Greetings,

I've noticed after my bike, an 05 Softail Night Train with the 88CI motor, sits for awhile all the oil leaves the tank and goes somewhere, I presume into the crankcase. I noticed this the last time it sat and I started it, the oil pressure was to slow for my paranoid *** to come up, so I shut the bike off. I then checked the tank and it had nothing in it. So I added some and it came up on the next start, but so did the oil level, so hi in fact, I had to pull some out. I'm asking this because I moved, and my bike has been in storage for about 6 months and I'm about to get it back. So what causes this and what should I do about it? Should I drain the crankcase then add oil to the tank, then start it?

Thanks

 

 

Terrifying, is the lower end getting oil during this?

 

 

 

+1 on this, just don't rev it up, My 16 Deluxe does this to a point, but mine gets ridden every month. Ride safe, Happy New Year.

 

Mine just did this on a fresh build, but it was a worst case scenario. The builder didn't read the destructions that clearly said "do not use loctite on the oil pump" and used quite a bit. Made it 0.5 miles before it broke the gears in the oil pump.

 

on all softails ...if you look at where the oil tank is mounted (under the seat ) ...and trace the oil lines DOWN to the motor ....the oil will gravity feed DOWN to the crankcase ...on all softails ...given enough time ...it's not a leak ...if you know it was full of oil the last time it ran ...and there are no external leaks (oil seen under the bike ) ...the oil is in the crankcase ....start it up ...let idle till warmed up ..then check level ...(what we do is lean the bike to the right side while idling , so the scavenging side of the oil pump will be able to pull more oil from the bottom end back to the tank )( this also runs some transmission oil to the outer trap door bearings, if the bike has been sitting on the side stand for a long period of time ...as the oil will drain out of these bearings also )

 

Make sure it's right before leaving it when you know it will sit. Then don't worry about it. Pleanty of oil film on surfaces. Only needs flow for cooling and pressure to get all over motor. It was probably getting oil as soon as you started it. Lifters will bleed off it not and that sounds like steel ***** falling on a glass table.
Relace your filter with a new OEM one. Could be some junk under the check valve.
The o-ring is probably also worn in oil pump.
Mine with 50k on it will drop 1/2 a stick in 5 months.
I bet if you took a light and looked in tank, there was pleanty of oil in it.

 

Unless there was a huge puddle under the bike the oil's in there, it didn't evaporate.
Next time, bump the starter until the oil returns to the oil tank.