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Missing air cover seal

atm33

atm33

Active Member
When inspecting my air filter ('08 Road King Classic), I noticed the previous owner had installed a K&N filter. Great. But, I also noticed the rubber seal that is supposed to be in the air cover is gone (number 3 in the attached diagram). I'm sure the seal serves some great purpose, but I can't figure out what. Anyone know if this is something I should run out and get pronto, or if I can live without it? I've ridden over a thousand miles without it, and the previous owner probably much longer. I checked the K&N site, and they don't say anything about removing it when using their filter. Just curious and don't want to kill my engine by omitting some super important seal...
 

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That seals the cover to the backing plate, if you have a good filter you dont need it right away, if you have a SE backing plate you do not need it at all
 
Thanks for the replies. Guess I'll see what price the dealer wants for it... Pretty sure I don't have the SE backing plate. I wonder if this is some way of adding horsepower by removing the seal? Either that or the previous owner simply forgot to put it back on.
 
Just went out to take a look at it. I now know why the seal is missing. Because there is no backing plate! None! It doesn't even look like there ever was one there. I'm going to talk to the folks at K&N and see if there is any reason someone would remove the backing plate. The mystery thickens...
 
atm33 said:
Just went out to take a look at it. I now know why the seal is missing. Because there is no backing plate! None! It doesn't even look like there ever was one there. I'm going to talk to the folks at K&N and see if there is any reason someone would remove the backing plate. The mystery thickens...
Click to expand...

you sure you don't have the screamin eagle stage 1 kit?
 
Nope. I'm not sure. The previous owner's brother bought and installed the owner a bunch of parts that he got free from working at a dealer. The bike has V&H big shots, and a fuelpak that had to be dialed in on a dyno. That's all I know. How can I tell if it has the Stage 1 upgrade? If so, would that answer the question why there's no backplate?
 
It must be a abbreviated back plate for the air filter has to attach to some thing..... A Stage 1 is just a freer flowing air filter. So I would say that you do have a stage one upgrade.

Hope this clears things up:

Harley Davidson Forums
 
dbmg said:
It must be a abbreviated back plate for the air filter has to attach to some thing..... A Stage 1 is just a freer flowing air filter. So I would say that you do have a stage one upgrade.

Hope this clears things up:

Harley Davidson Forums
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the info. As you can imagine, I was getting a little worried.... :)
 
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