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Big Transmission Oil Leak. 2003 Heritage

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Old 05-19-2013, 08:40 AM
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Default Big Transmission Oil Leak. 2003 Heritage

Came out from work to ride home and my bike was sitting in a 2 -3 foot pool of oil. Towed it home. Cleaned everything and didn't see any leaks. The leak looked like it was coming from primary drain plug but that's just lowest point. I replaced primary oil and then noticed transmission was low. I added 80w gear oil. Looked, no leaks. Took it for a ride, no leaks. Parked it for about an hour and came back out to bike sitting in big pool of oil. Still can't see exactly where it's coming from but the trans fluid is gone.

Any ideas?

2003 Heritage.
Mostly stock, Pipes, air filter, jets.
24000 miles.

Replaced trans fluid in Feb with Lucus 80w gear oil, that was about 2000 miles ago.
 
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Old 05-19-2013, 09:33 AM
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Buddy of mine the other day had a similar thing. Looked like it was coming from around oil filter. Cleaned it up no leak. Took for a ride oil everywhere. Upon further examination was blowing back up clutch gable. Found out vent tube was blocked. Cleared the blockage. No more oil leak
 
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Old 05-19-2013, 11:07 AM
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Default Big Transmission Oil leak. 2003 Heritage update

Checked vent tube. I pulled it off and it's clear. The oil seems like is coming from the primary drive area. I say that because there's a line of oil going up from the primary's drain plug. I raised the bike and the line of oil goes up on the inside to a place where I can't see it anymore.
.
 
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Old 05-19-2013, 12:10 PM
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Since the transmission fluid went low, you know it is a transmission leak. It doesn`t matter what seal is leaking at this point, it needs to come apart.

It could be a bad oil seal, or it could be that the front pulley nut has come loose, which can cause a big oil leak, and also can trash the pulley and the main drive gear. Since this leak seems to have occoured all of a sudden, and the leak is so bad, I suspect that the pulley nut is the problem.

Don`t ride the bike until this issue is resolved.

You have no choice here, the entire primary drive must be removed to gain access to the left side of the transmission.

Clutch, compensator, primary chain, inner primary cover, inner primary bearing race and front belt pulley must be removed.

Once you have all these removed, inspect the splines on the pulley and on the main drive gear (the main drive gear is the splined shaft that the pulley mounts on to).

Replace all the seals on the inner primary cover and on the transmission left side.

On the inner primary cover:
Starter jackshaft seal
Inner primary bearing seal

On the transmission case:
Pulley spacer
Quad seal
Big oil seal
Shifter shaft seal

On the main drive gear:
Mainshaft oil seal
 

Last edited by Dan89FLSTC; 05-19-2013 at 12:17 PM.
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Old 05-19-2013, 08:09 PM
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Sounds like repair is exceeds my skills, tools and time. Think I'll start a new thread asking where to take my bike to be repaied
 
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Old 05-20-2013, 05:50 AM
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Originally Posted by Dan89FLSTC
Since the transmission fluid went low, you know it is a transmission leak. It doesn`t matter what seal is leaking at this point, it needs to come apart.

It could be a bad oil seal, or it could be that the front pulley nut has come loose, which can cause a big oil leak, and also can trash the pulley and the main drive gear. Since this leak seems to have occoured all of a sudden, and the leak is so bad, I suspect that the pulley nut is the problem.

Don`t ride the bike until this issue is resolved.

You have no choice here, the entire primary drive must be removed to gain access to the left side of the transmission.

Clutch, compensator, primary chain, inner primary cover, inner primary bearing race and front belt pulley must be removed.

Once you have all these removed, inspect the splines on the pulley and on the main drive gear (the main drive gear is the splined shaft that the pulley mounts on to).

Replace all the seals on the inner primary cover and on the transmission left side.

On the inner primary cover:
Starter jackshaft seal
Inner primary bearing seal

On the transmission case:
Pulley spacer
Quad seal
Big oil seal
Shifter shaft seal

On the main drive gear:
Mainshaft oil seal
 
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