Quick Update: Today I adjusted my clutch and now I am letting all the amsoil drain out of the primary over night. I bought two quarts of the harley primary fluid. I am going to add one quart tomorrow ride a few miles and then change the fluid again. By adjusting the clutch I got alot of slack out of my clutch lever.

 

The only thing I'll say about that is if the problem goes away how wil you ever know if it was simply an adjustment that was needed.
You'll forever be tied to Harley Davidson primary fluid when there may be a better product.
Remember that H-D does not have your best interest in mind when they market products for maintenance.
It would far better for them if their primary fluid does nothing to extend the life of your drive components. After all they are in the business of selling you replacements and nothing they like better than people that believe that H-D brand is the only type of replacement anything to use.

 

over filling the primary can cause the problems he describes.
It only takes a full quart(barely) if the primary has been dis-assembled.
I fill mine till the level just hits the clutch diaphram spring.
I've seen people who fill it right up to the opening in the primary cover.

If you plan on doing your own services, please buy a service manual.

A proper clutch adjustment could help your problem also.

 

Never seen too much fluid cause clutch slip, drag maybe. Who did the 1000 mile service, maybe they didn't get it right. I also keep syn out of the primary.

 

Well the problem now is your fixing it 2 different ways at the same time, so now you will never know witch one fixed it. All I can add is I have used Amsoil 20/50 in all my Harley's in every hole and have never had any kind of oil related problems.

 

I had the 1000 mile service done at Harley. I was not pleased, you could tell they hurried through the service. That's when I decided to buy a service manual and do all my own maintenance. (with plenty of help from this forum)

I was at my local dealer yesterday buying the primary fluid. I asked the service guy about my problem and the only thing he would tell me was to bring it in so they could try and replicate the problem. That is the last thing I want is a guy ******* my bike trying to make somthing slip.

 

The video stops at the clutch adjustment. Wheres the video that shows you what to do with loosened cable? If someone sees the video and doesn't have a manual. He's stuck wondering what to do with the cable adjustment.

Just asking.

 

Royal Purple makes great oil formulated for bikes. I have zero problems and it bumped fuel economy 3 miles to the gallon. Really it did. It is pricey bit worth it. Go do some research on this oil. I can sell you some at cost if you contact me threw my web site.

 

2.5 quarts of oil in the engine? It should take a whole 3 quarts. I was on the interstate one day a couple of months ago and went to pass a big rig. I snatched up some throttle to paas quickly and suddenly it felt like what you described...like the clutch slipped or like the bike lost power and shut off...for only a split second though, because as soon as it happened I throttled down and everything was fine. I passed the truck, but did it a little slower and everything was fine. Came to find out that it was because the oil was low and the bike had done a 'shut off' thing but the oil splashed back before it could realize it wasn't bad low and it cut back on. You said you were going uphill and accelerating. If your oil's a little bit low, I'd bet that's what was/is happening.

 

Don't know what slack in the clutch lever would do as far as your problem is concerned. But...

Have you ever taken off the pan on an Automatic Transmission? Seen all the crap laying in the bottom of it? Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

That's friction material from the clutch plates and/or bands. Most ATs use clutch paks these days. Very similar in principle to a wet clutch.

The friction material on clutch paks is sacrificial. It has to be. On an Auto Trans however, you have a hydraulic piston, a Servo, pressing the friction material to the metal plates in the clutch pak. Sort of 'self-adjusting'. And it has a lot more power than those puny little springs on Harley's clutch pak. A lot.

So as the friction material gives up the ghost, as the lubricant gets contaminated, the clutch kinda gets used to all this and goes along on its merry way. The nasty gets imbedded in the friction material and floats around in the fluid. There's no filter in a Harley primary like there is in an Automatic Transmission.

So when you change the primary fluid, the nasty mostly comes out with the old fluid and the strong detergents in the new fluid cleans the friction material and the metal plates. Any gaps that were being filled by contaminants are exposed and your clutch goes out of wack.

No problem if you adjust it as soon as it starts 'slipping'. If you don't, you can glaze the friction material. Costs you $8 for a new primary gasket. Whoopee.

Same with brakes. That friction material wears away. Disc brakes are 'self-adjusting'. I'm old enough to remember drum brakes and the total BS you had to go through to adjust them. Friction material. It gets used. It goes away. Must adjust.

If the synthetic oil you put in your primary was JASO MA rated, there's no reason for it do harm to anything. Maybe it's because it did its job better than expected. If you used non MA rated oil, let's cross our fingers.

As long as you didn't glaze the friction material you should be fine with a simple (and expected) adjustment.

edit: Wanted to show you this.



This is a photo of the bottome of a GM AT pan. The caption reads --

When you pull the pan off any GM transmission you will find nasty stuff stuck to the bottom. The grit that feels like sand is actually friction material from the clutch packs. It’s nothing to worry about. The paste you find stuck to the magnet is from worn pressure plates

But most ATs have a filter in them, your primary doesn't. Which is why the service intervals are shorter than on a vehicle's AT. Just wanted to show you.


I could be mistaken in any/all of this. I've been known.