Hi, I'm new to wrenching on Harleys, and I have a 1980 Shovelhead FLT Tour Glide. The oil return line that goes from the rear rocker box down to the crankcase is leaking at the crankcase. Do you have to remove the rocker cover to get this line out? I loosened the fitting that the top oil line nut threads on to thinking that maybe that would slide down the oil line, but that wasn't the case. HELP !!?? lol     Thanks  Keith

Ahhhh, funny!!Yes.....working on Harleys, is what I was implying here, so.......any suggestions on the oil return line?

G'Day,

First thing, what you have there is an OIL FEED line, not an oil return. This line supplies oil at fairly high pressure ( for a Harley) to your rocker boxes and lubricates the rocker arms. you will notice that there is a small line between the rocker covers above the Carb. This supplies the oil from the rear rocker box to the front. Should be able to loosen both fittings on your leaky line, push the line up into the rocker box and get enough clearance to replace the seal on the bottom of the line. 

!st, Get a Manual. There are some for download plus other Shovel info at this link.

 

http://www.4shared.com/account/dir/mWghPw7P/sharing.html#dir=mWghPw7P

Cheers ,

Cris.

Hi, yeah, I saw that it was a feed line after I posted that I thought it was a feed line, then a diagram I looked at called it a return line, go figure, lol, I tried loosening both of the fittings, but all it would do is go so far into either fitting and bottom out, not allowing enough clearance to remove it. I tried loosening the fitting in the rocker box, the one that the oil line fitting threads onto, figuring maybe I would get more clearance, but the looser the fitting got, the tighter the oil line got, as it was bottoming out in the seats of the rocker box fitting, and the crankcase fitting, and loosening the rocker box fitting just shortened the distance between the two, very frustating! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !!!! lol

Thanks for the input guys, got the rubber sleeves today and put them in, leak fixed ! : ) next, I tried to start it, the bike had sat since January, and the guy didn't shut the fuel off and run the carb dry before shutting it down, I drained the old gas, cleaned the fuel line, it had some ethanol sludge in it, then I took the float bowl off the carb, it's an S&S Super "E" , and it didn't look TOO bad, the fuel had gone green, and there was very little sludge on one of the metering tubes, I cleaned the bowl out, sprayed carb cleaner through the metering tubes, and the main pick up (the big one) in the center, all the carb cleaner came out through the upper orifices in the carb as it should. I tried starting it by choking it, ...nothing, so I took the breather off, sprayed a little gas in the carb, and she fired off, ran for a few seconds ,then died, I did that about three times with the same results, but I noticed it was pushing air "out" of the carb, always a sign of intake valve trouble as long as I have been a mechanic. I sprayed some more fuel in the carb, then kept it running by spraying a mist of gas in the carb while it was running, and it would rev OK, but it still seems like it is pushing "out" I watched the main jet in the throat of the carb while I revved it, and it IS getting fuel out of that tube, but it is pushed"out" of the carb instead of being pulled in towards the combustion chamber. After I did that for about 15-20 seconds, I tried letting it idle, and it did start idling, I played with the choke for a little bit, let it warm up, then opened the choke the rest of the way, it stayed idling, ragged, and occasional popping out the carb, then I adjusted the air mixture, and got it idling like a Harley should, and every so often, a little "POP" out of the carb, but it did idle without a pop for about a good minute straight. As soon as I even touch the throttle.........BLAH...it dies. The guy I got it from said it was running great when it was parked, he didn't seem like the type to lie about it, but you never know. I guess I have carb issues, and maybe a too tight, or bad intake valve, guess I'll have to do a leak down test and see which cylinder is the culprit ! The carb looks like brand new too!