Nice New clean Whitewalls

[51Hog]

Just bought new Whitewall tires and am wondering if anyone has any tricks with keeping them clean. Is there anything I can use to treat them with that will make them easer to keep clean?

My pan dumps lots of oil onto the left side of the rear wheel. Has anyone re-located their Primary drain line so that it doesn't splatter on the back of the bike while running? If so, Where can it dump to? This is a 1951 FL Pan. I realize that some of it is coming off of the chain. (My brake rod is constantly covered with oil----Lots of oil----

That leads to another question. How much oil should be blowing out of the Crank Case vent? The blow by I assume is caused by rings, and I would also assume that after I rebuild the engine this winter, that some of this blow by will stop.

This engine has not been worked on for 30+ years other than a recent tune up. It has gasket leaks and such.
I am using (No blue Smoke so I don't think it is burning much) about 1 Quart of oil at 55 mph per 140 miles.

What a great old bike-

[57pan]

The best thing I have found for cleaning the whitewalls is Westley's Bleach White.

The oil coming out of the crankcase vent is not necessarily caused by blow-by. When both pistons are on the down-stoke it causes pressure to build inside the crankcase. If this pressure were not vented it would cause blown gaskets and seals and lots of oil leaks.

Although the crank vent itself will cause a fair amount of oil to be vented into the primary case there is also an adjuster on the oil pump which will divert oil from the pump to the crank vent. The purpose of this is to oil the primary chain. If this adjuster is wide open it could be dumping lots of oil into the primary case. All of this oil being dumped into the primary case will just run out the drain hole.

A quart in 140 miles seems kind of high. Seems I recall reading in the HD Service Manual that 1 qt. per 250 miles is about normal.

[57pan]

Oops... I forgot to log in before posting my reply to the original question.

[51Hog]

Does the dirveted oil go through theCC vent?
While I was in the primary case, I did not see anything else that would indicate an outlet that would oil the chain other than the 90* nipple that I assume is the CC vent.
Thanks for the reply.

[VintageTwin]

True. The vent tube with the 90 degree is used by the oil pump to send a (metered) flow to the primary chain. The tube is also used by the crankcase breather valve to aspirate air from the motor when it needs to. The crankcase venting adds a little more oil (mist) into the tube going to the primary chain. On an S&S pump, the shutoff needle can be turned in gently until it seats, to shut off the oil flow, then backed-off less than 1/8 of a turn an provide enough oil, to run your primary next-to-dry, but still give you a short-life of 3,500 miles, of servicable use, from a Tsubaki? shot-peened, pre-stressed primary chain. Or, since yours sounds like an iron pump, remove or add washers until the oil spot under your primary gets smaller.

[51Hog]

Thanks for the tips, Going to try them today.
I will post results later.
Thanx

[SkyHogg]

Are you losing any tranny oil? I need to pull my clutch and replace the seal on that side because it's dumping oil into my primary as well. It does it while it's parked and leans toward that side. Then when I straighten it up to ride it leaks out between the inner and outer primary covers. Another job for this winter.

[VintageTwin]

"Leaking on the side stand" might be from a worn mainshaft (bronze) bushing and the transmission seal being unable to retain a correctly topped-off oil level. Let the oil drain on the side stand for a week until it quits dripping. Then upright the machine and look at the transmission oil level. It should be just covering the bottom of the site hole. That's all you need as far as oil capacity until you can rebuild it.