Don't quote me, but I think all engine to frame, trans to frame AND trans to engine mounting bolts should be loose (can vary depending upon model). That includes the exhaust pipe mount to the frame if the pipes are still on. I fought that on for awhile till the light bulb went off.

Manual says for my dyna to snug the inner to the trans first, then the inner to the engine, then tighten to spec, then do trans to engine bolts, then the trans/engine to frame. Again, may vary based on model, but you want the engine and the trans to be drawn into the proper locations on the inner primary without any tension or torque to the inner primary (as mentioned). It also helps with aligning the lip at the large o-ring by the stator at the engine/inner primary also. That lip breaking off is a known problem also.

 

Agreed, I should have put more detail in the post, I have posted the sequence that I use in a previous post, i have left the engine fixed when I've had the trans out because everything was aligned down along to rear pully and I just used the engine as the old fixed point to get everything back square

 

i posted the below about a year ago

Cheers, not sure how familiar you are with the rigid mount motors and don't want to tell you how to suck eggs, but just incase your not aware. The tension on the top motor mount is important and can be the cause of oil leaks at the base of the cylinder/cylinders. The mount needs to be tight or course to prevent loosening through engine vibration but needs slip loosely over the fixings on the head shown in the image below. because you have had both the engine and trans out all all of these mounts need to be done in conjunction with each other including the mounting of the inner primary which is probably the most important step. if you don't align the trans and the motor and tension in the right order you will at best leak oil around the front of the inner primary to case and at worst crack your inner primary when you torque it up against the engine and trans. What I did was was:
1. Mount the engine with all bolts in but loose, I could just wriggle the engine around slightly on its mounts.
2. Install the trans and trans plate loose.
3..Fit the rear wheel with the pully attached
4. Dry fitted the inner primary with the front pully mounted on the trans
5. Pull the front inner primary bolts up tight
6. Then pull up the trans bolts to inner primary tight, this aligns motor and trans plumb via the inner primary (at this point motor, trans and trans plate are still loose with all bolts fitted)
7. Then pull up the bolts from under the trans so trans plate is pulled up tight under the trans (at this point motor to frame and trans plate to frame are still loose)
8. Ensure rear wheel is square in the swingarm and front and rear pulleys are aligned.
9. Now check motor to frame and trans plate to frame for any shimming required (mine was pretty good and from memory only needed 10 thou on the front right trans plate to frame point)
Point To Note i have a full baker 6 speed and i have studs in the bottom of the trans , I think original trans will have bolts up from underneath, Anyway the very outside bolt on the right where my brake switch also mounts, pretty sure there is 4 in a square pattern and this one is the fifth which is more outboard towards the kicker. this bolt can have a tendency to pull the trans down horizontally to the right and if needed must be shimmed correctly.
10. With any required shims fitted you can tighten engine bolts to frame and trans plate to frame and you can now loosen the the trans plate to trans bolts.
11. remove inner primary and prepare for final fit up
12. now when refitting your engine is your fixed point, and with the trans to trans plate bolts still loose fit inner primary to the trans, this allows you to wriggle the trans and the inner primary around as one to ensure a flush fit on front of primary to case over your O ring.
13. tighten and torque front of primary to engine, torque rear of primary to trans
14. recheck trans to trans plate for shimming (should be fine that why we did it before) and torque down trans to trans plate.
some manuals show it differently and tell you to torque trans plate to trans first, but i challenge this because its the trans plate to trans that is designed to have the most movement not the the trans plate to frame and that's why i did it in that order.
anyway you look like your pretty good on the spanners and probably are all over this........ and i just lost two hour of my life that ill never get back Ha Ha.
oh and not to forget what started this post now you do the top engine mount as i explained before.

 

I always thought that on a softail, to align engine and trans you need to first start with the rear wheel and the pulley to the frame and then everything gets aligned off of that..

 

Inside of the case isn't damaged. All hardware was in place when I removed it. I am a little concerned with the spiderweb cracking but not sure if that is really an issue. I had the opportunity to open her up on a flat open road about a month ago and set a speed PR. Something felt a little off after that. I could feel a very slight increase in vibration. Slight enough I thought it could just be in my head and I didn't pursue it. I did not know about the alignment of engine/trans/primary until I was reading through the manual for re-install the other night. I think it's highly probable I created enough vibration to move something just enough to create stress on the case. Maybe this has been going on over time and just now reached the point of failure. I'm not sure if I have coarse or fine thread but I will switch to fine if I don't.

 

I don't believe my manual mentioned anything about rear wheel alignment while aligning the case/engine/trans but I will double check. With that being said I did remove the rear wheel because I was struggling to locate bolts from the inside. Not sure if this was necessary but I was missing a bolt on the starter and couldn't find it.

To align and locate the rear wheel I have to have tension on the belt right? Wouldn't that put tension on the trans making it difficult to align case/engine/trans?

 

I appreciate this. I've never been through this process. When I read things they don't make sense until I start doing them step by step on the bike. I'll come back to this when I'm installing. Thank you

 

No you don't have to have a lot of tension on the belt.. What you want to do is make sure you put the axle perpendicular to the frame.. To do that you need to make a measuring tool to set the axle, left and right side to the left and right side pivots.. Center of axle to center of swing arm pivot.. Get them equal and once you have that lock that down.. Then take a straight edge and go across the drive pulley of the rear wheel to the drive pulley of the transmission.. You already have your inner primary off so now's the time to do it.. So once you get the rear axle perpendicular to the bike then you set the transmission to the rear axle via the straight edge on the pulleys and then you lock that down and once you get that lockdown then you move on to the front pulley and the case of the engine and get them parallel but you also have to make sure that you get the distance proper between the transmission and the engine for the inner primary to fit properly.. Sometimes you have to readjust the trans and engine to get all three in line but the rear wheel is the starting point..

 

@98hotrodfatboy I figured I was overthinking it. That makes sense. Thank you!

 

Can't necessarily speak for EVO Softail, but they are similar to the earlier Shovel and P.an motors in that they have a solid mount engine, a separate transmission and transmission mounting plate. On Pans and Shovels you first torque the rear motor mount to specs, then measure the front to see if you have any gaps. If so it is necessary to use shim stock to get the clearance to a minimum.

Once you have the engine in place, install the transmission and mounting plate into the frame. Torque the mounting plate bolts to spec. The transmission bolts that lock the tranny to the mounting plate should be loose. Next install the inner primary (do not forget the rubber O-ring that goes between the front of the primary and the left case. Move the transmission so that it locks into the inner primary. Install the engine case bolts and transmission case bolts and torque to specs. Once that is done, you then tighten the nuts on the studs on the bottom of the transmission (don't forget the 5th bolt...bottom of the transmission to the frame). Everything else works around that.

When installing the top motor mount, you want to lock down the nuts that hold the top mounting plate to the cylinder heads. Check to see if there is any gap between the top of the mount and the frame. If so you need to get the appropriate sized spacer to fill the gap. The you can torque the top bolt to the frame.

Never heard of using the rear wheel as a starting point on a solid mount motor. Had two solid mount EVOs in the past that I completely took down to the frame. On reassembly I used the same procedure that I use on my Pans and Shovels. Never had an issue. The HD service manual says nothing about aligning everything off the rear wheel (HD Service Manual 85-90 Softail: Installing the Engine, Section 3-10; Primary Chaincase Assembly, Section 6-16)

JHD1827, from the looks of that I would suggest that something came loose on you and the vibration caused the crack in the inner primary. Could have been top motor mount, engine to frame bolts, transmission plate to frame bolts or transmission case to mounting plate bolts. The good tho...it's a nice clean crack. Take it to a competent welder that does aluminum. That is definitely "fixable".