I noticed when I came back from a ride there is some oil, not a lot, at the bottom of the front pushrod tube. There was some blowby low on the rear pipe. I have an 03 883r,SE air box. And I do get blowby on the oil tank, but this seems lower. Any thoughts? :frownthre

The "blow by" is unavoidable especially with the SE breather. It is messy and that's all. Keep wiping it up or get a kit which allows you to run a tube from the breathers on each head down below the bike where you can blow the oil onto the rear tire which makes for ssome interesting riding. :laugh As for the oil at the bottom of the front push rod tube try tightening the cap screw that holds the push rod tube down. If that doesn't solve the problem then your going to have to decide whether your going to change the seal at the bottom of your pushrod tube or just wash your bike more often.

Welcome to the world of harley! And they say the new harleys don't leak oil. What they really ment was that they don't leak AS MUCH oil.

The pre 04/05's did suffer from oil blow back through the airbox. I think there are some articles on how to cure this somewhere on the site.

I noticed when I came back from a ride there is some oil, not a lot, at the bottom of the front pushrod tube. There was some blowby low on the rear pipe. I have an 03 883r,SE air box. And I do get blowby on the oil tank, but this seems lower. Any thoughts? :frownthre

This a common thing on all sportys, the oil has just dripped from
the AC. Where you riding twisting the wick in the twisties to
make the oil run down to the lower pipe?
You need to put on a horseshoe breather kit which will attach
to the SE AC with the right hardware and send all the blowby
to the street level.
Check out the fix athttp://www.mklsportster.com/xloilblowbyarticle.htm this article
was posted by a member of the yahoo sportster owners group.

The big reason the 03 and earlier Sportys dump oil in the air cleaner and the 04-05s don't is because the 04-05 have an upgraded baffle in the rocker box. It keeps the oil out of the vent tubes leading to the air cleaner.

It's all got to do with the baffles ... Nothing else

Now, if you could install the newer baffle assembly in your 03, that may be the ticket.

tele52,
Thanks for bringing this subject up at this time.
xllent01,
Thanks for the link.
I finally recieved my breather kit today,(with no instructions I might add)
I looked at everything and started the install as I thought it should go together,I was concerned about the space between the carb and the backing plate.
Now everything is clear as the photos in the link.
I will finish the install in the morning.
Thanks,
Don

Ah yes! Nice little piece of equipment. But now your bike won't be like a Harley. :laugh Keep that hose away from your rear tire. :burnout

I read, somewhere, (probably here) about a mod you can do to the inside of the rocker boxes to cure the blow-by issue. Haven't tried it myself. As I recall, it involves drilling out the drain holes a bit bigger and inserting some sort of "dam" on the breather hole side.

Yup I heard of this too. I don't have any info on it but I have seen a picture of something that gets screwed into the location where the breather valves are in the rocker boxes.

Thanks guys, after riding today I looked and it's coming from the AC. I don't mind wiping it off, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't the start of a bigger problem. I like the fact that she has a personality....

Oh ya That she has! Glad to be of help. Next time check a jap bike and look for a engine breather tube somewhere under the back of the engine and you will see they throw out oil as well it just isn't as noticeable.

Yeah mine was building up a bit next to the timing plug, turned out to be the same thing...

Mine never had any blowby issues prior to the conversion. :clap
Now she has a slight film on the oil tank after I have ridden her hard.
:shhhh Since she is a girl bike, I just install 2 femenin napkins/pads in the ham can at oil change, and no moore film. Don't ask what kind, I don't know I just steal them from the daughters drawer in the bathroom. :yikes