I bought a 1980 FLT last year. Didn't get much of a chance to ride it but noticed it did bog a lot. End of season pulled the air cleaner and it was saturated with oil. Did some measurements and found a K&N that would fit if I used 1inch extensions on the cover bolts for the S&S carb. This year I noticed oil dripping from under the filter and pulled the cover and filter off. This this is just throwing oil out the hole. It isn't just a little blow by it is literally puking oil out. At certain rpms it isn't as bad but in trying to get it warmed up today to get it to idle I have almost half a quart on the floor that of course got there by way of the exhaust cover, floorboard, side of the engine and frame.[:@]

I'm new, can someone give me an idea of what might be wrong. It wasn't overfilled, I did a filter and fluid on it and I made sure to just get it up to the fill line. Is there a baffle that might be missing or ? ? ? ? ?

Thanks
Mark

 

Hi Mark,
are you talking about the bowl vent hole {# 8 in the picture in this link} ?

are you using the stock S&S air cleaner base and cover? I'm guessing you have an "E" or "G" ?

 

From what you have described, it sounds to me that you are running the crankcase vent to the air cleaner. If that is so, then it is probable that your engine is wet sumping and fouling the air cleaner as it blows the oil build up in the crankcase out the vent to the carb filter. Naturally, with a fouled air cleaner, the bike will run very poorly.

 

good idea megawatt!!
the vacuum of the engine could also be sucking the oil up to the cleaner.
now I'm interested to know if this is whats going on and if he's running the OEM S&S air cleaner base and cover which is required for the carburetor to work correctly {from what I gather}.

 

First thing I did after buying the bike is pick up a shop manual for it. The reason I say that is that I have read up on how the system is supposed to work and have an accurate diagram of where the hoses are supposed to go. I am running from what I can tell is the stock or standard S&S carb plate with the S&S filter cover mounted to it. The only thing I modified was changing out the saturated S&S paper air filter with a longer K&N giving me more filtering area. From the shop manual there is a line that runs from the oil pump up to the stock carb plate vent hole. There is a different line that runs to the oil tank in addition to the oil supply and oil return lines. I know it can't be the oil return line as it would be constantly blowing oil out. It should be a line that would vent the crankcase gases inside the air filter so it gets sucked in and burnt. It does blow oil out this vent hole with or without the K&N filter and S&S cover in place so I'm sure it isn't, well can't be a matter of vacuum pulling it out the hole. I'm taking it that since I bought it with a saturated standard filter that the K&N isn't the problem. As it spits this oil out with or without the filters and cover in place I think it's more a matter of some severe blow by or more likely if there is one, a baffle of some sort missing. There is a chance since there are a number of hoses shown that the former guy got one crossed but I can't see the exact routing with the primary in position and I'd like to try to figure out what this is without dismantling the engine or removing too much if at all possible.

What would you do?
What do you suggest?

 

kiss4afrog,
It still sounds to me like your engine is "wet sumping." Correct that problem by replacing/cleaning/reseating the spring-loaded check ball that is supposed to prevent that. Do a search on the forum for instructions or ask knowledgeable buddy to help you. Then, you will need to get that oil out of the crankcase. I can think of three ways: 1) By draining it (if your engine has a crankcase drain plug...left side case and if you do have the plug be VERY careful removing and installing it so you don't booger it or the threads up) 2)Running the engine until it pumps it out to the oil tank (hopefully you haven't added oil to the tank that doesn't leave room for the oil in the engine to fit) 3) Cranking the engine using the starter motor with the ignition defeated to pump it back to the tank (watch the starter motor closely because they get hot and have a battery charger onthe battery that has a boost mode). Pick the one you feel best about trying. If youcrank the engine with thestarter, make sure you properly defeat the ignitionso you don't damage any igniton stuff.
Once you get this stuff straightened-out, you should be able to put your freshly cleaned and recharged K&N fliter back on and check to see if the bike runs better since it should be breathing properly.
Your spark plugs are probably fairly badly fouled from the oil/fuel super-rich mixture they have been trying to ignite so they will need cleaning or replacing.
I hope this helps you.

 

I'm with Megawatt,
once you've made sure all of the hoses are routed correctly you could also remove the crankcase vent hose from the air cleaner base and drop it below the level of the crank case into a drain pan. If the engine case is full of oil this should help to clear it out by spinning the engine over. But you will still have to get the check ball seating correctly.
When my 68 sat for a length of time it would fill the crank case with oil and make a mess from the vent hose which I have routed to a small crank case breather mounted behind the transmission. After the engine started and the oil puked from the breather things would be ok.
Clean the oil pimp seat area and reseated the seat by using the old check ball {remove the cap and spring of course} and tapping very lightly with a drift punch then replaced the check ball and spring after cleaning everything I don't have this problem any more. You should be able to do this with out removing the pump from the case.
If you haven't already you may want to drain your oil tank and look inside and see of it is clean. Its a good idea to flush the tank, the smallest piece of debris will cause the check ball to leak and fill the case with oil.
hope you get this solved.

 

A leaking check ball sounds like it may be the thing. The problem I'm having is getting the top off. I tried the biggest screwdriver I have with a wrench on it and all it did was finally jump out of the slot and chew up some of the slot. Is there a special tool or some better way or tool to get in there to get to that check ball?

 

That plug can be a pain to get out for sure.
Last resort for me is using my old impact driver. the kind that you whack on the end with a hammer once you have the correct drive inserted into the slot.
Or if theirs a way you could put a little heat on the area around the plug to cause the aluminum to expand some, you have to be careful not to get it to hot.

 

Can I route the breather line to the vent tank line and save the oil it's a lot spilled on the ground