Strangest thing today, and quite scary.

Riding down the road on my 07 Heritage and I was checking the oil temp, as I installed the PCIII last night, and there is oilall over the side of my bike on the right side. So I pull over to take a look and the oil vent tube (chrome tube to the top of the oil tank closest to the fill spout) was blown out at the wire braid bend point. Not only was it blown out, it looked like it had been on FIRE, was totally black and had a 1/4 hole in it.

Totally baffled by this, I poked around and found that when I pushed on tube, it SPARKED as it connected with the engine block. Apparently on a bump, it connected with the block, sparked and ignited hot oil gases going through the tube causing a mini explosion and fire!!!! F******-A!!!

There is a recall for this problem that I knew about, and had taken care of. The recall is that in some cases on these bikes when installing or re-installing the battery, the positive cable can get pinched between the oil tank and the battery, and even though there is insulation there, after a number of bumps, it wears through making the oil tank a positive battery terminal!!!

Because it is insulated from the frame for safety reasons, there is no real action until something grounds it, like the oil tubes to the block. But when it does, it can be very catastrophic as you can imagine. I feel very lucky to have avoided a full on fire.

Here is the issue. I've had the recall done, and they inserted a plastic baffle to further insulate the cables from the oil tank, but damned if it wasn't simple to still install the battery and have the positive cable swing outside the baffle and up against the oil tank, which is what happened to me. So basically, if its that easy to have this happen, the recall fix is a piece of crap.

I urge all of you to check your battery connections to make sure they are not bumping up to the oil tank, and that if you have the recall, the cable is tucked nicely inside the plastic baffle. Maybe you can avoid my nightmare of today.

Eddie

PS. Anyone know how to change this damn oil vent line out? How do I get it disconnected from the oil tank?

 

Thiswas a really 'hot' topic (no pun intended) some time back and I though it had been taken care of by the recall. If your bike cooked the line I would call the dealer who did itfirst thingMonday and scream bloddy murder. Make them come get it with a trailer or flatbed and FIX IT RIGHT,including some new oillines and new oil.
If they wanna make an issue of it. Just hang up,call headquarters and scream at them. They need to make this right.
And thanks for the tip, I'll be pulling the seat off in the morning to double check mine.
I'm a little bit parinoid about stuff like that.

Don't forget to let us know how you make out. If its happened once, it could happen again.

 

Here is a pic of the carnage ....

[IMG]local://upfiles/37647/5FB8BF80E5C342B09640AA24E982BD15.jpg[/IMG]

 

Ya know, good old fashioned black rubber lines are starting to look better and better.

 

THAT SUCKS!!!!!! SmokinEd!! I'm sorry for your mis-fortune and glad you are not a CRISPY CRITTER! I had heard about the braided lines had been touching the positive on battery, who the hell does quality control??!! I know every built new HARLEY is supposed to be inspected from top to bottom! And the money you pay for bike that will be fixed, but it will still be burnt and could still smell of burnt oil! I went to HARLEY dealer yesterday, now a DYNO-TUNE is $360.00!! I paid $200.00 a year ago, why are they gougeing us? I looked at some 08 models, nothing under $21,000.00, are they trying to get back strike losses? There 08's are the same to me and the colors look better on-line, but I do like Copper&Black, but they need to fix bikes with problems or customers will leave! I saw a Suziki M 109 'V' twin, 125 H.P & 110 Tourqe, $14,000.00, but I would never buy a jap (metric) over HARLEY, think god I have my 06 C.V.O. 103 FAT BOY! Not knocking ANY ONES 07 or 08, but for the priceSOME people are getting screwed. PURPLEHAZE.

[IMG]local://upfiles/24725/58EE70BC491D48F6BB88F9CDE4AF4CF3.jpg[/IMG]

 

Problem fixed! Cured electrical problem, and damn those quick release oil lines are easy to remove/install.

Back on the road in a matter of a few hours!!!

Thanks for the empathy!

 

Glad it turned out well, check mine and everything is OK. But I trust the "fix" about as far as I can throw the bike.
I'm gonna have to do what I did before my bike got fixed and find the old piece of plastic sheeting I put in to prevent it happening before the dealer put in the recall parts. Just in case. Like I said I'm a bit parinoid about that particular problem. I waited a loooong time to get the Harley I wanted and I'm not about to have it go up in smoke on me now.
I take it the dealer didn't give you any static about it. Thanks for letting us know how things turned out.

 

The fix is to shove a thick piece of plastic or rubber between the positive battery terminal and the oil tank. I saw some rubber pads at Lowes around the plumbing section that would work great. They were square, about 6" x 6" and ~1/4" thick

 

Is this a problem with only the 07 and newer bikes?

 

No, I found out the hard way a few years ago.....I have a '02.