I did the same with a Dremel and it was easy peasy.

 

It does thin it but even thinned it becomes the same thickness as the rest of the housing.

 

OK, cool. I think I'm going to give it a try. I'll post back when I'm done.

 

the oil tank does not have to come off to remind be the primary. Getting the starter out with the oil tank on is a tight affair, but you don’t even have to: you can just leave the starter sitting on the transmission until you put the inner primary back on.

best, niv

 

Niv, from in order to get he inner primary case off, I need to un bolt the starter from the back of the inner primary ( two bolts) the rear bolt is not accessible due to the oil tank. I would have to get the oil tank out of the way to get to that bolt.

 

I have not worked on your year softail, so it may be different in some way..... But it IS possible to get to those two bolts with a long extension and swivel socket on most softails. You can then just pull the starter back a little, and leave it resting there, while you remove the inner primary cover.... I would disconnect the battery before doing this...

It has been discussed on this forum, several people have done it, and I believe there was even a thread with pictures... If you get curious, you can do a search and probably find one or more of those threads discussing how it CAN be done...

However, I have not read about any complications from grinding the lip of the inner primary instead of removing the inner primary... You should be good to go with your plan...

 

as @hattitude describes so well, you’ll need some long and skinny tools. And I would not have claimed so had I not done it myself…

 

Thanks man, I'll take another look around the forum on removing the inner primary. Maybe I'm missing something . Thanks for the suggestions, I do appreciate your ( and everyone's) help!