Took my 09 FLHRC in for its 5000 mile service yesterday. Got a call this morning saying they'd found a leak in my transmission side door gasket and that this was a 12 hour $1000+ fix. I have the Service Manual for the bike and have read through transmission removal up to the side door gasket. It does look like a pretty major job (exhaust removal, main shaft bearing inner race removal, and oil slinger assembly removal). My question is, do you recommend I pony up the kilobuck and have Hundred Dollar service do it, or is this something a mortal with a reasonable amount of mechanical skill can accomplish? It would be my first major service job on the bike.

Thanks for your insight.

Steve

 

It's not that tough, but you will need the tool to remove bearing race off the mainshaft. If you have air and an impact you are in even better shape.

 

Thanks. Am I correct that once I get to the side door, I have to pull out the whole gear set in order to replace the gasket? Also....are there nice tool exchanges around for things like that main shaft inner bearing removal/insertion tool or should I plan on buying my own? I sure hope I'm not actually in there using that tool often enough to end up having it pay for itself!

 

Once the race is off and all the door bearings are removed then you will be able to pull the whole gearset out and change the gasket. $133.50 form Georges for the tool.

http://www.georges-garage.com/trans_pre_o7.htm

 

i would just try to snug the bolts up some before taking it all apart. take a good look at this as the clutch cable cover is known to come loose and leak too. snug everything up and give it a bath, then look and see where it's coming from. as you can tell i don't always believe what the dealer is saying.

 

Are there any steps to this process anywhere? Just found a leak in my side door as well. What are everyone's thoughts on leak fix as a temporary bandaid?

 

Cut the top of the gasket, put it on without making more cuts, and use a good gasket sealer on the top cut where it will only get splash.

 

Of course there are steps to this process, in the Service Manual, it`s all there.

What model and year bike?

Don`t put that garbage in your motorcycle.

The first thing to do is check the torque on the side door bolts.

 

I gotta disagree with this big time...

If you are going through the process of puling the side door away from the transmission case, you can spend an hour more to remove the inner primary components, then you can pull the gearset and install the gasket properly.

 

The bottom two bolts that have double duty as an exhaust bracket/hanger and they come loose often, pull them add a drop of blue loctite and reinstall/torque. I have been in business for 14 years and have only had to replace 1 or 2 of those gaskets as they were actually bad. I get 8-10 leaking ones a year and way more often than not the bolts are just loose and need to be loctited and torqued....