A friend of mine just picked up a very nice 09 Heritage with about 16k miles on it. He decided to give it a service before its covered up for winter and found that in the primary case there was about 2 quarts of oil. He is now worried that all that oil might have done some damage. There was no metal shavings on plug and the oil didn't look old and without taking the cover off it look good inside and the chain tensioner looked fine. Its it possible to have any damage with that much oil inside primary case.

 

Won't hurt it any. Just tends to make first gear engagement at startup makes more of a bang since all that oil makes the clutch work like a torque converter and spin transmission input more. (it always spins some in neutral or when clutch is pulled or it won't shift)

What happened was someone filled it up to the lip of derby cover. Exactly an extra qt or so. Primary is a real pain to see level. My son did it to mine once. I did not even notice it till later when I noticed I was a qt short of oil. Back when I ran SIN3 in it.

Proper level or that second amount Harley list is fine. I made a little L shaped dip stick I stick in there and spin. I also just use 28oz for mine. Just non-detergent straight W gear oil since there is no filter. Really only one oil out there that meets that year-round average use. You want that PM me. I probably already started an oil thread with this.

 

With bike standing vertical, this is the proper primary lube level, all big twins with wet clutch (mid `84 and later).

 

Thanks for the info guys