My wife was very excited when I found her a yellow CVO fat bob at a local used bike dealer, to the point that despite my misgivings and distrust of this dealer I went ahead and bought the bike from them anyway.

This weekend after checking the oil I decided I was pretty sure they lied about changing the oil. She has put 500 miles on the bike since we bought it and her oil was black as ink, at 2000 miles since my last change the oil in my street glide was not as dark as hers. Off to the HD dealer I went 3 quarts of Syn 3 for the crankcase, 1 quart for the primary, and a quart of belray synthetic hypoid gear lube for the transmission. The tranny and primary fluids were disgusting, but my biggest concern is in the crankcase.

Along with the normal ultrafine metal dust you always have on the tip of a magnetic drain plug i found a piece of metal about 2.5mm wide by 4mm long roughly .045" thick.

This is the first time I have serviced a Harley, I normally take mine into the dealer to get it done since I bough the prepaid service.

Is it possible this is a leftover machining chip if the PO never changed the fluid in the bike, (it had 6K on it). All the drain plugs had been in so long that the o-rings cracked apart when i went to remove and replace them, the primary plug was actually seeping, the plugs themselves were so tight that someone either had no clue how to put a plug back in or the dissimilar metal had caused them to seize. I'm borrowing a friends compression tester this weekend and will check compression and run a leak down test, to see if a ring is broken in one of the cylinders, the only other place i could think of a piece of metal this size breaking off of would be a bearing surface.

Any other suggestions?

 

Your assessment is pretty good, that's a large piece of metal to be in the crankcase. If that had been from the machining it would have likely come out on the 1k service.

Personally, as a used bike, I would probably run it until the cause of the issue showed up and then rebuild it to my desires. I would strongly recommend AGAINST syn3, I have seen too many cases of that particular oil being the indirect cause of major mechanical issues in numerous scoots. Just my opinion though

RE

 

I take it you didn`t buy a warranty.

 

Change the oil and ride it. If it runs good then there is no sense in tearing it down trying to figure out if there is a problem or not. IMO.

 

Keep calm and carry on. Keep an eye on things on the next change. I might not wait 5000 miles for the next service if it were mine. Oh and the syn3 oil is fine, I don't use it but it is just fine. I might consider the formula+ or a primary fluid like Drag or RevTec for the primary.

 

If it had a 1K service done. I'm really beginning to think some moron owned this bike, in 5 years it only had 6k miles on it, I suspect it sat in the garage a lot and he only took it out occasionally and beat on it. It has a brand new rear tire on it, my original thought was they'd had a puncture but after getting up under the fender it looks like it might have spent some time in a burnout pit...

Yeah we are probably just gonna let it roll till it goes if it has an issue. and then I'll drop a S&S 124" kit in it for her.

 

Nope. Not going to finance a worthless 2 year warranty for $2800 plus interest. If you read the terms conditions and exclusions of those "warranties" that used dealers offer you'll realize they are almost worthless. On average it takes 3 weeks to get the repair work approved and then at a service shop of their choice. I went through this with a bike in the past that warranty isn't worth the paper it's written on.

 

Thinking that there probably was a 1k service done, but not the 5k..

I always change both the engine and pri oils around 5k, as they both are dirty, the tranny I change 1 @ - yr. (I only ride 8-9K a yr)

The rubber o-rings on my bike are usually torn and flattened at every oil change also. That why most replace them every time.


FYI -- As far as Tranny oil,, I tried Bel-Ray HyPoid 85-140 once 4-5 yrs ago per dealer suggestion..
Living here in INDiana I found it was Just tooo stiff at temps below 75.. shifted really firm till the engine warmed up.. I ended up dropping it about 500 miles later for some 75-90 syn... I use Mobil 1,, but any good brand will do..

I'll add two yrs ago when my Son's tranny output bearing when out on his 10 St Glide at 23K miles,, the Wrench at our dealer told us that he's seeing a bunch of those bearings going out and most all who are having bearing issues are those who are using a GL in the tranny.
Not to start a Oil war in but but, since learning that the son and I both switched back to using Mobil 1 V-twin in all three holes..

I can honestly say I can't tell any difference between the GL oils and the 20-50 oils..

Bottom line just do a full service, Using whatever oils you like and I think all will be well..

 

OP good luck with the new ride. Now to The poster R_Einan..... I would be interested in "Syn 3 causing indirect major mechanical issues in numerous scoots". What are the damages????? I think you are full of bullshit or misinformed, which is the case?

 

Or the moron spent five years hiding it in a garage from the repo man. Then did a burnout to spite the lender just before it was loaded onto a trailer.
A dealer lied about changing the oil? Never happens.