Hi Clayton,

I have an oil leak problem that seems to require a custom solution, as there is no off the shelf part for my particular engine case. That is how my search engine stumbled across your site.

Any way, I've been reading all these postings with a mixture of sympathy and amusement. My fist bike was a Kawasaki at the age of 16. I saved my pennies worked a night job through high school and bought my first Harley at the age of 19; a 1977 Sportster XLH. A tempermental bike at the best of times. Working on it (and a tight budget) taught me a lot about maintenance.

My current ride I've had for ten years. A generator shovelhead. Best bike I've ever ridden. It's been my daily rider when I have the money to maintain it, the rest of the time it's a bit of a project. Right now it runs astoundingly well. I've got 8000 miles on it since the last rebuild and the gaskets are just starting to weep a little now. I may put new gaskets in it this year, maybe not.

The most important lesson I have learned about Harleys and I include new bikes in this; GET THE ENGINE BALANCED BY A COMPETENT MACHINIST. It will make a world of difference. Your parts will stop falling off, your feet will not buzz off the pegs at high speed, your hands will not become numb from vibration. and your oil leaks will become much less frequent and severe. You will get twice the mileage out of your engine between rebuilds.

I did it to both my Harleys and it turned them from tempermental and unreliable machines, into very pleasurable rides.

This is the response I sent to someone else who contacted me regarding engine balancing.

Hey Rod,

I live near Toronto, so I can't tell you where to go in Florida to get machine work done. When I lived in London, Ontario there was a guy there named Billy Barr who was a Sportster specialist he did an amazing job on my 77 sporty. His shop was called the Hog Shop. I don't know if the old guy is even still alive though.

The shop where I get my work done now is called Motor City Custom in Oshawa, Ontario. It's run by two brothers, Bill and Ron Nicholson. They do good work but they have recently become an Indian dealership.

My advice is that you find somone in your area that builds racing engines for Harleys; they will have the inside line on a good machinist. Go to somone who knows about American V-twin engines. Most guys will not have a clue what they are doing. I had bad luck with taking my shovelhead engine to a shop that does race car engines.

Balancing a Harley is complicated and needs to be done very precisely, but there is a formula to it, so anyone who knows the formula should be able do it as long as he follows all the steps. There are no shortcuts. As I understand it there are two types of balancing that can be done, dynamic and static. Most specialists that I have heard speak on the subject say that static balancing is better. Also, don't expect miracles. A forty five degree V-twin engine will never be as smooth as an inline four or some other configuration. You will still feel the power pulses and such. and your bike will still have that Harley shake when it's idling, but if the balancing is really well done, you should not have any parts falling off and you might even be able to see in your mirrors at highway speed.

Just for a point of reference. before I had my shovelhead balanced, I topped out at 75mph because it was too uncomfortable beyond that, now I can up to about 95 without anything tearing apart. With a smaller sprocket on the back, I'm sure I could clear 100mph easily but I don't want to sacrifice the torque on the bottom end.

Hope this helps
Buzz Morrow