Okay so I am neurotic about this and change the engine oil every 3000, I have redline in the tranny and HD oil in the Primary. Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated.

 

It is not necessary to change the tranny or primary every 3000 miles. I know the softail manual says every 10K. I usually do 2 engine oil changes to 1 primary and tranny change. It's worked out fine so far at 30K miles.

 

Just did my tranny after a seasons riding. Oil was clean and only a tiny bit of dust on the magnet. Once a year, depending on miles is more than enough for the gearbox, and maybe every second engine oil change for the primary. Gear oils have a really long life so you are not likely to wear it out. Especially the synthetic brands. If the tranny's not making metal, and the bike lives in a heated garage, you could go years. Each situation is different and after a few changes you will see what's going on. The primary is a dirty place with clutch particals, metal from the chain and sprockets. My main consideration for changing primary oil is the clutch basket bearing and the primary inner bearing, which like clean oil. The rest of the parts in there could care less.
Ron

 

look in your owners manual. you trusted Harley to build the bike, trust them to tell you when to change the fluids. After all they have been doin the bike thing for over a hundred years, so I'm bettin they have a good handle on it.,,

 

engine every 5000, tranny every 10000-15000, primary every 10000

 

I do my primary when I change the engine oil, which is every 5,000 miles. Cheap and only a few min. more for the whole job. I change the transmission out every 10,000 miles or every other time I do my engine oil and primary. I use syn (Mobil 1) in the engine and transmission and use Valoline 20w-50 oil, jaso approved motorcycle oil in the primary.

 

The owner's manual tells you to change your engine oil every 5K miles, primary every 10K and transmission every 20K. Since you're changing your engine oil at 3K miles, you should change the primary every 6K and the transmission every 12K. Or not.

 

Engine - 5k
Primary - 10k
Trans - 10k

 

Engine 3-5000
Primary 5000
trans (with gear oil 15-20,000) RL Shockproof Heavy will go 20,000 miles easy.

 

What about age? Doesn't oil have a shelf life? A friend has a 2007 Heritage Softail with 5,000 miles on it. Primary and Transmission have never been changed.