Mysterious oil leak

[tankhead]

Hello,
If you were to look on the belt side ON THE TOP of the crankshaft case, behind and lower than the rear jug is a standing constant oil moisture. Behind the Vent oil line on the top of the crankshaft case I guess where the transmission vent tube starts??? This is the highest that the oil is visible. It has leaked down towards and in between the lower engine case. It does not appear to be the rocker box gasket or even lower on the jugs. I really can not figure it out. It is loosing about a 2.5 quarts in a 5 thousand mile period. Does anyone have any ideas? If so what would you imagine the labor cost for repair is going to be? I hope I have explained this well enough, let me know if you need anymore info.[confused][mad]

 

[konarider94]

sounds like you are talking about engine oil and not primary/ transmission oil? look close at the rear base gasket between the jug and the case, thats usually what it is. the starter gasket is somewhat common too but thats transmission oil.

 

[Loki]

Try to get us some pictures.

 

[Theycallmecrash]

VVVVVVV

 

[Theycallmecrash]

2.5gts in 5,000 miles. i doubt that your leak is causing that much fluid loss. running full synthetic i consume a quart about every 2500 miles. also run the same oil in transmission and primary, if you do that same hard to tell if its engine or trans. a picture would help, sounds like rear jugs base gasket.

 

[uly luigi]

Yep base gasket, 300-600 bucks for a shop to do it,

 

[tankhead]

Hey thanks everyone,

I doubt that it is the base gasket. There is no oil moisture from the rear bottom gasket. all is clean on the rear of the engine head down the jug to the base gasket. Unfortunately, I made it to the Harley dealer up in Long Branch NJ from Atlantic City last weekend to give the mechanic free bar ends and to see if I would be using them for future service. About 4 miles from the shop my wife and I noticed that the valves were tapping and the oil light came on. When we got to the dealer I had to buy 3 quarts of synthetic harley oil and the mechanic put in two and a half quarts.

He said that we should have that looked at soon but did not give me an estimate at the time about possible labor cost.

I will post a picture soon. Thanks again for reading.

 

[tankhead]

THis first pic is showing that the oil doesn't look like it is coming from the rear jug base.

The Second picture shows the thread of the vent tube but I can not understand that if that would be the problem then I should not be loosing engine oil but primary oil.

I use both Amsoil in both holes but right now I have Syn from Harley.

Let me know what ya'll think. thanks

 

[anrkizm95]

oil showing there on my 09 was the vent fitting being loose.quite a few other members with 08-09 have had that problem.the rubber vent line also melts on the header and needs to be rerouted on some of the 08-09.

 

[Theycallmecrash]

As i stated before your engine oil is more than likely being consumed from normal running. Doubt that leak is resulting in 2.5qt loss of fluid.

Its either your breather hose or fitting, my 08, had the vent hose become crispy from exhaust heat, caught it before it made a mess.

 

[uly luigi]

If you are losing engine oil, and the only place you find oil is the "BASE" of the rear jug, your base gasket is leaking, 99% of the time it is from not allowing the engine to warm up properly, and if you are using a full load of oil thru normal running, it should be dripping/pouring out the exhaust, the only true factory atmospheric vent is for the primary/tranny, so, unless your intake/breather reroute is swimming in oil, you have a base gasket leak.

 

[jd.hd.buelly.crzy]

I too have this common leak too. But, I found the previous owner had overfilled the primary case. While fixing this issue, I ran into another problem. I purchased James Gasket Primary Gasket Kit - JGI-25352-00-KF through Dennis Kirk who said it would fit. but...The primary and shaft gaskets don't...

 

[34nineteen]

You may want to keep an eye on that. It's kind of hard to overfill the primary as it takes (almost) exactly a quart.

You could have a crank seal going out and dribbling a little engine oil into the primary.