Here I sit, all broken hearted, tried to ride but forced to learn instead. Better late than never to learn about my 883 and boy can I use some help. To start the season off I was faced with a dead cell in a battery that was less than a year old. Thankfully it was replaced with no expense. We installed the new battery and went to fire up the bike and ended up with a pool of gas beneath the bike. A little carb cleaner, etc. and all seemed good until the next day. Husband cleaned, polished, tightened and replaced bolts and set out to fire her up and the oil cap blew off spewing oil all over the garage (and a nice shiny bike). What's up with that?

I don't know what to do next? At this point, I don't particularily trust my husband's judgement nor have I found a concrete answer exploring the internet. Some say there's too much oil in the bike, some say it's a compression problem, some say the cover wasn't on tight. Husband assures me the cap was on tight. He wouldn't admit it if it wasn't. He would have felt embarrassed. He has taken out enough oil to half fill a medium sized KFC soda cup but proceeds to ask me, "how do you read this dip stick?" I thought the obvious would be the bottom groove. The upper grove is approx. 2" above that and a much thinner groove. He has me questioning it now too. I can't find anything online about it either. Appears to possibly be from the Billet line but not sure. Harley signia cap, no gauge. Stainless steel, or similar dipstick. Seal on tank seems a bit flimsy and one needs to be careful it doesn't slip into the tank when replacing the plug.

When taking oil from the tank, my husband keeps asking, "where does the oil keep coming from. The tank keeps filling up." I replied, "from the crankcase." He follows with, "But how much damn oil can be in this thing?" That does intrigue me. The bike doesn't seem to burn oil. That's to say nothing obvious visually or by smell. Now research has suggested that oil in a Sporty should never be checked cold; always check it when it's hot. What is true? Last season it was usually checked cold and one time it didn't register anything on the dip stick. A friend who was checking it proceeded to dump in nearly half of a container. I was totally dumbfounded as I stood there scratching my head. It seemed like the bike was bone dry yet how could it have used that much oil in 2 weeks or less. Adding oil seemed to be a regular regimen before any ride. It never made sense and I always had reservations but no one listened to me. Now I wonder if the bike, in deed, has too much oil in it? I don't really care what my husband says, he is no more of an expert than I am. I need advice from experienced people, that's why I'm here.

Please help. I don't want to take it to a shop if there is a simple fix or explanation for what is happening. All seemed just fine when it was parked for this past winter. I didn't have any problems last spring, so why am I having problems this spring?

 

I can't speak to all those issues, but the bike is meant to be drained of oil and refilled (and measured) when the engine is warm. Otherwise you can overfill it.

 

Sorry about your problems. Do yourself a favor and get a shop manual for your bike, it will really help you with the things you mentioned here, and more. Second, talk to a shop about your problem, if you aren't comfy with that, try an indy shop. Ask around, you should get pointed in the right direction.

 

change the oil,use service manual, measure it, check it ,run it ,check it again, dont run it again with too much or too little oil. It would be an expensive mistake... find an owners manual.....

 

Sounds like the tank my be overfilled.
The bottom like on the dipstick is the ADD mark, the top line is the FULL mark. Most Sportys run best is the oil level is kept midway between the 2 marks. Always check the oil when the bike is hot, like at the end of a ride.

 

Thanks guys!! Doing an oil change was the direction I was going too. I thought it best to start at ground zero, sort of speak, to determine whether or not there was too much oil. I always knew that being low on oil was damaging but having too much is a new lesson.

I read somewhere that when doing an oil change a person should turn the bike over a couple of times to make sure all oil drains from the tank into the crankcase. In your opinion, is this necessary? Do I dare start the bike at this point to thin the oil?

 

and when you change the oil please pre-fill oil filter with 4-oz of oil
just roll it a round to get filter wet and slap that baby on
no more than 3-qt's of oil should be close

 

i forgot what year of bike is this ? the reason is as to how oil cap goes on!!

 

If I'm not mistaken, it should only take 3.4 QT's. no more. The block should be hot. Drain the oil with the fill cap off. Give it ten min. to drain. Stand the bike up center to get the rest of the oil out of the block and the filter. Wait for it to stop driping. Now the block should be empty. Put back the drain plug. Put a little less than half a QT. into the filter before you put the filter in the bike. Let it sit for a few min. to let it soak into the filter. Oil the gasket, (rubber ring) then put it in. Once it bottoms, go an extra quarter to half turn to seat it, You could do this yourself girl. Take the rest of your 2.6 QT and put them in the oil tank. Put the oil cap back on. Now pull both plug wires off the plugs and turn over the motor over for a few seconds. Replace the wires. then start the bike. Let it warm up, shut it off, then check the oil level Add what you need. This should work. Get your baby back in the wind.....................HOLLYWOOD


P.S. hit me back if you need more info..............

 

hollywoods directions look good to me ,but the earlier question u had do not start or crank the bike over without oil permanent expensive damage could result