Valve Covers

[findangle]

Is this the right term? i think i've heard them called rocker boxes too.. in any case.. the little chrome covers on the top of each cylinder...

anyway.. the chrome is peeling off of mine and i caught a piece under my finger nail while changing out my plug wires today.. so it's time to strip and paint them.

so when i go to pull those baby's off what do i need to know? do i need to take anything else off or can i just unbolt them and slide em out? are there any nasty surprises in there? anything at all i need to know before hand? never had em off before.

[dave76]

Is it chrome or clear coat peeling. Anyway I beleive it's starit forward to pull them. And most Harley folk refer to them as rocker boxxes.

[jrazo]

you will need to remove the gas tank to get to the inner rocker cover bolts. also because the fit is so tight, you may need to play with the angle that you get the covers out, but they will come out.

[94Sporty]

To expand a little bit, the rocker boxes are actually 3 pieces. The very top pieces comes off easy, just remove the 4 bolts and it should slide out. The middle piece, (sometimes called the d ring) has no bolts holding it down and is just a matter of wiggling it out. The lower piece is more complicated since it holds the rocker arms. If you need to remove that piece, I would highly recommend getting and reading a service manual first. Otherwise it is pretty easy work. Hope this helps, Roger

[findangle]

yeah i just pulled out my shop manual (another thread that didn't need posting i suppose).. it looks like its real easy to screw it up.. might have to wait till the weekend when i have some daylight time to work on it.

gonna do the headlight, air cleaner and horn while i'm at it. I also bought some 1200 engine paint that im thinking about hitting the ends of the exhaust with. (is 1200 enough?)

got me some wraps too.. i'll post pics when its done... still got a lot of rusty chrome on her but it's getting better.

[sdjr]

If you're doing the bottom plate, ya really need the torque wrench, and recommend the ball end allen wrench. Good Luck.

JR

[findangle]

yeah the chrome is a little pitted on the bottom plates but they aren't chipping and peeling (maybe a better chrome? maybe a different metal? who knows).

I'll prolly just pull the top two, scratch em and spray em and bolt em back on.. i think the only thing i'll have to do to get the allen keys in there is just snip the zip tie that holds the wiring harness to the frame on the left side.. should be pretty easy.


hope the bike runs when i'm done lol...