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If you know where the level is supposed to be, you now know how to service and check the level on any modern Harley big twin primary.
Mechanics were converting Harley dry clutch setups to wet clutch setups before the factory came out with the wet clutch. So there is some knowledge out there besides the factory.
The early shop manuals were completely wrong on primary lube level.
Suppose you are on the road and need to check the primary for some reason, if you only know what the capacity is supposed to be, how does that help you? Do you drain it and refill it because you are fixated on how many oz the primary holds?
38 oz. 39.oz. Who cares. Fill it to the proper level (and if you really need to know how much it takes, measure it as you pour it in, simple).
To those of you asking why some of us do not religiously follow the capacity shown in the service manual, just go ahead and service a Softail oil tank to the capacity in the service manual and see what happens...
My Softail factory manual says 3 quarts...if you pour that much in you will be pouring it all over the side of the tank and onto the floor...
Nothing difficult to understand about your statement/opinion, what I find difficult to understand is why someone would follow an opinion as opposed to what's clearly written in the manual. I guess manuals can be wrong although I don't really know of many glaring mistakes in the newer bike manuals, they MAY be there but I don't know of any. As to checking the primary on the road, I guess that might happen but that would probably be the result of some kind of leak, noise or some other kind of mechanical failure. As I don't usually carry primary oil around with me I wouldn't be pulling the cover to check, that's what warranties (and extended warranties) are for. To each his own I guess, I'll continue to rely on the manual for my information.
As I don't usually carry primary oil around with me I wouldn't be pulling the cover to check, that's what warranties (and extended warranties) are for.
I realize this may be hard to imagine...but some of us keep our bikes longer than the warranty period, and may actually have a reason to do some maintenance on the bike while on the road.
I realize this may be hard to imagine...but some of us keep our bikes longer than the warranty period, and may actually have a reason to do some maintenance on the bike while on the road.
Not hard to imagine at all, if doing maintenance while on the road makes you happy go for it. I neither have to nor choose to go that route...
I went ahead and changed my fluids today to check things out. Like I said, I have always filled it up to the clutch spring like shown in post #6. This is just how I was shown to do it and I have always stuck to that. I put 38oz in the primary today and it's nowhere near where it normally is. I thought I would post this for clarification because like myself, lots of people believe that post #6 is correct. The red line in the pic below is the level I have always filled it to. The green line is apparently the correct level and it did come out to exactly 38 oz on my 2014 SGS.
06SWGA, have any idea what it took to get to the red line on your previous fills? Know there is a lot of flack above about why not just do it to the manual. I am 100% on doing it to the manual and that is what this thread is about in my opinion. Problem it has taken Harley a long long time to actually state amount in the primary. I personally wrote it in my owners manual since it was not put there by Harley. Just the one picture showing it to appear at the top of the window. However, they did say bottom of spring but few people really know what is spring and what is spring retainer where the oil is in post 6. Could it be that post 6 is on the stand? Then the red and green lines could be both correct for level and stand.
Last edited by Jackie Paper; Mar 21, 2015 at 04:08 PM.
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