The Doherty Phantom oil filter......

Tim Doherty gave me one of his Phantom Oil Filter kits to try out, at the Laughlin River Run about 11 years ago, when the kits were fairly new. I've never had a chance to do just that, until now.

Doherty Machine made some great products, the best known were their PowerVents for both crank and head breather Big Twins, the Power-Pak air filter kits, and their "Mist-Free" head breather conversions for Twin Cams.

Unfortunately, Tim passed away in March of this year, and Doherty Machine ran into some operational problems. It's my understanding that Trask Performance , in Phoenix, AZ acquired Doherty, and is supposed to be producing the old line of products. Whether the Phantom is available again I'm not sure, you'd have to give Trask a call. The old Doherty product distributors show it "unavailable".

The Phantom Oil Filter was designed to be installed in place of the center fill cap on rigid frame 4 speed, and Softail 5 speed horseshoe-style tanks. But, it would mount on any oil tank - like the end of a round oil tank - that gave you a flat 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" surface to work with, and clearance for the filter length inside. The kit took the internal-style oil filter replacement cartridge used in Harley's ElectraGlide 4speed oil tanks, and is easily found.

You can see, Doherty changed the cap on the later kits, to a side feed for the return line, vs. my kit's threaded center feed location, and 1/8" NPT 90 degree elbow. This is the location of my Phantom - LT. side of the tank, between the belt drive runs. When I was figuring out the width of my tank, I was sweating the dimensions to not only get clearance for my starter, but enough side surface for the filter mounting flange. I made it, with an 1/8" extra on each side of the flange - whew! Instead of the the original inlet spigot, I installed a 1/8" NPT male to -6 AN male fitting. Totally hidden oil filter!
See how trick the Phantom was? You just remove the return line, unscrew the cap, and remove the filter for service. Hopefully, Trask will include this in the Doherty product line when they are up to speed.Here's where I'm at on my oil tank. The feed bung is A. in the photo, and the vent line goes into bung B., where there is an internal stand tube that bends over to the right to clear the filter cartridge, then up to about a 1/4" of the tank top. Darin from Bung King has my filler bung and screw-in cap on its way to me.......