Saturday, December 26, 2009

Why do Harleys leak oil?

Are they like cocker spaniels and pee themselves anytime a big fast sportbike gets too close because they are scared? Seriously why do so many of them have a problem. I have seen many of them ';mark there spot';, but never the bikes from other manufactures, so do they do it on purpose or is it just a design flaw. I have never had this problem on any of my bikes over the years but they have been Hondas and Kawasakis. Now tomarrow I have to clean the driveway after my buddy left his fat boy on it for like 3 hours, what a joke. Doesn't the oil ever get on the tires and cause problems?Why do Harleys leak oil?
I love it when somebody intentionaly asks these types of questions. I think they're entire small, no nothing, lives are into bashing something they want but can';t afford. Not all you metric riders but a bunch, fit this category. I'm glad I don't have to live like that.Why do Harleys leak oil?
I beleive everything I write, I do have mental issues, they are caused by know nothing people like yourself. But thanks for the nice rating, anyway. LOL Report Abuse

The old oil leaking was from engine breather tube aimed at drive chains to give a little continuous lubrication- this helped chains last longer but oily chains leave the excess wherever and whenever too much gets on chain. Parking lets the old design drop the excess from bottom of chain guard and primary. When AMF tried to cut down on oil drips they had a few broken chains, cracked tranny cases. Most of the later Japanese bikes vented the breather into aircleaner area and burned the fumes. Some of the early English bike riders ran vent tubes down to chain area and got the longer chain life and drips like early Harleys. Early Honda Dreams had enclosed chain cases to keep cleaner.
All Harley's don't leak oil. The ones that do most likely do so because the gaskets are old and in need of replacing. If your Jap junk would last as long as a Harley then they would leak also. The only old Jap bikes I ever see on the road are the ones that have been in storage for decades. My shovelhead leaks oil but it also has over a quarter of a million miles on it. Now you know why people buy a bike that will last the rest of their life.
Bikes leak oil due to faulty gaskets....end of story.





Some bikes are more prone to it than others but as far as I'm aware this is not a fault Harleys are likely to have.





Either your friends bike has a problem that is simply down to his bike or you are making it all up to try and rile Harley owners here.....take your pick, and know which of the two I believe.





And no, I don't own a Hog, never have and never will.....but not because I think they leak oil
Harleys don't leak oil anymore than squids pee themselves in their unitards every 15 seconds on a ride.


I wondered why I always smell urine after one of you squids goe's by.


Try depends for squids.They have velcro belts on them and your guy pals won't know you're even wearing them!
ninebadteeth,,,,why dont you put on your prettiest party dress,grab a camera,and start taking pics of those leakers yourself ?when the owner comes out ,you can lay some of your anti-harley bs on him,and you wont have those rotten teeth to worry about any more pmf
Why is the sky blue? Why do Hondas, Suzukis, BSAs, ducattis, vespas, Kawasakis, Yamahas and all the others leak oil? For that matter, why does oil leak out of my teenagers face? Beats me; I just don't know.
The separate trans, primary drive and motor oil systems make for a whole lot more seals and gaskets.





That said ,everything put together right with new seals,,,,, no leaks.
i guess if someone built the bike themselves and didn't know what they were doing, it might leak...but if they bought it off the showroom floor, it'd be just as good if not better than other manufacturers.
Harley's don't leak oil they mark there territory ,no the gaskets are old in need of replacing or the gasket on the drain plugs needs replaced
All bikes leak oil at one time or another, regardless of make.


I only had one bike that never leaked a drop of oil - a Schwinn bicycle
A 2000 with 16,000 miles? The bike sits too much.That's bound to cause problems. I'll bet it's an inner primary seal.
Prob built and or maintained by a dip s-it
an evo leaking oil is pretty uncommon, it's also uncommon to ride so few miles in a year, he probably had something go dry from lack of useage.... use it or lose it.


and i have had all 3 japp bikes i owned leak oil, have also owned through the last 5 years... 3 sportsters, 3 softails, 3 vrods, 1 dyna... never a drop of oil dripped from any one of them (i have a dealer license so i buy them, ride them, then sell them for profit.... no problem or reason to get rid of any one of them, just wanted profit)
%26gt;If your Jap junk would last as long as a Harley then they would leak also. The only old Jap bikes I ever see on the road are the ones that have been in storage for decades%26lt;





Sheeeeeee-it.





I have a Valkyrie with 163,000 miles, never a bit trouble, never an oil leak and nowhere near high mileage in my owners club. Poser for Life won't tell how many time that Milwaukee junk has been rebuilt or how many times a Honda has blown his bars off.


Its enough that the antique Harley design is self-dismantling but the ';if it ain't broke, fix it till it is'; mentality of replacing OEM side covers with shiny Chinese crap doesn't make them leak any slower.
Have you ever gone to a county fair? The old guys always bring out their early 1900's gasoline engines and run them. They're noisy, absolutely huge for 2 or 3 horsepower, and spray oil all over the place. Most of those engine manufactureres either: a) adapted and improved their quality, or b) went out of business.





God knows how in the hell HD is still selling motorcycles. I don't bash the guys that ride them, because I understand the love for them (I love British sports cars; worst built cars on the planet!). But what I don't understand is why the Hog guys won't admit what the rest of us already know: Harley's are genuine rolling antiques, right off the showroom floor. 105 years in business, and can't make a watercooled engine? Give me a break. (and don't mention the V-Rod! It's junk, no one wants it, and HD can't sell it)





It's OK to love the bikes. Just have the inner courage to admit that you're buying overpriced crap that is far less reliable and technologically advanced that what's rolling out of Japan.
close tolerances, HD doesn't have it


generic metal alloy,





when parts are matched to the engine, such as a cyl bolted to the engine the tolerances are too wide.


its not a perfect, flat, matched fit.


also all metal expands and contracts when its heated and cooled, there are metal alloys that doesn't expand and contract, but HD doesn't use that.


also the typical HD engine that's air cooled doesn't dissipate heat and most of the heat is concentrated into the cyl's, where the bottom engine block is much cooler than the cyl's.


its old fashioned, outdated, poor engineering, where they use antique tooling and machine equipment to manufacture these engines
newer harleys dont leak oil.Well i shlould say people who own evos and take care of them.The reason people say this is do to the set up on the older panheads.The thing that people dont realize is that these bikes are designed to leak oil.its not actually leaking.The oi runs straight from the engine straight into the primary.there is a hole at the top of the primary which is designed to release excess oil.So it is not that they are actually leaking.I will tell you this.I will tell you this,if you have never ridden a pan,it is a completely different bike then the bikes of today.if you have never ridden a pan ,chances are you would not be able to ride one
all old bikes that have been ridden hard %26amp; wrecked a few times leak oil. harleys have a dry sump oil system with a remote oil tank. %26amp; at least half of the harleys you see on the street are 20 or more years old. new ones have solid lines so its less of a problem.


external oil hoses get hard after 5 or 6 years %26amp; start to leak, they should be changed every 5 years but no one ever does it. I've had old rubber oil line hoses break like pencils when I took them off.


dont give me that BS about kaws. I had to quit parking next to an old kz 1000 at work because it was leaving a 3 foot oil streak under it every day %26amp; everybody blamed it on my old hog.


the other guys right about the chain oilers. older harleys 25 or more years old have an oil line with a needle valve on the oil pump that gos to the drive chain. its supposed to be adjusted to 2 or 3 drips a minute for long chain life.
In the olden days all bikes leaked alot. No problem at all when it was all dirt roads, helped keep the dust down. My Triumph was no different, just something you put up with.





But the Japanese started building new engines with tighter tolerances and better design that didn't easily leak. Other companies were forced to up their game and follow suit.





But Harley Davidson, the laziest motorcycle manufacture in the universe just didn't wanna face that job. What do you expect from a company that is content to put out a Sportster today with the same horsepower as their similar cubic inch Knucklehead of 1936...71 years of snoozing on the job. Makes you wonder if Harley employees still have to schlep out behind the factory and use an outhouse.





Madison Avenue got hired to do ALL the heavy lifting for this lazy company and they proved themselves up to the job. Some genius at Madison Avenue observed that exactly half of all bikers have less than average intelligence so why not just market their leaky no horsepower antique two wheeled tractor to people who are easily impressed with shiny objects and motorcycle noobs who don't know any better and not bother with the kind of poeple who are going to get all snotty about the mechanics of the things?





There should be a web-site that is nothing but photos of oil puddles under Harleys. There is a place where I shop, the guy parks his bike on the sidewalk and has created his own superfund site, would be my contribution.
because harleys are junk! they still cannot build an engine correctly. i also have seen many harleys leak oil. i have many jap bikes and many miles on some and no leaks. plus they run without having to hold open the throttle at a stop light. tell your buddy to stop cluttering up your driveway and park down the street when he comes over so you dont have to be embarrased by the oil leaker.or tell him to bring his own oil pan.
Urban myth. My 05 FLHPI doesn't leak a drop and rides better than my 03 Durango. And I get 45 mpg at 70 mph vrs 15 for the dodge.

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