Oil from breather

A freind of mine stopped over today with a bike he bought this spring and said he was having problems with his 83 FLH (last year of the shovel) puking a lot of oil out of his breather. the oil pump looks similar to a evo. Could it be the check ball in the pump, or something else. It has 53000 miles on it. One thing I did notice it has a SS carb and air cleaner on it. The breather was mounted off the frame on the bottom. Any help would be appreciated.

Tom

It could be the check ball, how's the oil level...if it's overfilled that would do it to. If the crank breather hose or the oil return line is kinked or restricted it would cause pressure build up in the case and do it too and if the breather gear is worn it would not scavange properly and leave too much oil in the bottom end which would also find its way out the breather hose.
Start with the simple stuff first, take out some oil and run it for a while with the oil level half way between add and full, then check the oil lines and breather hose for kinks or sharp bends.

Thanks for the input, now he tells me sometimes it will puke out a qaurt in 10 miles I"m thinking it might be something major. I will clean and check out the check ball before I before I go any further.

Thanks

Here's a 1/2 dozen causes for excessive oil out of the breather out of my 85-90 Service Manual altho it's an Evo book shovel bottom is very similar.
1. Oil not returning to tank
2. Restricted oil return to tank
3. Restricted oil filter
4.Oil lines or passages restricted
5.Gearcase cover gasket not sealing
6. Leakage between passages and pockets in gearcase cover and gearcase.

Notice most of the causes are from a restriction

Was there anything done to the bike recently?? Make sure he has the right oil filter on it, if he doesn't have the factory Service Manual, tell him to get one, it's a 26 year old motosickle and Shovels require maintenance and TLC.

Started from the begining,,, drained oil, (5 Qts.) changed filter, filled with 3 1/2 qts. rerouted breather hose back to back side of air filter, went for a 20 mile ride everything looked good. Degrease bike tomorrow hopefully this will cure all problems.

Tom

Yep, sounds good, prolly was just overfilled with oil.

Everthing turned out for the better, went for a 80 mile ride everthing dryed up. another happy owner rides away.
Thanks for everyones input

Tom

I believe the biggest problem was to much oil, I rerouted the breather back to the backing plate of the air cleaner. One other thing that I have done before is bend a steel brake line and continue the breather into the the bore of the carburator that way when it decides to pass a little oil while a higher speeds it doesn"t leak out the bottom of the air cleaner and blow all over the side of the bike.

Tom

Hi Lucifer, I have an 09 CVO ultra with SE 110 engine. I am getting oil out the breather too. Air cleaner is clean, oil is not overfilled. Get blow by whether doing 120kms/hr all day on a trip or 80kms/hr on short rides. Just that at higher speeds it covers more of the side of the bike.

Any ideas?

Jim

what Luficer said - Plus a lot of TLC!

I know very little about the TC's,other than they are a completely different animal than the Shovels and Evos,but there are lots of guys here that do, I'm sure someone will have an idea......1st thing you could do is get the factory service manual, the electrical diagnostic manual is also very valuable and if you have some coin left get the parts catalog.
Good luck.

I've noticed on my 09 Heritage I have to wipe some oil mist residue off the upper front frame tubes and off the front valve cover occassionally. I've looked for the breather hose to be sure it's not kinked, etc. but can't locate it. Where do they hide those critters anyhow? I don't think I have too much oil in the tank because I put only 2 1/2 quates in the tank.
Thanks,
Danny

Thanks cowboy for the info. The oil mist is on top of the rocker cover - front only and the upper portion of the frame tubes. The gasket area is dry so I'll check out the breather tubes. If nothing jumps out at me as a csuse, I'll check with the dealer. I need to go pick up some HD Syn and do the oil this week end anyhow.
Danny

10-4 chucktx - good point.
Danny