F117Landers
New member
Where is the oil on the dip stick when hot? Sounds like it might be over filled. Check both motor and tranny.
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That smell? What caused this?
- Thread starter F117Landers
- Start date
Tima hijacked by yahoo
New member
The oil is just a little below full on the dip stick, I haven't checked the tranny yet. Guess I need to do this.
musicworld
New member
I always run my oil showing half a qt low to prevent blow by.
The smell may be from the brand of transmission oil you are using. There is another thread around here somewhere of numerous guys having a bad smell from the trans vent after riding a while. I have heard Redline and Mobil 1 mentioned.
The oil on the tank probably is from the air cleaner. I see you have a different vent setup there, does it vent inside the air filter? Is there some oil sitting on the bottom of the air filter and/or the cover? If so, it is blow by. The earlier twin cams did not have quite as good of internal vents as later ones. The early ones, up through part of the 2003 year at least, used plastic vent housings and later ones used aluminum that did not warp, which caused a lot of the excess venting of oil. These vents are inside the rocker boxes and can only be accessed by removing the top cover.
The oil on the tank probably is from the air cleaner. I see you have a different vent setup there, does it vent inside the air filter? Is there some oil sitting on the bottom of the air filter and/or the cover? If so, it is blow by. The earlier twin cams did not have quite as good of internal vents as later ones. The early ones, up through part of the 2003 year at least, used plastic vent housings and later ones used aluminum that did not warp, which caused a lot of the excess venting of oil. These vents are inside the rocker boxes and can only be accessed by removing the top cover.
If you're sure the smell is gear oil, which is unmistakable, it's possible that you have a bad engine-primary seal. I had one go bad on my old RK after 88k miles and it would barf tranny oil out of the tranny breather hose, but only when going >60mph. The primary vents through the tranny and with a bad engine-primary seal the crankcase pressure at highway speeds causes an abnormally high pressure to build-up in the primary and tranny, which forces the oil out of the hose. Sometimes this also results in engine oil migrating past the seal into the primary, but I didn't have that problem. Replacing the seal fixed the problem for me.
Check the area around the tranny breather hose and if it is wet with oil this may be your problem. I'm stumped as to how tranny oil would get on top the tank or even make contact with the bottom, however. If it was blowing up from the hose that high it would be getting all over your engine and everything else.
Another idea, which is a long-shot, is that tranny oil is migrating into the oil pan because of a bad gasket. Since it has a very strong sulfurous odor I would think it would be obvious even mixed with engine oil, and if it blows into the AC you would smell it. It could also splash onto your tank from there, but I would think you would also see it in the vicinity of your right saddlebag as it barfs out of the AC.
Check the area around the tranny breather hose and if it is wet with oil this may be your problem. I'm stumped as to how tranny oil would get on top the tank or even make contact with the bottom, however. If it was blowing up from the hose that high it would be getting all over your engine and everything else.
Another idea, which is a long-shot, is that tranny oil is migrating into the oil pan because of a bad gasket. Since it has a very strong sulfurous odor I would think it would be obvious even mixed with engine oil, and if it blows into the AC you would smell it. It could also splash onto your tank from there, but I would think you would also see it in the vicinity of your right saddlebag as it barfs out of the AC.