Breather tube throwing oil into carb

All Harleys will get a little oil in the breather.

However, when mileage causes the rings to wear, combustion pressure can leak past the rings, causing higher pressure.

You didn't state your mileage, but at 11 years old, your engine might be ready for a top end rebuild.

see if the oil smells like gas the needle valve in the carb doesn't seat the carb over flows into the crank case washing down the oil

On your '87 Softail, the engine breather vent is behind and below the oil pump. The air from the breather is routed into the engine air filter by a metal pipe and rubber tubing that runs from the breather vent to the air filter. It is common to get a bit of oil in the air filter because of this system. The system was designed to meet EPA regulations of the time. Since then, the breather system has been modified to allow the engine to breathe at the top of the heads instead of down low on the engine. This resolves some of the problem with oil getting into the air filter but it still does not eliminate it. The only way to eliminate the oil from getting into the air filter is to reroute the air from the crankcase breather vent to somewhere else. Most people just let it exhaust underneath the bike by putting a small breather filter on the end of a short piece of rubber hose connected to the breather vent.

Good Luck
Steve

This is probably not a blown gasket issue. A bad head gasket can allow oil to enter the cylinder head/combustion chamber if it's not sealing off the valve area. A simple suggestion is to check on the engine opposite the carb side for the oil/crankcase breather. It will have 2 screws holding it onto the block. It has a type of filter media in it that traps excessive oil and oil vapors from the engine. It is also connected by a tube to the air filter housing. When you tipped, you probably put too much oil in the breather and it was inducted over to the air filter/carb intake side.
Clean or replace the breather after checking it and also make sure you haven't overfilled the Briggs with oil and only use SAE 30 in the engine. Muti-viscosity isn't recommended in summer unless you run synthetic, then it is OK.
Please vote on this solution.

Remove and clean or replace the oil crankcase breather located on the othe side of the engine from the carb. It is also sometimes called the valve cover on flathead engines. It will have 2 screws holding it on the engine block and it will connect to a small tube that goes across the top of the engine to the air filter housing. See if you can check this tube to make sure it is clear. Run a small wire through it first maybe...it has to be clear. If it is clogged, then spray some carb cleaner spray into in and work it until it clears. Your mower may have been tilted the wrong way at some point or there is excessive blow-by meaning the engine is quite worn and oil is moving to places it doesn't need to go.

Your oil breather (on the side of the engine opposite the carb) may be malfunctioning/defective allowing the carb to **** oil from it. There is a breather tube that crosses over the top of the cylinder connecting the crankcase( oil) breather to the air filter housing. Check the oil level and the condition of the air filter and esp. the oil breather. It serves the same function as a PCV on a car engine.

Without any real detail about year, filter type or where the oil actually is "in" the carb I will try to answer. Oil can come from a few sources. The first is the breather tubes from the engine. If there is excessive blow-by the pistons, oil will be drawn into the carb through these tubes. There are also rubber check valves on top of the heads that can harden and cause the same issue. The last one is excess oil from a oiled cotton style filter (K&N). Either way, while in the garage, remove the air cleaner but leave the breather tubes connected. Get the motor up to temp and watch the tubes while reving the motor. If you see a heavy oil mist from the tubes perform a leak down check on each cylinder to identify the problem area.

I had the same problem! I found that the needle valve in the carb was not shutting off the fuel flow when not running. Either replace needle valve or put a shut off valve in the fule line. Should take care of the problem

You either have a head gasket going bad or your piston rings are shot which causes air to go down into the crankcase building up pressure which exits through the breather tube.

That is a breather tube, I can't picture the motor off the top of my head but that tube is either connected to the valve cover or if the tube seems to go up over the motor then that tube goes down into the motor. If it's the one thats connected to the valve cover then it's possible there is to much oil in the valve box. If it's the one that seems to go up over the top and in then if your just alittle to much over full you'll get oil out of that tube cause that tube sits alittle above the oil level.If your oil level is right on the line then I would run it for a bit then check the oil level. If the level is still good then you should be ok but keep an eye on it if it continues to blow oil out I would take it in to get looked at futher.