| Author | Message | ||
     Prowler |
Last fall, noticed a drop of oil on my Uly's starter and looked up to see grunge on the rear rocker box. Finally got around to actually doing something about it on Saturday. Took everything apart per the service manual. Plan was to replace just the lower rocker gaskets as the top ones are usually re-usable. Everything was going good until I got to cleaning up the rocker box. Noticed that the upper seal looked to be squashed at the back left corner where the leak was coming from.(it was flush with rocker box top face). Hmmmmmmm. Before trying to dig the original one out, figured I better run to Hal's to get a replacement. Got there and was told "Sorry, don't have any of those in stock..." SERIOUSLY? So much for Buell parts support at my local "Buell" dealer! Can't think of a part that would be replaced more often than this one. Figured, dang, will have to use the original one with maybe some silicone gasket maker to build it up. Anyway, took the seal out, only to find out that the real problem is that the groove in the rocker cover is too deep for the seal. Wow, that's one I haven't seen before......it was late Saturday afternoon, did my best to button it up with some silicone gasket maker under and around the original seal and hope for the best. Got it all back together. Realized now that it's probably been leaking since I got the bike (lots of grunge around the rear upper left frame area) Waiting a couple days to make sure the silicone's "set-up". Will start it on Wednesday or so. Anybody else seen this issue regarding groove depth in the rocker boxes? Still can't believe that HAL's H-D had no replacement seals (not that it would have done me any good). Sad.  Regardless, still my favorite motorcylce af all time.............. (Message edited by prowler on April 25, 2011) | ||
| Rwven |
I just redid my RB cover gaskets also. The old gaskets looked to be about flush with the top of the groove in the lower RB cover but the new gaskets stuck up a bit more. | ||
| Pontlee77 |
A friend hd same problem i put some silicone on the outer edge of the rocker box and screwed back on, now no leaks at all, $8 repair and can do a few more bikes with what is left. | ||
| Griffmeister |
How long did it take to rotate the engine by the book? I have oil on the muffler near the primary drain, on closer inspection looks like it's coming from above. About 1400 mi. away from the 10,000 mi. service. Seems like a good time to attack this. | ||
| Bobbuell1961 |
Maybe it's just me but why would you try to reuse a 4 year old., xxxx mile seal??? I understand a 5 min job (not that i would) but an engine rotation takes a little bit of time, Regardless, still my favorite motorcycle of all time............. I will agree on this!! | ||
| Bobbuell1961 |
Oh and as far as waiting a few day for the silicon to set up ,I'm sure that Hal's could have had EZ linked a set and had them for you in a day or two. | ||
| Prowler |
Took my time and a couple hours to drop the motor. Would be a lot quicker now that I've done it once. Not difficult, just took a while. Saddlebag mounts, axle sliders and misc. added to the time required. The air snorkle clip was the biggest pain to get moved, I'm going to replace the clip with a hose clamp next time I have it apart. Also, I should have disconnected the wire connectors from the injectors, etc. from under the frame rather than the top, doy. Lessons learned..... The top rocker cover seals are silicone and I've reused them numerous times on other bikes without replacing them when I had to. I certainly could/should have ordered some new seals from Hal's, but after hearing all the stories from other guys waiting almost forever for parts, I wasn't about to leave my bike torn apart for possibly? weeks/months waiting for a couple $2 seals. The real cure for this problem is obviously a new rocker box (not new seals), but I'm not going there right now. Gotta start riding this thing to work...... From another thread: note by RWVEN "Took me 3 months to get rocker box gaskets, and a cooling fan...." (Message edited by prowler on April 26, 2011) | ||
| Rudy |
You don't have to go through a dealer to get parts. I know that Al at American Sport Bike sells gasket kits (top end, rocker box, full engine...), some OEM and some Cometic. Maybe he's got some in stock? | ||
| Rwven |
He didn't when I needed mine... | ||
| Eryngium |
Getting ready to do my rockerbox gasket, too. Can the rotation be accomplished with the bike just on the side stand as in your picture? Seems like there could be issues with the engine leaning when it rotates forward or lifting it back up. My dismantling seems to be taking a little longer, too. | ||
| Prowler |
Paul, I just had it sitting on the sidestand and that was fine until I started to drop the motor. It's hard to see, but I had the rear of the bike suspended by a strap from the rafter during this operation. If I would have had a rear swingarm stand, that would have been ideal. The bike actually wanted to stand up more vertical as the motor started dropping out. The kickstand isn't supporting anything in the picture above. It's just barely scraping the ground. The strap and jack are supporting everything. | ||
| Eryngium |
Thanks, that guy. Now that I look closer I see the jack. That feels more intuitively satisfying. How's the silicon working out? | ||
| 7873jake |
Shameless plug for Motorbike's bike stand: http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/142 838/521174.html If you already own jack stands, its cheap cheap cheap! |
