Good Article....

http://www.xs11.com/stories/mcnoil94.htm

 

But 14 years old and none of the oils are the same now as they were then.

 

Sorry for the long delay in providing feedback, but muliple attempts to reply failed. Never had such a hard time posting to any other forum before. Fortunately, I was smart enough to copy and paste it to a Word document so I would not have to repeatedly retype it all. Since writing the reply below, I've probably logged about 500 or more miles on the bike. Had lots of rain after changing the oil. No noticeable difference. Bike shifts fine, and all seems well. Below is the follow up message I tried to post after changing to the 75W-140 Amsoil

Well, I promised to report back on my tranny oil change so here it is.
Dumped the Amsoil MCV on Friday and put in their SVO 75W-140 Severe duty gear oil. Took the bike for a ride and at first, it appeared to shift more quietly. The first shift from 4th to 5th was almost silent. But as the oil heated up, the bike seemed to return back to normal from what I remembered when I had Amsoil 75W-90 Gear oil in there.
Rode the bike about 40 or so miles on Friday, probably another 100 on Saturday and then took Mama for a ride with two of our friends up onto Tug Hill Plateau, which is lots of hills. Probably about a 90 mile round trip with two up. Cannot say the bike was any different than before with the lighter gear oil. The whine that I thought was coming from the tranny is there when the road is smooth and I'm starting to think it may be the tires again. So damn much wind noise and sound reflection off the windshield that it is hard to tell where the noise is coming from. I might have just been over-sensitive after putting motor oil in the tranny.
Cannot say that the bike shifts any smoother than with either of the other two oils. May shift a little quieter. But let's face it, HD trannies sound like you dropped a barbell on the floor when you shift them. Personally, I've never had trouble finding neutral on and of my Harleys. Always go to neutral from first if that helps anyone having this problem. Only use a toe shifter too. Heel shifter came off the day I got the bike. Pulling up with the toe is more sensitive than mashing down with your heel.
Last comment is wrt metal debris on the tranny drain plug magnet. There were some metal whiskers on the magnet, and with maybe 500 miles on that MCV oil. My guess is this is just whiskers that were already inside the box and were flushed to the magnet on this run. I say this because this winter I cleaned the oil bag on my recently acquired knucklehead, which suffered a broken rod in the early 50's and I'm just rebuilding it now. I flushed that tank with kero at least 100 times, each time pouring the kero thru a coffee filter and each time using a big disc magnet as an oil cap as I sloshed the kero around in the tank. This flushing was after a thorough scrubbing with diesel injector brush and repeated Spanish Dancer impressions with a handful of 3/8" nuts and kero in the tank to get it as clean as possible. Even though the tank is squeaky clean now, I'm sure if I put clean kero in there and sloshed it again with the magnet as a cap, I'd get more whiskers on the magnet when I dumped it. You just cannot stop the whiskers from adhering to the sides of the tank as you dump the liquid. Same happens in the tranny, and with lots more nooks and crannies to hold the whiskers not to mention oil on the case walls instead of kero.
So that's about it. Cannot say with any authority that any of the oils make a noticeable difference. As for wear, next oil dump will say if anything is going on in there.
regards,
Rob

 

Everything in between these two statements read fine. It looks like Harley has had you on a string for quite some time:

"First of all any oil other than Harley is just asking for trouble because i dont care who the manufacturer is nobody on this planet has done as much testing on air cooled engines as Harley"- That is an incredibly uninformed statement...you also need to remember that Harley doesn't make oil...and that harley engines aren't made of any "magical ingredients"

"If you put that gear oil in a bike that still has warranty it will void it because it's not a factory recommened oil."- Again, an incredibly uninformed statement...especially coming from someone who has owned bikes for so long. For Harley to even tell you that is against the law. Stay away from them "stealership" service centers...they prey on folks just like you.
-clutch-

 

I put Amsoil gear lub 45-75W I am probabley wrong about the exact number,Big deal. But the easy shifting after riding in town and getting really warmed up is a nice plus but I have a hard time shifting to neutral, it needs a vary soft and smooth touch ,it is way easy to go through to 2nd or back to 1st. Don over and out

 

i use 20/50 amsoil in the motor and primary and 75/90 severe gear in the tranny

what a difference after a little research on harley syn3 i found out it is ****ty

citgo oil in disguise the cheapest crap you can buy i guess thats why harley sells it

like there clothing is made in china because its cheap use syn 3 and rebuild your

motor every 30.000 miles or use amsoil and think about rebuilding your motor

at 100.000 miles plus do the research you will be surprised

ride safe

 

Couple of suggestions- Anyone who has their professional life directly affected by lubrication
should know about a non-bias organization called Noria. I use them for my
&nbsp
I worked in the lubrication dept. in a paper mill for 12 years and recently transfered to a differant job,(easier on the body). I know about Noria, I have my ICML certificate. I use SYN 3 in my bike after I did some research. I think any of the synthetics will do a good job in all 3 holes. Synthetics may cost more but not as much as an engine overhaul. If you are looking for a experianced triboligist at your company, I may need a job soon.

 

I will not agree with one lubricant is the best for all 3 holes. Something gets compromised. It's the engine. It is not possible to formulate a lubricant that performs "optimally" in an engine as well as a wet clutch.
While a synthetic does retain its viscosity well it does not treat the metal in the engine. Any performance car engine builder who knows anything would not dream of using a high coefficient of friction engine oil in their engine. Auto trans fluid is red so you don't mistakenly add it to the engine because it would wear it out quickly. I picked up Hogsnot 20w-50 "engine only" petroleum and I get the same results as with the amsoil but i only paid 5 bucks. He told me to use whatever I like in the primary but if it works in the primary don't use it in my engine because I can do better. Seems to me to be the first time someone (like my dealer) wasn,t trying to blow smoke up my tail pipe. made too much sense to me

 

Sweeet! I bought some at a show in vegas and caught crap from my friends because it wasnt synth. I still have my low temps and I sold the rest of the case to those pinheads. I havent been able to find it locally other than the show but I saw their race car at the track here and their crew only sold their muscle car formula. I was really impressed by their people and their product.

 

After reading the White Paper* on the Amsoil site showing the ASTM test data from a variety of tests with a variety different oils, I run Amsoil Full Syn 20w50 in all three holes. Noted an average 12 degree temp drop at the dip stick.

My dealer carries HD and Amsoil products and they dont give a s**t what you run. Amsoil is almost $3 cheaper that the HD at my dealer. The service dept will put amsoil in all 3 holes if thats what you ask for (my money-bags buddy gets all his service done at the dealer w/ Amsoil X 3).

I'm not an oil scientist but I did a lot of research and base my choice on data- now whether or not the data reflects the truth is another matter, but the testing was done independently in the case of the the Amsoil paper.

*http://www.performanceoiltechnology....aper_g2156.pdf