78 shovelhead primary help
 

1978 FX, I was asked to help put the mess that someones son made changing out a stator and we are about to button up the primary cover, there is a clymer manual, and it talks about checking vacuum which is no problem I assume this is to pull fluid in from somewhere???, but I do not see any lines for fluid coming into the primary area, and since the bike was ripped apart by two kids without a clue, they have no idea how much fluid was in it. Any clues would be appreciated.

(this was a bike I was going to buy, seeing how they tore it apart made me very sad indeed)

thanks

If the bike still has the stock oil hose routing ( 5 or 6 lines ) the primary is lubed by a small line from the oil pump & motor breather blowing oil into the case when sealed . If the primary has been setup to be a sealed system ( 3 oil lines total ) and none are connected to the primary you assemble everything and while the bike is upright and the derby cover off add just enough oil to come to the bottom of the clutch basket that's it . This is the best route to go cleans up several leak areas and you motor oil stays cleaner much longer .

The vacuum test in the book is a headache for most to do ignore it and just check all the lines for condition & tight clamps if you have the stock oiling system .

thanks, it has been converted to 3 lines.....

I use good old ATF in shovel primary's if you don't have any HD primary fluid , pretty much the same stuff and cheaper . The shovel clutch plates don't like regular oil they gum up and slip .

I have to check what they bought, when I say these two were clueless, they were clueless, one of the starter mounting bolts (to the primary) was stripped, they were going to shove something else in, till I pointed out that it had two different threads......it was quite a fun evening sifting through multiple piles of nuts and bolts!!!

fyi the clutch plates didn't look like they had ever been wet which I found to be odd, but the response I got was they thought gasoline came out of the primary case......lmao....

How old are these two ? Trick is to add just enough to the case it just touches the clutch hub , that will oil everything just fine and trash the plates . Good luck man sounds like you have school in session at the short bus destination , LOL .

father and son, both have no business working on a bike, dad also has a really nice 70's vette, hopefully they let someone else work on it!

I should be back tonight to hopefully button it all up.....I'll report back


edit:

when I left the other day, I gave them 1 instruction, get some automotive simple green and clean some of the crap off the bike that is under where the oil tank goes.

Got to work and was told something bad happened with a spark plug while they were cleaning the bike....this should be fun.....



really...WTF is wrong with people....

LOL keep me posted please , this is better than the comics I'm going to be giggling all day . http://i754.photobucket.com/albums/x...D/sign0108.gif

she told me lunch time, what ever he did with the plugs is taken care of, he replaced them....

me-did he gap and put anti sieze on?
she on phone with hubby....duh...no...
me-oh jeez....

its a good way to laugh through the work day!

next...

just got home, pretty much done, well except for the 3 stripped black isolation bolts that mount the horseshoe oil tank.....I had to laugh, they just keep putting the wrong nuts on stuff.....

once we replace those, I forbade them from putting the primary cover bolts on while I was gone!!!! will continue next week

oil for primary
 

a fixed amount of oil is supplied through an oil line running from the oil pump to the primary case. oil drops on the chain from the oil outlet and is drawn back into the engine gearcase breather...check to see if oil line is intact an not restricted. there is no set amount of oil ,as it is continually circulated.. o yeah BUY IT