Gentlemen, enough. There is only one solution to this ongoing debate regarding which lubricant is best for Harley-Davidson motorcycles:

You MUST buy one of each engine/transmission combination sold in the last 25 years, so that you can have every possible combination of engine times every possible combination of transmission times every possible choice of lubricant times "all the holes".

Then you can figure out for yourselves what works best.

 

somebody shoot me for another oil post.. ridiculous

 

Blindsided by your own mouse or did you not know that "RedLine" and "Syn-3" were oils ?

 

20w-50 in all 3 holes works fine for me

 

I will use Redline in the tranny. Now have to decide on Syn3 in the primary or Formula+.

 

Well personal experience is that my clutch does slip more with synthetic in the primary. I tried a couple different brands with the same result. I never have trouble with Formula+, so I don't know why I try to find something better. After four Harleys, I have finally settled on Formula+ in the primary.

Beary

 

If you do it yourself, be exact with amounts. My manual says:

ITEM CAPACITY

Primary chaincase lubricant 32 oz (0.95 L) wet
40 oz (1.18 L) dry

 

When Syn3 first came out (early 2003) and Harley was pushing it for all 3 holes I gave it a shot.....

I didn't like it in my primary or tranny....

In the primary, my clutch seemed to slip a little more & the tranny got noisy....

I didn't even wait until the next service to change out the Syn3...

I switched to Mobil1 V-twin synthetic in the engine, Belray in the primary (now use HD Forumla1) and Mobil1 synthetic gear oil (now Valvoline) in the tranny...

I stick with synthetic oil in the engine, a non-synthetic primary fluid in the primary and a synthetic gear oil in the tranny. I have my brand preferences, but don't think that matters today as much as it did 20 years ago.

While I believe the Syn3 for all 3 holes won't actually hurt anything, I am much happier with job specific fluids in each of the 3 holes....

FWIW...

 

When I first start talking to the tech I said specifically Syn3 in the tranny but I think once he started talking he actually meant in the engine.

 

I have a buddy that has a radically built nighttrain and he runs syn3 in eng, and formula+ in trans and primary. He said the same thing about the noise of the trans with syn3 in it.

I am in the process of getting mine switched over too.