Primary tower gasket leaking
Thread Starter
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Cruiser
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 143
Likes: 0
From: Valencia, CA
Primary tower gasket leaking
I have a chromed OEM inner primary and the original chrome outer primary. I have switched my controls to HD fowards.
About 6 months ago I swapped the stock bolts out for chrome HD primary cover bolts, one at a time so nothing was apart. A week or so later the tower gasket started to leak. I took the outer primary off and found the seal and shifted out of place, makes sense. I replaced the gaskets and retorqued all the primary bolts.
Now it's leaking again, same exact thing. What am I doing wrong? Should I try using two tower gaskets?
Here's what I'm talking about...anyone else have this problem?
About 6 months ago I swapped the stock bolts out for chrome HD primary cover bolts, one at a time so nothing was apart. A week or so later the tower gasket started to leak. I took the outer primary off and found the seal and shifted out of place, makes sense. I replaced the gaskets and retorqued all the primary bolts.
Now it's leaking again, same exact thing. What am I doing wrong? Should I try using two tower gaskets?
Here's what I'm talking about...anyone else have this problem?
Thread Starter
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Cruiser
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 143
Likes: 0
From: Valencia, CA
no its not from there, that plug is simply lock-tited in place. the "tower" is the casting that creates the tunnel through the primary. where the two halves of the primary meet there is a gasket for the tunnel. thats the gasket that keeps leaking.
Road Warrior
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 1,955
Likes: 6
From: Little Rock
the gasket will continue to slip out of position without a shaft running thru the tower to hold it in place... what I did was took my outer cover to napa and found a freeze plug ... 9/16ths if i remember correctly... tap one into the outer tunnel where it mates to the inner primary, and another into the inner primary.the hole on the inner primary is slightly larger but reduces insize a couple inches in... use the same size plug.. it will slide in loosley until it gets to the reduced size area,,, give it a couple taps with a hammer and a 3/8ths extension or something similar till its in snuggly... wont ever leak again....
Cruiser
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 142
Likes: 0
From: SoCal
There's a prescribed torque sequence when you disassemble and reassemble the primary, perhaps removing those bolts independently loosened the necessary tension on that gasket allowing it to slip out of place?
Thread Starter
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Cruiser
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 143
Likes: 0
From: Valencia, CA
I like the idea of the freeze plugs. maybe a little RTV to really be sure.
Road Warrior
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,629
Likes: 46
From: East Hartford, CT
My fowards conversion has never leaked, I never touched it though.
\I had the dealer switch it before I rode it away.
Torque sequence makes sense.
\I had the dealer switch it before I rode it away.
Torque sequence makes sense.
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Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 3,124
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From: From Long Island, now in So. Cal
Did your tower gasket have a peel off backing that you remove so that you can stick the gasket to the inner primary?
I used a chrome carriage bolt to cover the hole when I installed my forward controls. I slipped the threads of the carriage bolt into a hose then added shrink sleeving to have a nice snug fit into the primary cover. This also prevented the tower gasket from shifting out of place.
I used a chrome carriage bolt to cover the hole when I installed my forward controls. I slipped the threads of the carriage bolt into a hose then added shrink sleeving to have a nice snug fit into the primary cover. This also prevented the tower gasket from shifting out of place.