After riding to Tomahawk WI this past weekend about 300 miles, I noticed my bike was making a loud ticking sound at idle. I checked the oil level it was about 1/2 qt down so i topped it off, and kept riding. The ticking sound never went away until it cooled off. I have had some problems with the crank case breather hose,it leaks a lot of oil. So we installed a filter,the filter fills up and the oil leaks all over the place. About 700 miles total this weekend and went through 1 1/2 qts of oil. When i purchased the bike in march 08 i had new base gaskets and rings installed. It has a high flow air filter on it, I have been told they don't run the hose back to the air filter with these. About 5700 miles so far this year,any one have an idea what this problem may be. Thanks JOHN

 

I assume by your title you have a 98 Roadglide? If so they are what is referred to as Head Breathers, meaning they breath out of the heads. There are two holes, one in each head, where the air filter backing plate mounts. these holes need to be open, the high flow filter should have hollow bolts to allow venting. If you cap these off the motor will not vent. When running this type of motor i usually run a hose off the heads and down the motor to the rear of the bike.

Do you know where the ticking sound is coming from, could be a lifter that has collapsed, could be a part in the cam chest area, there are a number of possibilities, this needs to be address as you should not be going though this much oil...

I would start by trying to isolate the ticking sound, then go from there. As for the oil if the breather gear has broken or is out of alignment it would cause the problems you are talking about, when the top end was done did they go into the cam chest if so I would look there, especially if this started shortly after the work was done...

I know its not a perfect answer but it might help you a little...if you need more help Pm me and I will try and help, I too have a 98 RG.

 

thanks i will check into that. JOHN

 

I stopped by the cycle shop who has been doing the work on my bike,Hes thinking the cylinders are out of whack. the bike has 47.000 miles,i guess its time for boring and new pistons and rings. do you also do head work while its apart ? any other mods that will help with performance ? i love riding,but thing has been a pain in the ***.

 

I really don't know what to tell on the whole "cylinders are out of whack" comment from your shop. I can't see how the cyl's would cause what you are describing but if they know the bike and have looked at it, maybe you have a broken ring or something like that. To me if it was cyl's or pistons, you would have blue smoke coming out your exhaust, you would smell it. Plus the bike would run like crap or not run at all. A compression test should be able to tell the state of your pistons and rings. The only other thing I could think of was maybe the base gaskets were installed incorrectly when they were done and somehow blocked off some of the oil return passageways.

I still feel that the problem is in the cam chest area, not the cyl's, not with the millage you have.

If you have to pull the motor apart and upgrade it, i would be looking at a good cam, Andrews EV 27 is a good Bagger cam. I would also do the heads, not in anything radical just redo the valve springs and seals, regrind the seats etc, being them up to snuff with the rings and pistons. Basically refresh the top end. I have done this a few times on the bikes I have owned.

For Evo performance, go with...a good cam, a free flowing air breather, good pipes and a good ignition system (like crane) if its fuely, Power commander and have it tuned on a dyno. There is alot more you can do to an evo to make it perform, it just depends on how much money you want to spend.

 

A friend who rides an evo powered bike has told me that some evo's have had issues with the lifters failing. Can't say for sure as I ride a bike with a twin cam. Good luck tracking down whatever is giving you trouble.

 

I spoke to a good friend of mine, he suggested i bring the bike to a shop down the road. I called and spoke to him, he also suggested its not the cylinders. Any way its going in at 10:00 am thursday morning hopefully for the last time this summer. $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

Sounds like you have a lot of blow-by making it blow oil out the c.c.vent. The rings may not have ever seated properly when you had them installed. run a compression check. The ticking is probely a lifter I had a 98 evo and had to replace mine at around 75,000K

 

This is true for early Evos with "small-axle" lifters, but somewhere in the mid-1990's bikes were equipped with so-called big-axle lifters, which were a redesign to address the durability issues you mention. Not knowing when this transition occurred and which type my bike had, I changed the lifters on my early-'96 RK at about 65k miles. As it turned out the factory lifters were the big-axle variety, so I would assume the OP's '98 has these as well. When I swapped them out they were replaced by HD 88B lifters, which looked almost identical. I rode the bike another 40k or so (106k total) and never had a lifter problem before or after the swap.

 

well i decided to have it rebuilt to hopefully stop all this oil leaking. my question is after all this work is completed,bored cylinders,5000 over,new pistons,rings,new tappet lifters,new umbrella valves,valve job,new gaskets all around,i upgraded to the andrews ev27 cam,new plug wires. and lots of misc other things that need to be completed, is this bike going to continue to leak oil out of the crank case breather tube ? i under stand it should be good for another 50.000 miles with regular maintenance. I sure hope so. Thanks for every ones help.