HELP!! 1983 FLH oil leak problem.

I have been working on this oil leak for about 4 months now and I can't figure it out. PLEASE,if you can, HELP ME!!!
When I start my bike up it runs fine. No leaks, No problems. When I ride it, after about 2 miles it starts to pump oil out of the crank case breather hose.
It will not leak just at idle sitting in my garage, I ran it for 45 minutes and no leaks. I'm running 110 lbs. compression in both cylinders. This used to have that "chain bath" but it has been removed.
QUESTION: When I put bike in gear, can it cause back pressure from the primary to be sent to the crank case and cause my problem? It pumpes out about 1 quart every 10 miles.
Thanks in advance, harley49266
Ps. I was told that it might be the breather gear, what do you think?

WOW, sounds like you have an oil problem, a quart every 10 miles is a LOT of oil to be losing. Have you done any maintenance to it lately? Any changes to the oil system, like coolers, new oil filters? Where exactly is the spewing from? The first thing I thought of is a clogged oil vent. I’d take ALL oil lies apart and inspect. Your compression wont have any effect on your oil delivery system; not to be confused with RPM’s. As far as putting it in gear and causing backpressure to the crank vent is highly unlikely; one thing about Harleys is all three of the drive lines (primary/clutch, transmission, motor) are separate and have no effect on one another, except how they hook together.
Let me ask around and see what some others have to say about this.
Otherwise, good-luck…
K-B

It sounds almost like you had to much oil in it, what have you done in the last four months while working on the leak?

83 shovel head... HELP!!

Thanks so much for getting back to me Gator,

All summer I have changed the oil and filter three times, changed the ball bearing and spring twice, put new oil lines on,(made sure that they were right) and ran a compression check with the screw in type of compression checker. I then ran each oil line, one at a time into an empty milk jug and started the engine to make sure that I had good oil flow to and from the pump, and I do. The only thing that I haven't done was pull the cover off and look at the breather gear. I went and bought one ,so I thought that I might as well change it when I get into it.
When it started doing it, my wife noticed oil on her right leg after riding for a few hours. Now it only takes a few miles and oil starts running out of the crank case breather line. IT'S DRIVING ME NUTS, I only get a few months of good riding time in Michigan and my butt is getting soft from lack of road time.
If you can think of anything that I can try, please let me know. I'm not that experienced with working on my ride, but I'm willing to learn,
Thanks again, harley49266

How much is coming back on the scavenge side? Have you checked it with the hose going to a catch can?

You may have a sheared key or damaged a gear. If you know for absolute certainty that you are not overfilled causing the vent to drain back to the crankcase. Think scavenge side first since you are not getting oil back to the tank.

If you have the correct amount of oil and have not over filled due to sumping, loosing one qt every 10 miles will put you at nearly empty at 30 miles.

Check the return side and if you are not returning a decent volume of oil and not a dribble, pull the pump and check the key and scavenge gears. Since the breather is what transfers oil to the cam chest, it is essential that it is not restricted or deteriorated. The plastic POS that HD used will collapse, wear out and can easily cause your problem.

If you are not returning oil, anyway you slice it you have to do some tear down. There is just no way around it. As to why it does not do it at idle? At idle, the system is just not pushing a lot of oil and it is not developing a ton of blow by so there is nowhere near the amount of oil and air whirring around in the crankcase. You could put a heavy duty fan at the front of the bike at hold the RPM to about 2-3k and it would probably do the same thing.

83 shovel head... HELP!!

Thanks, CD,
I will check the return line tomorrow and let you know. The more I think about it, and the more I hear all of the great feed back from all you richeous bros, I'm almost positive that the gear must be bad. When I pull the cover off, do I have to disconnect the point plate first or can I take the cover off all at once? OH, and will all the gears fall out and run all over the place like other parts have done to me before? I have a shop manual so that should help me some.... I HOPE. THANKS again, harley49266

WOAAAH HOSS!

First, DO NOT attempt to remove the cam cover until you have first removed the push rods! The tension on the cam from the valve springs will cause the cam to **** if you remove the cam cover ruining the inner bearing which in turn will fail and trash the lower end...not pretty.

Remove the push rods, lifters and lifter blocks, mark the sensor position with a fine tip marker before loosening it. Remove the sensor, rotor bolt and cup. Now, you can gently work the cone off. If it is stuck, a couple of easy taps with a dead blow hammer will loosen it.

The breather is the small gear to the lower left. Easiest way to remove and install it is to bump the engine over by hand (raise the rear wheel and place it in 3rd gear) until the dot on the cam and breather line up. Remove and replace the breather gear. I would use an S&S steel breather gear with shim kit over the junk plastic any day.

Since you are already in the cam chest...if your inner bearing has never been changed it is a great time to do it. Changing to a Torrington B-138 inner is cheap insurance and peace of mind. Check the wear out the outer bushing and make sure to change the cam seal.

83 shovel head... HELP!!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU..... you just saved me a bunch of mental pain and a BIG repair bill. I think that I had better study the shop manual some more. I can't recall reading about any "sensor" though. I will look for it in the book. I will get on it in the next few days. I wish that there was some way that I could make your life a little bit easy-er for all the help that you have given me. Thank you sounds so small, But thank you just the same. harley49266

You're welcome.

One of the greatest things about this BBS is the breadth of knowledge our members have. Most of these members readily share their knowledge and provide a lot of help. I am proud of the way this BBS runs and, as a few of us that go back a very, very long time (SK, Bob and Marc), remember a certain BBS that appeared to only be there for flame wars.

We may have our occasional spats but our members take a breath, cool their tempers, gather their thoughts and post their counter points. I have never had to put out a true flame war and I don't ever worry about it.

At any rate, the sensor plate is more commonly called the sensor pickup assembly and is the very first thing you will see after you remove the timing cover. It has hash marks on it and one will line up with a notch in the cone. Mark that point and the notch for reference. The finer the mark, the easier it is to get the timing back to where it was. You can disconnect the sensor assembly at a plug about six inches away from the cone. Just follow the wires and you will find it. That will allow you put the cone aside. If I am only going in to change a cam or breather, I often will not disconnect the plug and will find a place to rest the cone even if I have to use a stiff piece of wire looped through a hole. Don't let it hang by the wires they are pretty small and you might damage them.

After you remove the plate you will see the rotor cup and in the center is the rotor bolt. Remove the bolt and the cup and you are ready to remove the nose cone bolts. Note that there are three different length bolts.

An easy trick is to use some cardboard and a cam cover gasket and draw the outline of the gasket marking the holes and poking a small hole in the cardboard. Push the corresponding bolt through the hole and when you reassemble, you won't be scratching your head. We used to bag n' tag hundreds of bolts nuts washers etc, etc, etc when we tore down aircraft. Bagging n' tagging can save a lot of grief and time.

When we used to do a lot of drag racing we had a piece of plastic with the outline of a small block MOPAR head gasket on it with the right size holes drilled into it. If we had to yank the heads to change a blown head gasket, we just dropped the bolts in the corresponding holes. Saved a lot of time because you weren't constantly fumbling for the long or short bolts.

83 shovel head... HELP!!

Again, thank you C.D. for the step by step directions. I will take on this new job with a little more confidence than when I started. Please forgive me for all the dumb questions that I ask,I don't want to be a bother to any one. I will let you know how things are going in a few days. harley49266