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horrible noise from breather (ironhead)

  • tobybott
    tobybott
    16 years ago

    Hi,

    I've just got my "79 sportster running after several years off the road with previous owner.  It would be sounding great except for a horrible chirping noise coming from where the breather comes from the front of the enging (off the end of generator).

    The noise is all pervading.  Eeee Eeee Eeee eee  eee eeee

    If I pull the hose off the breather and block the hole its gone but I'm prety sure I cant have that permanently blocked.

    My manual doesn't give much reference to this part of the bike.   I  have tried running  a small breather filter in line hoping that would shut it up but no.   The noise seems to be coming more from within the cover that the breather pipe comes from rather than out of the pipe itself but definitely stops when you block the hole. 

    Its driving me eeeeeeking mad.

     

    Any one out there who can identify the cause or solution?

     

    I'm new to Harley Davidson and have not met another ironhead owner yet.

    Toby

  • tobybott
    tobybott
    16 years ago

    Thanks for all the input and ideas everyone. Its amazing what you can do when you get a few heads together. Thats the beauty of a forum eh?
    For anyone who's interested, the culprit is a reed valve that lives in the cam cover ( will attach image if I can) . This didn't exist on earlier ironheads and was changed to something different again from '82 I believe.

    /Users/toby/Desktop/breather2.JPG

    I wonder if there are any other ironhead sportster owners reading this forum

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