I don't know from personal experience, have owned 6 since 2007 without ever having a trans problem, or know anybody personally that has..there's always been some gear whine, primary and cam chain noises, etc, hard to decipher where exactly all the Harleys noises originate but since they always kept going down the road fine without any change I never gave them much thought..they're Harleys not Toyotas !!

 

i didnt think there was a problom with the early six speeds. U are right with whine, that was the word i was looking for, not howl. Lol I believe people complained about fifth gear whining a little louder than the rest. I personally have never had trans problems either in 4, 5 or 6 speeds.

 

 

I have all my gears. Guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

 

Has anyone that lost 3rd gear converted to chain drive or is this with the oem belt drive?

 

The 6 speed came out in 06 ,they shed 5th gear and howl more and more as that gear goes out, fifth is 1:1 I think ,the output seal leaks then pisses out oil and Harley still replaces that seal for free here in Australia every 15k/klms(10000M) don't know about anywhere else doing it though.
A mate has an 06 FXDWG and has just done 5th gear again he is taking it apart this weekend.

 

You are a fool in a big way... the oil passage that was blocked from the thread lock was the passage in the cam chain tensioner that puts oil ...ONLY....ONLY on the tensioner spring. The only damage it COULD have done would have been to the tensioner. NOTHING else. So Inspector....the next time you want to get in someone's business maybe you should ask questions before you jump to conclusions and calling people names and sound like an ***. P.S...the Tensioner was good anyway.
Also you will be very surprised how fast HD fixes your stuff when your lawyer calls them. The burden of proof is on them....they do not have much of a case when they know they have multiple engines failing. Do you think they want to take any of the failed engines into a court case? If they did that they would have to give up all there hidden information on the failures and exactly how many there are to date. Once that is in a cort case it is then public record. They dont want that at all.

 

Finally a post regarding the actual posted thread. LOL....
I would say it looks like an insufficient heat treatment not something that got in there and caused the damage. If something physical got between the gears or even if **** was not aligned correctly, you would see damage all the way around that gear. It is plain to see that only a section of those gears have worn down the other teeth are perfectly fine. That is a pretty good sign that the gear probably only seen heat to half of it and the other half or section did not get to the right temp. I have seen this happen before. Manufacturing equipment does breakdown from time and time again, People in the plants do make mistakes now and then, and sometimes bad parts do slip through the cracks. The good thing is that it is not a design issue and there is probably only a limited number of bad parts out there. Probably all built near the same time.
If you zoom in those pics and look, the damage tells you. not even a hit of scratching on the rest of those teeth (same gear). Then notice the damage is the full width of the teeth on all just teeth that are damaged. This is plain to see, it's not a trans that grenaded. The damage was on just those few teeth only and not even a scratch anywhere else..The only way I can see the rider being able to ride abusively in a why for him to do damage to only those 6-7 teeth and no where else is for him to be revving up and dropping the clutch in that gear....BUT it wouldn't happen doing it just once, he would have to do it multiple times. So lets think about that... Do you think it is even possible for him to drop that clutch multiple times on the exact same teeth every single time it was done?
Am I not 100% sure that it is what it looks like...no but I'm 95% sure. A hardness test would prove the last 5%.
You dont have to believe me or except my opinion. I am just posting my opinion just as all the others that state in their opinion that the guy abused his bike and was the cause. Isn't that what this forum is for?

 

I think everyone agrees with you..... problem is that when someone posts their issues a certain group of less educated fanboys chime in to try and dis credit the person. I read the issues and sort out the crap from the truth - many just don't want to admit the new engine and the new platform for that matter are going through more than growing pains!

I hope the OP`s bike is corrected properly & he has many miles of enjoyment, why a certain post ***** chimes in with insults and derails a thread is beyond me - the site was doing good & back he comes, this is not the only thread he has done this in - other thread have been locked because of him.

 

I agree with your statement,100%