Well, I removed my seal no problem. The problem is when the seal came out so did some small pieces of black plastic. It apears the plastic is part of the MGD bearing, it looks like it's the piece that keeps the ball seperated. So...how phuct am I? I'm half tempted to buy the remove/install tool and take this on myself and the other half says take it to the dealer.
I'm assuming this plastic is what cause the seal to fail, but I also wonder if maybe I broke the bearing trying to get the damn sprocket nut off and something else caused the seal to fail.

 

If you got that far do it yourself and get the right tools. I did mine without the right tools and it was a mo fo. Good luck.

 

First a question…could the unidentified thing you found be the quad seal???

You don`t need the dealer to do this job, you already have the hard part done.

Here`s a general rundown of what you will need to do to change out the main drive gear bearing.

You will have to remove the inner race on the mainshaft if you have not already done so.

You will then need to remove the gearset, don`t panic, removing a 5 speed gearset is cake.

Pop the top cover off the tranny, unbolt and remove the shift drum.

Remove the chrome cover on the right side of the tranny and then slide out the shaft that the shift forks ride on, then remove the forks.

Unbolt the right side of the transmission (trapdoor). The gearset will come out with the cover as a unit . Don`t strike the mainshaft to try to drive the gearset out, it will damage the bearing in the trap door. Just pull the trapdoor off the case, the whole unit (2 shafts and the door) will stay together.

The main drive gear will still be in the transmission, inside the ball bearing. This is where you can have some issues, so I suggest you get the puller or fabricate one, but don`t try to knock the gear out of the bearing, you could damage the case.

Once you get the gear out, you can remove the big snap ring and push the bearing out.

 

Great post Dan89, Thanks.
The broken pieces that came out are deff. the ball keeper from the bearing. Your write up just inspired me to do this myself. I looked on Georges Garage website for the puller tool and it's over $200 so I'm hoping to find one for rent or borrow or to make my own.

 

That's excellent stuff Dan, one question though, the original poster I think has an 06 streetbob, would most of your instructions still hold true with the 6 speed, because he's got the first year 6 speed?

 

Good catch cactusred, I was thinking 5 speed...Hopefully some one will jump in here with some 6 speed knowledge...But with a shop manual HOGRIDA should have no problem changing out the bearing.

 

The plastic thing is the "retainer" in the beairng assembly and consider yourself lucky for finding it early.

 

Exactly, and that's another example of why I'm huge preventative/ongoing maintenace intervals. Had hogrida just decided, ahhhh F$%^ it man, it's just a drip or two coming from my tranny seal, he'd be looking at some major tranny work here real soon. And if the noise/screech/vibes coming from that bearing down the road didn't sing louder than his thunderheader, he might of been hogrida getting real cozy with a zepplin tune climbing a stairway.

 

Not that it matters too much at this point but... I'm still unsure if the broken "retainer" caused the seal leak or if the heat and beat on that super phuk nut broke the bearing.

 

You've opened another can of HUH, I was thinking exactly myself when I looked at your pics of that retainer this morning. I think I remember you saying the other day you cooked that shaft for 45 minutes with heat to try and get that nut off, my personal opinion is I think you cooked it to the point of brittleness and it cracked with the jerking/rocking of the nut/shaft trying to get the nut loose. I might be wrong but I'm thinking if it was happening by itself in that tranny those pieces would have more of a fine powder texture to them meaning as they broke they were getting ground down from wear, but yours looked like it was just pieces man. The good news is if this is the case, you wouldn't have to inspect the inside of that tranny as much. But like you said at this point doesn't matter much, just make sure if you do it yourself man, look over that inside of the gearbox where that bearing is real well and clean/rinse real real well, man you don't want any left over funk in there, but no doubt, you can handle this job, I'm sure.