Still in the process of working on my 65 pan. There is a lot to stuff that needs work but one thing has come up. I need to replace the inner primary bearing. It's a 1 x 2 x 0.47" bearing with seal on one side.. Is it OK to simply use a 1 x 2 x 0.5 sealed bearing in it's place?

 

Sorry if I don't understand from this description, but which bearing, exactly, are you talking about?

 

If it's the mainshaft bearing in the tranny, I think you want it exposed to gear oil for durability. Check out this video, which is what I used to guide my own rebuild. Kaiser shows the bearing R&R, and I'm almost positive I remember him discussing use of a sealed bearing:

rebuilding a 4-speed tranny

 

Your bike don't have it.. 65 has an aluminum inner primary and a support bearing. First year. Shovels - on have them

 

As a semi dry OEM system we found iso the primary gives it way more life as it have a live 8 oz of active oil in the unit all the time

I have used a sealed bearing using plastic shields and then packing the bearing with aircraft landing wheel grease if i ont have the two car garage green grease if using the OEM set up

 

I've used the wider readily available bearing without issue.

 

You can pop one of the seals out if you want to stay OEM other wise I've run the dual seal bearing for year in them.

 

So John, You prefer separating (iso - isolating?) the primary from the motor? To me, it seems like a good idea. 2 less hoses to leak. Less chance of the primary getting flooded with oil. No clutch crap getting into the motor oil.

 

I believe the primaries are mostly isolated by now for those reasons, just like a....wait for it......TWINKIE!

Use the primary chain oiler tube as your vent to connect a hose.

 

No...no...no. Not now, not ever. Took my 65 to 118K before putting her to bed for a rest. As long as you keep up with servicing on the suggested schedule, the stock system works great.

And the only modification I made to my primary is that now it is vented. The 1965 - e1966 aluminum primary units for Big twin medals was non-vented which led to leaks. HD fixed the problems with a vented primary and sold a retro-fit kit for the early models