Hey all,

My question is how long are the primary chains good for?
100K MI?
More?
Less?
Till xxxx happens?

Cheers,

.

 

Til they are unable to maintain proper tension or destroy themselves.

 

A V long time! Why do you ask? AFAIK it is the same chain as used on the big twins, so should last us a lifetime!

 

Normally I would agree but lately I have needed to adjust the primary very often, about every 1000KM which is much more that I have needed to do in the past.

I am using HD primary chain oil Syn-3. can not get Amsoil here.

 

That is odd. If it carries on needing that I suspect a strip and inspect will be appropriate.

 

I hope that is a misprint. It equals about 621 miles. Who even checks it that often?

 

I would look at the tensioner, sounds like it may be going away.
chain's hardly ever wear out,
(maybe overtightening the chain, causing too much wear on the slipper.

 

The OP (post #1) says 100KM, that would be every 62 miles.......
I'd have a good look at the adjuster shoe. I've replaced mine twice in 100,000 miles.

 

Probably no better expert here is cHarley.

My opinion on the bigger bike is dive it like most should do on city street in a legal fashion and it will last the life of the bike on a Softail. Mine at 40k+ has never been bumped up on adjustment notch and the rollers on the chain have never reached the delrin shoe. Still rubbing on the links. There is no hook in the sprockets.

The alternator spline was torn off once and at that time, the chain had a small amount of uneven link pin wear. You could not see or fill it or see it in a twist test. Could not even measure it across rollers on different area's of the chain. You could see it in the different amount of chain play as you rolled wheel.

Change that little amount of oil if yours has a separate area ever engine oil change. There is no filter and in my opinion, it has more junk floating around then the engine gets. However, I never can keep it straight about the primary,transmission, engine oil and filters on a Sporty.

Not sure what your service manual says but mine says if you run out of adjustment, replace shoe. If your're out of travel then, replace sprockets and chain as a set.

On the big bikes with manual adjuster , maintenance call out is way more then necessary and Harley should have left the manual adjuster alone.

 

Et al,

Have placed an order for a new adjustment assembly, will get back whenever the part arrives, can install in30 min so no big deal.
Engine oil is always changed, more often than my shorts.
Tran'ny oil also more often than the book states, I like my bike and don't mind the tinkering.

Cheers to all and thanks for the input.

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