Iron Motors Tech

[44u]

I may have a deal in the works for a 76 Shovel dresser. I've only given the bike a 2 minute preliminary lookover and upon startup it puked a small amount of oil (spoon maybe) out around the rear of the primary cover. The owner said it was a breather problem.

I've owned several shovels in the distant past and I simply can't remember any details on the primary and breather setup on these models. (brain freeze) Does this sound like a minor deal or not?
Not that I'm terribly worried about it because the potential deal would be a steal anyway. Thanks in advance for any info.

[Jerry Wieland]

It is really hard to tell but it might just be wet sumped - especially if it has been sitting awhile. Let it idle for a while and then take if for a ride. It might just go away.

Jerry

[44u]

Thanks. The bike is very clean, sounds great, and has been doing a lot of sitting. I did not see any oil dripping out after that initial dump but I will give it a test ride before closing the deal.

[Kozy]

That era bike scavanged the oil from the primary case using engine vacuum. Some riders didn't like the idea of sucking clutch fiber and primary chain wear metal back into their engine so they disconnected the scavenger system and went with the old partial loss oil system, letting primary chain oil drip on the road. I have a 75 with a primary belt so need no oil there and the engine breathes to the atmosphere through a fitting on the right case, sometimes small amounts can come from there, in the case of a leaky ball check causing wet sump, quite a bit. A look at a shop manual would show how the scavenging tubing was connected.