I picked up a used 2011 Road King last spring (private sale, no dealer) that had 3500 miles on it. I have been having an primary oil leak issue ever since I bought it. I did crawl underneath before I bought it and did not see any oil residue, but of course it could have been cleaned up for all I know. The oil seems to be weeping down the backside of the primary. It's only while riding and after, it does not leak while parked. Anyway, I have had all of the seals and bearings changed out on the inner primary twice now by my indy mechanic. The second time he was looking for anything that he thought might be causing a seal to go out and he did find a small burr on the starter shaft which he smoothed out with some emery cloth. No dice leak is back....


He's a perfectionist so I think it's actually bothering him worse than it is me, but I'm not happy about it either. He is being very good about it and reduced my bill the second time around because it wasn't fixed the first time.


He was going to do some checking with his contacts a the HD dealer he used to work for and see if there were any issues or service bulletins. He thought there could possibly have been a bad batch of castings or something like that.


My next plan was to replace the whole inner primary - maybe even go chrome right away, and hope that would take care of the issue. I don't want to keep throwing money/parts at it, but I'd like the leak to go away for good.


Has anyone had any "odd" issues that caused a primary leak that they have dealt with? Or any other suggestions?


Thanks for your input.

 

are you sure it is the primary.

oil seeps travel to the lowest position on the bike...which is the primary when parked on the jiffy.


seeps are found by cleaning, then spraying teh area with 99¢ store foot powder.
any seep will wash away the powder.

first parked overnight.... then running idle in the drive with a cooling fan.

if that doesn; t find it you'll have to run the bike.

proper primary level?

if you find "extra" fluid in teh primary then you have a leak in teh seals to the motor...crankcase pressure ( blocked breathers????) will push oil and pressurize the primary ...


A used bike takes a good looking at to reveal the previous owners sins.

mike

 

Did you have the shifter shaft seal changed when you had the seals done? Quad seal, etc. from the mainshaft? I'm guessing it's coming from the mainshaft seals. If your Indy pulled the inner and changed all the seals, he should've seen somewhat of a hint where it was coming from.

 

Change the primary fluid to Bel-Ray, it is dyed red so you be able to make sure it is the primary is leaking and not engine oil.

 

Changing the primary fluid to something a different color is a good idea and easy enough. Currently running Mobil 1 in all three holes. I'll try that first to make sure that is where the oil is coming from. I will also try the foot powder idea. Thanks

 

I have a few drips after my longer rides when I park it. At first I thought it was coming from the primary because it drips right at the primary drain plug but then I noticed the fluid was red. Since I run red line in my transmission and regular harley brand in my primary I knew it was coming from the tranny.

My guess is it's your seal on your output shaft that runs down and drips off your primary. The powder idea and changing colors of primary fluid are good places to start.

 

a drawback to that.

the friction disks absorb fluid...a fluid drain and refill will usually leave 15% or so of the old fluid in the primary.

IF ( that is IF) the old and new fluids are not compatible, you could be poor clutch action

mike

 

Update: I did dump Redline in the transmission a couple months ago, it was definitely Mobil 1 that was leaking. Crankcase level was staying constant so was pretty confident it was coming form the primary.


My Indy was finally able to get me into his schedule. Plan was to replace inner primary case, all seals gaskets and primary bearing/race. When he pulled off the inner primary case he noticed the bearing seal was pushed out and not seated flush as it is supposed to be. He put the inner race puller tool on and he said he wouldn't have even needed it as he could have pulled it off with his fingers.


Bingo, the inner bearing race has a crack running the full width of it (parallel with the shaft) which caused the race to "walk" back and forth on the shaft and putting pressure on the bearing seal.


Keeping my fingers crossed that this is the end of it.

 

What caused the race to crack would be my concern. Wonder what your main bearing looks like.

 

I believe your King has the HD self adjusting primary chain shoe. Not a big fan of the system that only tightens and doesn't give any relief. I think the 06 and 07 Dynas had an issue with IPB failures, then the touring bikes got the self adjusters. My theory is the chain is tightening too tight and in the mechanical world is drawing the output shaft closer to the crank pulley just enough to put a load on the race surface. Granted I'm not an engineer. Remember HD has developed three compensators to handle the larger engines, so who knows.