Loving My King

[hq98king]

24 years ago I traded my Honda CB-360T for four wheels - vowing not to own another bike unless it was a Harley. That time finally arrived this past March when I picked up my '98 Road King Classic, 95th Anniversary Edition. Hot Damn ! ! !
Always did my own maintenance, so I plan on continuing in the same fashion.
I just recently noticed a little bit of oil leaking from the area of the air cleaner assembly, so I took it all apart yesterday and noticed that 1) the air filter was in dire need of replacement and 2) the oil seemed to be coming from two breather screws that fasten the air cleaner housing to the engine cylinder heads. The two rubber plugs that cover these screws did not seem to be doing a good job keeping oil from blowing out of these breathers.
Any suggestions or comments on this problem?

 

[glider]

It sounds as if you have a stage 1 on the bike in which case it should vent out those two ports into the throat of the intake. You can tell if it is a stage 1 by looking to see if you can see the filter around the edge of the chrome air filter housing. If you can see it, then it is a stage 1.
If this is the case you probably have a K&N filter on it also that should be cleaned an reoiled then reused. They have a million mile warranty.
Without other info it's hard to give any other suggestions as to a fix. Try cleaning the filter then reinstall it after it is dry and re oiled and see if it continues.

Here's a link to cleaning the K&N filter.

http://www.knfilters.com/cleaning.htm

 

[hq98king]

Thanks, Glider, for the reply.
The air filter is stock and fully enclosed.
I replaced the filter and put about 400 highway miles on the bike without signs of oil - and then it showed up again.
Maybe that's how long it took for the air filter to saturate. My riding partner has a 2000 Fat Boy and was blowing oil in similar fashion. I'd like to see H-D provide a solution to this - if not already on their newer model, then an aftermarket solution.

 

[glider]

One thing I failed to mention is the oil level especially on the softails but it does it on the "A" motors like the Road kings too.
You should always run the engine with the bike in the upright position for a minute or two before draining the oil to do an oil change. If you don't do this before draining the oil, there is more oil left in the sump of the engine than there should be and when you go ahead and refill the oil tank with the correct amount, you end up with too much oil in the system and it will eventually blow out into the air filter.

If all else fails, sometimes the oil pump must be realigned to eliminate this problem in some bikes. There was also some bikes from the factory with an "O" ring on the oil pump that got damaged during assembly and caused an excessive amount of oil to be collected in the cam cover and that would cause this problem also.