Heavy Breather kit by Screamin' Eagle

The air cleaner on my Harley Fatbob has been bugging me, so last weekend I bought a new Screamin' Eagle Heavy Breather Performance Air Cleaner Kit, part #29299-08, along with a Screamin' Eagle Heavy Breather Filter Cover (chrome, twisted slot), part #28742-10.

I bought them from Trivett Harley-Davidson in Alexandria, and, as luck would have it, they had a 15% off sale - bargain!

The service there was great - even though it was busy, I was in and out in a flash.

Anyway, I took the bike over to a mate's workshop on Monday to install the parts (my torque wrench was too big to torque up the small screws).

It was a simple job to start the install - take off the old high flow air cleaner, and retain the two breather screws. If you buy a kit (and cover), simply follow the instructions.

The heavy breather air cleaner kit mount (#28716-10) went on without a hitch, then it came time to install the twisted slot chrome cover (#28742-10).

That took longer than the first two stages put together - uninstall the old breather, and install the mounting kit. And the reason? We couldn't get the mounting plate to meet up neatly (flush) against the cover. The four tiny torx screws simply wouldn’t pull the cover in.

So we pulled the mount off, along the cover, and noticed that the holes didn't line up. What the?

We tried rotating the mount across each of the four holes, just in case it was supposed to be in a set place, but no luck (not that you should need luck with Genuine parts & accessories). At best, three mounting holes lined up ok, and the fourth one was about half way across the "matching" cover hole. Keep in mind that this is a Genuine Harley-Davidson (Screamin' Eagle) part.

There was no way I was going to go all the way over to Trivetts again, seeing as how it was their last one anyway, so we drilled the mounting holes out to fit the cover. Crazy - right? I mean, it’s not like it’s a $10 part! It shouldn't need to be done.

So then the holes lined up (sort of), but the damn cover STILL didn't sit flush against the mount.

My only theory is that the rubber pad supplied to go on the inside of the cover is too thick, thus forcing the breather to be slightly longer than it should.

Performance

The normal air cleaner, or breather, sits behind a chromed metal cover, with the inlet facing the engine. With the Screamin' Eagle Heavy Breather, the intake filter faces forward, well away from the motor. This could, in essence, be called a rudimentary cold air induction system, which some claim increases power.

Cold air carries more oxygen, so the theory is the colder the air, the better it will help combustion. At the very least, you would have to agree that the air being sucked into the engine would be cooler, especially on a very hot day, or being stuck in traffic. It hasn't been on the bike long enough to test this theory, so we'll just have to make do with how it performs in the aesthetics department - and that is goooood! ;-)

Other problems

Now, this is only new, so it hasn't had much use yet, but I've read that several people (not all by any means) have had a couple of issues with the heavy breather.

The first thing is oil can sometimes drip out of the breather screws, which should be stopped by the two (per side) rubber o-rings, but can end up leaking out over your engine. One fix suggested for this is some cotton wool behind the chrome breather plug (wow - that's hi-tech!), and a little bit of Loctite on the plug itself.

The other "problem" I've read about wouldn't bother you if you don't venture into the country too much, but the breather element can become a nice big trap for bugs. So I'd suggest the supplied rain sock be used if you plan on riding out into rural areas around Spring or Summer. It would save a lot of "debugging" at the end of the trip!

28742-10 Screamin' Eagle Heavy Breather Filter Cover (Twisted Slot) - AUD $214.29

28716-10 Screamin' Eagle Heavy Breather Performance Air Cleaner Kit - AUD $378.21

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