Solvingan Oil Problem

[ratfink]

Is there any solution for oil overflow after letting my 45 sit for a few days?

The obvious answer is riding it more often, but are there other options? A petcock for the oil line? Parking the bike upside down?

Or just start it over a catch pan so the EPA doesn't condemn my driveway?

Thanks.

[T. Cotten]

You can burnish the ball check seats with a tool like in the attachment: just a simple screwpress with a ball silversoldered upon it. Anyone with a lathe can make one.

Steve at Resurrection Cycle was offering professional burnishers specifically for the 45".

Cutters and lapping are futile.

....Cotten

[schmittm]

ratfink,

Where is it overflowing from? Is it coming out of the primary cover or the breather tube in the cam cover? Even if it is "sumping" as Cotten suggested, the scavenger pump should pick up most of the oil and return it to the oil tank. It really should not pump out onto the ground when you start the engine.

Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can stop the sumping problem by just cleaning the check balls, springs, and seats in the oil pump. Your '56 should have a double check ball pump on it, remove the big cover screws, fish out the springs and balls and clean everything up. Don't get the components mixed up, do them one at a time, one of them is a bypass and has a much heavier spring. Preload the spring tension according to the depth setting in the book. Balls and springs are cheap and available for those pumps, it wouldn't hurt to replace them.

If its overflowing from the cap on the oil tank (I hope not), you just have too much oil in it, drain some out.

mike

[ratfink]

It is coming out of the breather, so hopefully when I follow your reccomendations it will clear up. Getting the servi car on the road has rekindled my desire to ride my 68 flh. After letting it sit for about 6 years, I dragged it out of the garage today.

It needs a clutch and rebuilt fork tubes. I'm returning the handlebars back to stock, so I'm in the market for an old tillotson.