| Author | Message | ||
     Hughlysses |
For those of you who've been through the drill of leaky rocker covers on your Uly: I gather that it's usually (always?) the O-ring style gasket under the rocker cover itself that fails, rather than the flat, rubber-coated aluminum gasket between the rocker box and the cylinder head, correct? I ask because it looks like it'd be a fairly quick job to replace the O-ring, while the rocker gasket itself would take significantly longer. OTOH, I'd hate to go through the hassle of doing an engine rotation and replacing the O-ring, only to put the bike back together and find out I also needed to replace the flat gasket as well. | ||
| Sagehawk |
Mine was only leaking at cover. I VE never had the actual rocker box off of bike yet! | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
My son's 07 was leaking and getting all over everything. Rotated the engine and replaced the 0-ring style gasket and all has been good for over a year. | ||
| Sparky_494 |
Hugh, when you do this, if you don't mind, take some pictures and post a tutorial on this. This will be a winter project for me as well. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Michael- check Twin Motorcycles site. They have lots of detailed photos showing about how to do anything you can imagine on these bikes. | ||
| Sparky_494 |
Sweet... I'll check them out. Thanks! | ||
| Vman858 |
Getting ready to do this. I have this one can anyone tell me if it will work on my 2007 Uly? (Message edited by vman858 on October 23, 2016)https://www.denniskirk.com/cometic/rocker-box-gasket-set-c9195.p263765.prd/263765.sku (Message edited by vman858 on October 23, 2016) | ||
| Steveford |
Vman858, You're going to wind up with some extra parts and no rubber grommets for the PCV valves but the rest will work. | ||
| Vman858 |
Thanks Steve! That's what I needed to know. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Vman, When you go to jack your rotated engine back up into place be sure that the PCV's are aimed in the correct direction so that they don't hit the frame and get cracked. They are at least $30 each to replace. I cracked one but repaired it with JB Weld instead of replacing because I thought the cost was ridiculous. The repair has held for over a year. Would just as soon not have cracked it though.  | ||
| Hughlysses |
I finally did the rear upper gasket/o-ring replacement yesterday. I only referred to the shop manual for torque values, and photos on Twin Motorcycles site for guidance; this is a pretty good how-to on an XB12Ss: http://www.twinmotorcycles.nl/artikelen.asp?cid=20 &aid=749 (there are photos of another job interspersed on that page, so don't get confused) The fact that you only have to do a partial engine rotation to get clearance to remove the rear rocker cover cuts out a lot of work that I believe is recommended by the shop manual (including, IIRC, remove muffler, remove rider footpeg bracket on left side, disconnect throttle cables, etc.) Here's what I did: 1. Support the rear of the bike with a rod through the rear axle resting on two jack stands. 2. Support the engine under the jacking point at the front of the muffler. My floor jack wasn't available (it's already been moved to my "new" house 70 miles away) so I used the body jack from my VW Jetta and a small piece of wood. 3. Remove the seat. Disconnect the battery ground wire (maybe not mandatory, but always a good practice). 4. Remove the outer airbox. Disconnect the gas vent line from the front of the frame and lay out of the way. Remove the inner airbox, and lay across the rear subframe so you don't have to disconnect the cable or wires for the muffler valve actuator. 5. Remove the airbox base plate. Disconnect the intake air temperature sensor wires, and remove the breather hoses if you still have the stock breather arrangement. Remove the rubber air inlet horn from the throttle body. A zip tie around the ends of the wire clamp is a good way to squeeze it together and hold it that way. 6. Disconnect the fuel hose from the injectors- push inward on the connector, then squeeze the locks with your fingers and it'll come right off. Plug it with a piece of clean paper towel to prevent fuel drips out or dirt in. 7. Remove both air scoops from the sides of the frame. 8. Remove the three bolts that hold the "Y" bracket to the frame, and let this lie in place on the engine. 9. Completely back off the clutch adjustment, and disconnect the cable at the clutch lever. 10. Remove the bolt from the engine bracket on the upper tie bar. Remove the bolt from the frame at the lower tie bar, just above the transmission sprocket. 11. Jack up on the engine slightly to remove the load from the front isolator bolt. Remove the front isolator bolt. 12. Gently lower the jack to rotate the engine forward and downward. See the photo in the thread linked above. I'd guess I lowered mine about 4 inches measured at the front isolator/frame. 13. Disconnect the wire to the rear cylinder head temperature sensor (sensor is located in the center of the rocker cover). Disconnect the wire plug at the idle air valve; it's in the way of removing the rocker cover. 14. Remove the 4 allen screws securing the rocker cover "lid". Gently pry up on the rocker cover to break the gasket seal, then slide it forward and out. 15. Pull out the old orange inner gasket (around the temperature sensor "well") and the outer gasket (around the perimeter of the rocker cover. Remove the 4 rubber-coated washers from the rocker cover lid (a knife is a good tool for this). 16. Clean any dirt or residue off the rocker cover, install new black gaskets. The new gaskets are much stiffer rubber than the originals. Install the new rubber coated washers on the original allen bolts. 17. Reverse order to reassemble. It took me about an hour to get the engine down, 15 minutes to replace the gasket, and then a LONG time to get the engine back up (I was tired, I lost a critical bolt, etc., etc.). I could probably have done the whole job in 3 hours if I hadn't run into snags. | ||
| Vman858 |
Nice write up Hughlysses!!! Getting ready to do this myself. | ||
| Electraglider_1997 |
Hugh, You could probably do it in 2 hrs if this was something you did all the time. One offs are always time consuming, at least for me. | ||
| Hughlysses |
You could probably do it in 2 hrs if this was something you did all the time. One offs are always time consuming, at least for me. I'm sure you're right. I had the rear rocker gasket on the original engine replaced under warranty, and I remember being surprised the bike was ready for me to pick up the same day I dropped it off. Having all the right tools at hand and having done it a few times before has to be a huge help. | ||
| Djohnk |
It's a good idea to fix that leak right away. I let it go too long and it started leaking more heavily during a trip. Some of the oil ran back and got on the cooling fan and ruined it. |
