Hi all,

Thought I'd share a leak experience I had on my 00 FXDWD this summer, and maybe save somebody the extra down time to discover how or where it could be coming from.

Mine started after a oil and filter change I performed myself. I bought the bike with only 3K on it in 6 years. It was tight and in beautiful shape (I hoped). I quickly rolled it over to 5K and then put SYN3 in for the first time in all the holes. I bought a new chrome filter and a "billet" filter wrench purported to make the job easier and keep me from damaging the electrical connector sitting right next to the filter lip. Sounded good and I proceeded to do the job all around. No leaks from the primary area or covers, no leaks from the tranny. But after a few days, I began to notice some streaking and a persistant dripping that ran from somewhere by the filter up front, down the right side behind all the electrical bundle and ended up being thrown off and dripping on the floor from near the tranny pan on the right side. First one splat, then maybe up to three a day. Where was it coming from? Was it the filter? The front was clean, but I couldn't see if the rear part of the filter was leaking. Was it from the split in the engine case up front? Maybe. How about a slow leak from the buckets oozing out and down the front? Oh crap, please don't be that.

Wipe and check, wipe and check. This was getting old and frustrating. My first move was to replace the filter. This amounted to a second $13 expense plus lost oil and cleanup time. I hadn't saved the original 5K filter, so nothing to compare it to. Nothing visibly wrong with the old one. Looked nearly the same as the new one I just bought it replace it. It had been tightened properly and the ring had been lubricated as I always do. Well, let's put it on and see if this solves it. Same care in putting on filter number three.

Oh crap, the leak was still there. Now what?

Am I torquing on the filters improperly? Have I screwed up the oil filter bracket itself? Is it leaking behind all this? Kind of looked like it now. The bracket itself sits at right angles from the block to the filter. Is it easy to re-torque the bracket? No! Not on this model bike. H-D used hex head bolts that interfere with the shape of the bracket itself, so sockets can't be used, and only open ended wrenches will fit. The frame interferes with this as well. I tried re-torquing them, but the leak persisted from somewhere.

My next move was to replace the bracket. $60 for a chrome unit, and $13 for another chrome filter. The picture in the catalog and on the bracket box showed allen or torq-head bolts as the fasteners. Expensive, but I likes the chrome anyway, so after 2 weeks of dripping, I thought maybe the change would work. Well,... the picture lied. The chrome unit for my model came with the same old hex-head bolts and an anti-loosening bracket with tabs you have to bend (ugly). The catalog must show a Softail or other bike. The kit included two sizable rubber o-rings - one each for the oil inlet and outlet from the bracket. They are large, but fit in overly generous sized cylinders drilled into the back plate of the adapter around the oil passages, and they are just barely shallower than the thickness of the new o-rings. I also learned that the new bracket didn't come with a new internal screw adapter. You know, the two-sided thread gizmo that your filter actually screws onto. The unit came buck naked in this area. The directions said to remove and replace this 2-cent part from the old bracket. Geez H-D, are you cheap or what? Now I'm into a tube of blue Loctite as well.

Long story shorter, the replacement of the bracket solved my leak. I doubt that the bracket itself was to blame, but older and heat hardened o-rings that shrink up ever so slightly w/o any other broader gasket under this bracket were probably to blame for the mystery leak. A little right-

 

Thanks for the tip...Hopefully I won't experience that but I is nice to know in case I do..Ride safe.....