4500 miles and the fluid level is smack in the middle of A and F where it needs to be.

 

I checked my Saturday morning before heading away for a 500ml weekend ride. One mile form home I noticed a vibration had started. Checked engine and gearbox oil when I got home and there isn't enough oil in the box to register on the dipstick.

Not happy.

 

Yesterday I checked the gear oil level (FLHR, 800km, oil temp 20°C) standing on the jiffy, exactly as described in the manual. No oil visible on the oil dipstick.

Then I put the bike in the upright position. Thereafter, the oil level is between positions A and F.

Now I will watch it every 400km, up to the 1.600km maintenance.

 

Where does this they all do it come from. No they don't. Just got back off a trip and did some serious running over 3500 rpm's the trans level is just fine.
I wonder where people come up with this ****.
The trans gets checked on the side stand period,read the book.

 

In my case neutral was hard to find and it was getting harder to shift without getting a lot of clunk in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear. For those reasons I became suspicious and checked the primary fluid first. It was immediately noted that the primary was overfilled because I never fill it past the bottom of the clutch basket. In this case it was way over. I took some fluid out and returned it to normal. It was then that I checked the fluid level in the transmission and found it to be way low. At this point I admit that I could offer no explanation as to why this was happening. I was puzzled. But, as they say, "It is what it is". I took the bike out for a spin right after and all was normal again. The bike shifted like it was supposed to and neutral was easy to find again.

A week after all this happened I checked the transmission level again and it was at the bottom of the X point on the dipstick, not in the middle like it is supposed to be. Next I checked the primary level and it too was a little higher than where it was supposed to be. I am guessing that it took maybe 2-4 oz to bring the transmission back to normal. Lucky for me I use Formula + in both the primary and the transmission so I don't have to worry about getting friction modifier additives or gear oil in the primary case. But, a lot of people do use gear oil so this could indeed be a problem for them.

 

I'm changing my tranny oil to Formula 1 today just for this reason. I typically use Mobil 1.

 

I have ~2k on my 17 CVO Street Glide. Changed over to Spectro gear oil at 1K. Double check the level and have put 1K more on the bike since. After reading this thread I just went outside and checked it. With the bike on the jiffy stand, there is nothing on the stick. Had to put in about 3 oz to get it to show. This is real.

 

500 miles on my M8. Recently I have been pushing the rpm up between 3500 and 4000 for very brief moments, so this issue kinda got my attention.

Oil level is correct. Trans fluid level was right to (but not past) the 'add' mark after I inserted the stick per owners manual instructions. Seems that adding a few ounces would be in order.

UPDATE:

Here is a pict of my primary fluid level (using a flashlight and zoom on my S7). It is supposed to be checked at operating temp but nonetheless I decided to check it at outside temp. Nothing oozed out when I removed the cover so good for now but I shall properly check at operating temp asap after the next ride.

I considered changing all 3 fluids at 500 miles, but I think that having a documented professional do it closer to 1k will be in my best interest at this juncture for any possible m8 issue in the near term.

 

All it takes is a block of wood or a brick under the jiffy stand. Really simple. The screws are T27, and they should be torqued to 84-108 in-lbs.

 

Yup, found my T27 and currently have 4 blocks of 2x4 under the bike. See my update above