| Author | Message | ||
     Xtopherj |
back in july, just before departing for a 1200 mile trip to the moto gp, my buddy's 2000 X1 started leaking oil from some where on the right side of the case and oiling the hell out of his rear tire. we power washed the thing off, rode it some more and i appeared to be coming from the right case cover. we replaced all the gaskets and that didn't help. it then appeared that the leak was coming from the base of the cylinders. we took the whole top end down and replaced every thing from the case up. that didn't do it, either. finally we discovered the leak was coming from the bases of the push rod tubes. everything came apart once again and those gaskets/o-rings were replaced. each time we tried to bolt on the base plate, the gasket seemed to squish out of its seat as we tightened it. we've tried so many times to get these things to stay put as we tighten the whole assembly down i'm starting to lose my mind. is there a trick to this that i'm not aware of? is there something i'm missing? is it possible HD gave me the wrong gaskets (twice)? any advice would be greatly appreciated. CJ | ||
| Bluzm2 |
CJ, I replaced the stock hold downs with billet units from NRHS, Al at American Sport Bike has them. They are about $35 or $40 or so. They work great. The trick is to keep the outside of the ring dry. Apply only a VERY light film of oil to the tube. Clean the rings with carb or brake cleaner before you try to assemble them. ANY oil anywhere except the side against the tube will cause problems. They are trickey little devils even with the new hold downs. Brad | ||
| Justin_case |
Don't use carb or brake cleaner on any rubber parts. They will swell up and soften. | ||
| Xtopherj |
i think we'll give those units from American Sport Bike a try. i'll just dry everything out real well and hope for the best. it'll have to be better than the stop-gap RTV solution he's currently runnin'! thanks CJ | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Justin, If that were the case, you couldn't use carb cleaner on a carb.... I've done it for years and never had a problem. But then again, I spray it on and blow it off right away with a compressor. YMMV Brad | ||
| Justin_case |
Bluz, When the carb is assembled all the rubber parts are protected from the spray. Trust me, in 30 yrs. of wrenching, I've learned a few things the hard way. | ||
| Blake |
I agree. Never spray carb cleaner on your rubber. | ||
| Blake |
![: ]](http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/clipart/proud.gif) | ||
| Djkaplan |
Those billet NRHS pushrod tube bases are a bitch to install - much more difficult than the stock bases. You have to install both pushrod tubes at the same time and make sure both o-rings stay seated - you really need three hands, or a lot of patience to do this. If you get them from Al as American Sport Bike, make sure to get the instrucions from him and follow his advice to the LETTER. | ||
| Blake |
What if you use the spring-loaded two-piece removable covers instead of the stock once-piece type? | ||
| Djkaplan |
That would make it a lot easier. The problem is seating the o-rings in the base and trying to get both push rod tubes pushed into the rocker boxes at the same time. You wouldn't have that issue with two-piece covers. | ||
| Steveshakeshaft |
The trick to installing the NRHS billet pushrod tube holders is to very sparingly superglue the pushrod seal into the inside of the recess with about 3 or 4 very small spots of glue. Also, I find that the Blue seals provided by NRHS are a lot more difficult to fit trouble free than the OEM black ones. HTH. | ||
| Jimidan |
Don't use carb or brake cleaner on any rubber parts. They will swell up and soften. I guess you noticed that brake cleaner and carb cleaner are two completely different animals (read: chemicals). They do entirely different things and have totally different purposes. The only thing that is the same about them is that they both come in aerosol cans. Some folks unwittingly use carb cleaner like brake cleaner with predictable consequences, because carb cleaner is cheaper. Stick with the brake cleaner unless you are working with bare metal only. jimidan |
