The front cylinder base gasket has no corresponding hole for the internal oil line. However there's a hole below the piston travel area where oil from the top end can drain back into the cases. The rear cylinder base gasket does have a hole in the right spot. Do I just install the front gasket as it is, or should I punch a hole in it. Like I said the Haynes manual I borrowed from the library is a load of*********. My excellent Clymer's manual's gone AWOL. Oh yeah I still can't register on The Horse messageboard, I hate to keep bringing up bikes on here, but I don't know where else to go. Thanks.
try this link to the horse http://www.network54.com/Forum/47850 i'm pretty sure you have to have the gasket with the hole in it,but don't want to bet your motor on it.Also check out http://www.network54.com/Forum/188001 alot of tech help at Terrys board........Greg
been a while since the last shovel i built (mostly build 74" flatheads & knuckles) but i think the oil drains back thru the side of the cylinder on both jugs. '48 to '62 pans fed oil UP thru the base of the cylinder like you mentioned. check your cases to see if there are any oil drain holes where the jugs (love that word!) bolt on. no holes = no problems. i like yamabond (threebond) or hylomar sealant for base gasket sealing. tourque the base nuts with a snap-on tourque adaptor mounted on a tourque wrench and re check them a few times after you warm it up. loc-tite everything! hey, do you know the old trick of using electrical tape over your intake o-rings? two wraps around the o-rings before the band clamps are installed, & make sure to rotate the heads to align with the manifold as you tourque the head bolts. another fun trick i use is spot facing the head bolt inserts a few thou in a mill. the inserts like to pull out a pinch over time, spot facing them allows ever head gaskett tourque. you can also machine the tops of the jugs & leave a narrow ring (about 1/8" wide) a few thou high next to the raised portion to act as a crush for the head gasket. as much as i love cars harleys will always be my first love.
Go to the Club Choppers site forums, lots of info available there. A member named HDFACTORYCERTIF should be able to fix you up.
Neither cylinder should have an oil drain back hole in the base. The oil return hole on each cylinder should exit into the cylinder bore. This was done by the factory in the late 60's to improve piston/cylinder oiling. I have a 66 Shovel top end on a 56 Panhead lower end. I just ignore the oil return holes in my base gaskets. The engine dosen't care just as long as the oil has a return path.
Thanks a lot guys, much appreciated. There are oil drain holes at the bottom of both jugs. The rear cylinder base gasket does have a hole in it, I reckon I should just ignore it. Tim Burns, thanks for the tip on the intake manifold O rings, fighting those things is always a pain in the****. Your other tips are great too, but I don't have a lather or nothing, I do have a Dremel tool, hee hee. One more thing, is there any truth to what they say about never using automotive oil in motorcycles? I've used Kendall straight 60 forever.
yup, yamabond (also sold packaged as threebond) is a grey sealant/adhesive that seals oil very well. i use it on most gaskets. you should be using genuine hd oil or at least cci's hawg oil. kendall is not designed for an air cooled motor. obviously it will still lubricate, just not as well, will break down sooner, not cool as well, etc. buy the good stuff. i change mine at 1000 miles +/- on all my bikes. the knucks more often since they run hotter. oil is cheap, fixing lower ends is not. the electrical tape deal is not so much to hold the o-rings as it is to help seal them up better. the tape turns sorta gooey and glues the o-rings to the heads & manifold for a leak proof seal. dont forget to buy/use/install a proper length carb support, do not hang the carb from the manifold unsupported. i always use a vertical support from the center case bolt to the manifold on a shovel, not the cast in bolt hole on the rocker box, for best results. intake leaks are bad news.good luck with yours nads.
I use yambond on all the case cover gaskets on the trumps we build, and it seals that***** up good. virtually leak free triumphs!
[ QUOTE ] One more thing, is there any truth to what they say about never using automotive oil in motorcycles? I've used Kendall straight 60 forever. [/ QUOTE ] I used OILZUM until I ran out in '78. Then I started using aeroshell, except when I was on the road. When I started using the Pan for a permanant addy I used Castrol because you could find it anywhere, and that's what the Ol' Man used when I was a kid. I knew lots of guys that used Kendal but they seemed to go through lower ends more often than I did. Just my .02
truth, you're a liar, ain't no such thing as a leak free Triumph, hee hee. Tim, I'm really embarrassed to say this, but I've never had a carb support on my bike since the day I built it. Do you think it's possible that it was intake manifold leaks that caused the multiple valve problems I had? The bike was running progressively worse until the day the front intake valve seat literally fell out. When my machinist went to grind the rear intake seat it spun out too. P'N'B what grade Castrol do you recommend for use in Florida? I also redid my exhaust pipes so that they seal better, the rear one was leaking really bad. Stupid shovelheads with their one bolt exhaust retainers are stupid to begin with. In short, my cylinders and pistons were in good shape, ditto the rockers, but Iended up needing two seats, all four valves, one exhaust and one intake guide. It cost me $402. Mind you I haven't spent hardly anything on this bike for 8 years.
nads, intake leaks can cause all sorts of general mayhem. your bike will love you forever if you treat her right. whip up a carb support and it will be happy trails for the both of you.
here's a pic of one of my 'ol shovels. '62 cases, '66 heads, 93" pretty fast in its day! much quicker than my 74" flathead or my knucklehead!
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