Hi everyone, great looking site. I just picked up a 2012 Road King, it only had 300 miles on it. I got it home after about a 2.5 hour ride, smelled oil and was getting some smoke. Looked underneath and oil was dripping onto the exhaust where it crosses over to the clutch side. The pan is wet, I am thinking this is the transmission? I have had many bikes but this is my first HD. I am struggling to find the source, but I did read on here about the exhaust hanger bolts but not sure? Any suggestions appreciated. Pic below.

 

Why not look and see if it is the exhaust hanger bolts? That's the most likely.

 

I did check, they are tight.

 

It could be transmission oil coming from the vent hose. Clean off all the oil you can with a degreaser to pinpoint the source.

 

Pic of the whole pic is of no use. They all look like that.

Spray brake clean all over, then go for short ride
See if you can find it.

Stuff leaks that is not rode. With only 300 miles you also gave no idea if the bike is lemon in general. But this I attribute to gasket or seal drying out. Probably not big deal. May get lucky and swell back up.

 

Sweet looking bike OP, that was a mid-year custom color in 2012, I almost bought a Heritage with that scheme.

 

It could also be the seal on the shifter shaft where it comes out of the transmission behind the primary. Is your transmission level dropping?

 

I took a closer look, wiped things down best I could. The leak seems to be coming from higher up, I have some pics below. It is running down and dripping off the pan than is just above the exhaust which is what is causing the smoke.

Any suggestions appreciated, thanks for the replies so far. I have arrows pointing to where I see oil.

 

Yes my transmission oil was barely reading on the dipstick, took a couple of ounces to top it up.

 

Once I saw an oil leak coming from the starter. It was caused by a bad pinion gear seal on the starter clutch allowing primary oil to seep into the starter body and leak down on top of the transmission. A loose starter could also leak oil.