plastic is a 8 inch long tube with an O-ring on both ends of it, going thru the entire primary housing, with a metal shift shaft going thru the center. It can get stuck with time and can be tricky to remove. The gasket for that small oval cover can stick also. Yours looks like the O-ring is on the outside of the metal bushing/housing. It is not supposed to be there, it should be further in that bushing and not visible. Looks like that is what is holding it up.
However, there is not much you can accomplish by removing that cover other than chain inspection/adjustment.
Your probably better off pulling the entire outer primary cover with that small oval inspection cover staying mounted to the outer primary cover. It will still be a little tough to remove especially if not removed in awhile, but you will get better leverage or pull by removing the entire cover anyways. Your going to need to remove the the entire cover if you plan on inspecting the starter to clutch engagement/pinion gear mechanism. A left to right wiggle motion to pull the cover past that O-ring is what you need to accomplish.
Put some hylomar on that O-ring prior to reassembly, or better yet get a new O-ring and use hylomar on the new O-ring prior to install and it will never get stuck again.
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Slideshow: A standard cruiser becomes an intricate metal canvas in the hands of a Swiss custom house known for pushing Harley-Davidson platforms far beyond their factory brief.
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