I decided to change my tranny oil on my 08 1200R.
Got me a quart of Belray tranny Oil,
It said on the bottle,"Made for Sportsters"
It listed no oil weight, I put that in and It shifted crappy,
The Oil musta been too thick, It slowed the clutch engagement down.

Found out It was sumthin like 90w-140w,,
Got me some Mobil 1 75w-90w,,,like the SERVICE BOOK said,,
lesson learned,,,
GET the HD service book !
Shifts just fine now XD

BTW If you have Mids the book says to remove the left foot peg mount
to get the derby cover off,,,not needed,,,
Drain into a clean pan on the side stand and tip the bike level several
times to get It all out.
Remove the timming chain Inspection cover,,funnel In the whole quart.
Now poor the old oil back in the empty bottle,,,betcha git exactly a quart.
Done !
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/visc.html

 

I have tried the Harley primary lube, the bell ray stuff, and Mobil 1 20w50 v twin oil.
The V twin oil seemed best, the Harley stuff was noisy, the bell ray stuff seemed fine and mine was not real thick, on the thin side it seemed to me.
I never did try the 75w140.
A friend who is a mechanic at the dealers told me you don't want thick lube in there as the needle bearings wont get good lube in the cold.

I know 75w140 is not supposed to be thicker then 20w50 oil, but the Harley stuff might be more like 10w40....it seems thin...
It makes the primary howl though.

 

I only use the HD Formula Plus and never had an issue. I don't know why you guys always try to use differant stuff? just use the HD stuff and all will be fine.

 

Reading,,,,yeah my local HD had only the Belray no HD Formula Plus,,
so I guess he was after a sale.
As for Motor Oil In the tranny,,from all I have read we need the Higher sheering
resistance of proper gear Oil to make the tranny go the distance.

Motor Oil,,synthetic Included Is formulated for cumbustion and the additive package
Is NOT optimized for the super Hi sheer enviroment of the tranny.

 

I ran Formula plus for the first 15k and now am running Spectro Heavy Duty Primary Chaincase Oil, I believe its 80w, so far so good, seems just as noisy as Formula Plus. Guess I'll find out when I look at drain plug in 3k miles. Marty, does this mean you turned 5k. Next weekend is Z-Hills, you going?

 

Not quite. 75w-90 Gear Oil is basically equivalent to 20W-50 Motor Oil, see chart.

The Big Twins can run a 75w-140 oil in the gear box because the primary/clutch are separate and have their own oil supply. The Sporty shares its oil so you need to stay with a 75w-90 or a straight 80 or 85 weight (viscosity).




Probably because many of us prefer a Quality Brand synthetic Gear Oil, instead of HD's fossil based (non synthetic), over priced, Citgo junk.


+1 - the motor (combustion chamber) and the gearbox are 2 completely different environments, and what's formulated to be the best for one, can not possibly be the best product for the other.

.

 

I also switched from whatever was in the bike when I purchased it used to Spectro HD chincase/tranny oil. Shifting has been noticeably easier and a little quieter. 1000m and all seems well.

Buzzard53

 

The hard part is we have a wet clutch system, which is common in motorcycles. That makes it hard to use straight gear oils for our transmissions because it shares a sump with the primary/clutch. This is where the debate begins.

Personally, I use Mobile1 V-Twin for the engine and primary/tranny. It's the proper weight and a high quality synthetic. Japanese bikes often run engine and clutch or transmission in one system and I have seen those run 100k+ miles no problem. As far as transmission goes, HD's Formula+ doesn't seem any better than the V-Twin, so it is at least par in my experience. (synthetic>>dino oil) Besides, the M1 is designed to work well in all three applications.

What it all comes down to is this: make sure the oil is the right weight and classification for the use, and change it at the regular intervals or before! All else being equal you should be ok. Any oil is better than no oil, even the wrong type.