Oil drained from oil tank into crank case after sitting, how to remove

[klammer76]

A friend of mine has been gifted a 1987 FLHTC. The bike had a full service in 2021 and has sat ever since. Well, as is the case sometimes, no oil in the tank and there is oil on the ground coming from the crank case breather hose. I have had shovels & evo's in the past and always clamped off the feed line during winter storage to prevent the puking of oil that gets by the check ball in the pump. It's been a long time since I have worked on an Evo and never had the tank drain completely. How do we go about getting the oil out of the crank case? Don't want to fire it obviously with no oil in the tank and adding oil will make it way over full. As it's an 87, it's a bottom breather not a head breather. I haven't seen the bike yet. I'll also drain the primary also to see if any has migrated past the crank shaft seal.

Thanks,
klammer   

[xlfan]

Spark plugs out and turn the engine until most of the oil has returned to tank.

[klammer76]

Spark plugs out and turn the engine until most of the oil has returned to tank.

Roger that. Thank you.

[nmainehunter]

I just did this with a friends bike that sat for years, same condition. I doubt that all of the oil went to the lower end, if in fact it did adding a half quart to the tank won't hurt a thing. Starting the bike will get the oil circulating, some will come out of the case breather line which should be removed from the air cleaner if it's still connected, run it into a catch can, and the rest will go back to the oil tank. It will be a mess but let the bike run for a few minutes and all should be fine. Good Luck!

[Dan89flstc]

Put a drain pan underneath the crankcase breather hose.

No reason to use the battery and starter motor for this, just start the engine and let the lube system do its job.

Do not add any oil until after the engine has scavenged the oil back to the tank.

[JW113]

Exactly. It's a self-correcting problem, just a bit messy. Mine do it all the time.

-JW