Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Driftercat]

After returning from a 6 day trip on Sunday I noticed my stock air filter cover was missing. All that was left was a 1" diameter hole on the end of the K&N where the center bolt for the cover mounts. Dealer who installed it says he guesses the stock cover doesn't match with the K&N filter and I either need to go back to the stock air filter or use a different cover. I'm running 1.75 Fulsac's with no CATs and a SERT. Anyone have any recomendations on air intakes for SEUC's.

[Twolanerider]

After returning from a 6 day trip on Sunday I noticed my stock air filter cover was missing. All that was left was a 1" diameter hole on the end of the K&N where the center bolt for the cover mounts. Dealer who installed it says he guesses the stock cover doesn't match with the K&N filter and I either need to go back to the stock air filter or use a different cover. I'm running 1.75 Fulsac's with no CATs and a SERT. Anyone have any recomendations on air intakes for SEUC's.

If there's a hole in the center of the air filter itself the center of the filter broke out (and let the cover go with it).  Is that what you're describing?  Is it just an empty center remaining or the threaded center where the bolt would attach?  Air filters breaking out aren't incredibly common.  But it happens.

[Driftercat]

Sorry I could probably described it better. It is the center of the air filter broken away. No threaded hole left.

[Twolanerider]

Sorry I could probably described it better. It is the center of the air filter broken away. No threaded hole left.

Some of the filters have a gasker around their outside edge.  Where it meets the air cleaner cover.

Not all are spaced correctly so that when the gasket makes contact the center has also.  When that happens the center of the filter is pulled and deformed.  When you get the new filter and cover make sure the centers of each actually contact each other.  If they do you're good to go. 

[Driftercat]

Good advice thanks. The filter that was installed had no signs of a gasket around the outside. I bet that allowed it to wobble and vibrate causing metal fatigue where the center bolt connects.

[Twolanerider]

Good advice thanks. The filter that was installed had no signs of a gasket around the outside. I bet that allowed it to wobble and vibrate causing metal fatigue where the center bolt connects.

Could be.  Though they don't all meet at the outside.  If they meet at the center and the outside that's ideal.  But if they meet at the outside only and have to then pull on the unsupported center that's easiest lead-in to a broken filter.

[Driftercat]

Sounds like a rubber washer around the center bolt and a foam gasket around the outside of the filter for extra support and dampening would be the ideal situation. I will run this by my mechanic. Thanks

[grc]

The K&N filters come with a rubber gasket that is supposed to be applied to the outer end of the filter (self adhesive).  Perhaps yours didn't get installed.

The '06 and later CVO air cleaner covers on the Touring bikes don't have a round center section like the stock covers or the '05 and earlier CVO covers.  Therein lies the real problem, and that's why the catalogs tell you the SE air cleaner kit requires the use of the old style cover on the Touring CVO's.  The old  style covers contact the full circumference of the outer end of the round filters, providing maximum support to the cover.  Without that support, the cover can wobble and move until the filter center section becomes fatigued and fails at the nut.

It is very possible to make the new style CVO covers work, as long as you provide the same support.  Take the new filter (contact K&N, you may find they will replace your old filter free of charge as there have been other instances of the center nut breaking out) and mount it with the center bolt into the air cleaner cover while off the bike.  Look inside and note where the filter element doesn't contact the cover.  Those areas need to be filled with something to provide the solid 360° support of the older style covers.  And if there is a significant gap between the center nut of the filter and the cover, adding a washer to remove most of that gap is a good idea also.  You want to wind up with equal tension at the center and around the edge of the filter when it's all bolted together.

Of course, if you don't really have to have the official CVO cover, the best bet would be one of the many round covers on the market.  Probably a lot less expensive than the CVO cover, and they look better IMHO.

Jerry

[Talon]

I think there might have been a gap between the cover and the threaded portion of the air cleaner end plate, if they over tightened it, it may have pulled that portion off the air cleaner. I run a Doherty Power PACC, with just a A/C center insert on the end, there was quite a gap between the cover and the end of the element cover with the threads. I took some modeling clay and out it around the threaded hole. Then I put some wd40 on the back of the cover and screwed the cover on the air cleaner, tightening it until it felt tight and I couldn't easily move it. The I backed it out, measured the clay, made a spacer out on nylon stock and screwed it on, no problems.

[ICMCGeezer]

A few months back, the center (threaded) portion of my K&N almost completely separated from the rest of the metal. I guess it was metal fatigue. Noticing that my filter cover was rather wobbly, I pulled it off, only to find that the threaded center was 3/4 torn away from the rest of the (metal) filter wall. Called my dealer, who called K&N, and I ended up getting another filter, free of charge. K&N said that they had heard of this happening,albeit rare.
Glad I didn't lost the filter cover, though.

[Driftercat]

Thanks for all the good info. I'm sure it was a case of the cover not being supported properly by the filter. I just got back from the dealer and they supplied me with a new K&N filter, Harley Forged Billet Aluminum Air Cleaner cover and Screaming Eagle 110 Cubic Inch center piece at no charge. I'm OK to go with that for now but I might want to find another original cover for on the shelf in the future.