Hi, drained my trani and without closely checking it appeared around one quart drained out.
Went to put new oil in and when I pulled out the trani dip stick , it showed full. I then waited another hour to see if that reading would fall down, it was about 35 degrees in garage so thought maybe was too thick to drain out of the area near the dip stick (doesn't make sense, but ....). Checked it couple more times, still says full. And yes, I had already drained and refilled the other two oils: engine oil and primary oil, so no confusion
as to what I was draining. This scenario baffles me, I've been draining car and bike oils for years, never an issue like this. I even put a 500 watt light under the trans for a couple hours to heat it up, same story. any ideas?? like maybe blow compressed air into the filler, with drain plug out?? THANKS !! Steve

 

Are you 100% + sure you drained the transmission? We're all human and make mistakes.

There was a poster here awhile back who's bike died as he was making a right hand turn. He couldn't get it to restart and ended up pushing it about 1/2 mile home.

Hooked up a battery charger, checked all his connections, and was still bewildered when he posted here.

One member suggested he check his kill switch and guess what? He'd hit it instead of his right turn signal switch.

Pics and directions in the below link:

http://www.dudeworld.com.au/HOWTO.GEARBOX.HTML

 

What year Softail? Can you take a picture of the plug you removed?

 

Maybe an airlock?. Did you have the dipstick out while the tranny was draining. Other thing is are you checking the oil with the dip stick screwed in or just setting on the fill ledge as the manual says.. Other than that, no clue. Drained mine in the cold just a couple weeks ago and had no problems. Took about about a qt to bring it up to full.

 

If you drained your engine oil and changed it properly, you filled the tank. You drained the engine case, by mistake.
Did you Drain the tranny between the shocks? There is a plug in the bottom of the engine case.
If the tranny is full, start the bike and check your oil, bet it is a quart low, once you have ran it.

 

I agree with tlb. I believe you pulled the crankcase plug on the bottom of the engine instead of the tranny. You really should never have to drain the engine from here on a softtail, just the tank.

 

I thought of that but didn't want to insult his intelligence especially after he said he was an experienced bike wrencher. But after reading his other post where he said his tranny plug had a torx head and didn't use a rubber oring, I'm beginning to think you might be right.

Sounds like the previous owner had stripped out the casting bolt and the dealer replaced it with a torx. Curious to see how it turns out.

 

You make not think so but I think you may be confused? The oil is the drain that you unscrew that is in the frame cross member and it come from the oil tank or reservoir. If you look right above the cross member you will see the hose from it that goes on up to the tank. Although there are some plugs in the bottom of the engine crank case they are not meant to drain oil. The only place you drain and put engine oil is tank. The transmission drain is behind engine up between shocks. I use a cut off section of cardboard tube from a paper towel stuck up in there. Reach through it with my allen wrench to drain oil. Did your primary have an o-ring on the plug? The transmission and the engine have an o-ring ms fitting plug? The oil you drained last came out of engine and untill you start it the oil tank will not show the loss. What's strange to me is I would not have thought there would be a quart of trapped oil in the sump. However when I checked my cam tensioners there was 1/2 a quart trapped in there.

 

someone had to say it.

 

Hi, my thanks to all of you as your help is right on. Although I looked very hard for any other drain plug, I screwed up and missed it up there between the shocks. Only goes to show you that after 50 years of dealing with various engines, I can still mistake a sump drain plug for the trani plug. I even looked at the manual where it illustrates the trani drain plug but it NOT illustrate, or note it , as related to the shocks. WHen I had an extra O ring left from the 3 O ring set that comes also with the derby cover gasket, I should have known to look further.
It is also interesting that nowhere in the manual does it suggest that the sump oil be drained periodically. Well, I've drained it.....LOL and will top off the oil resevoir as need be after I start it in Spring (too cold up here near Boston to even want to mess with it further!!).
Tnx again. If this other info helps, and you are not already aware: at least for my '07 STC, in '08 there was confusion at dealers regarding the derby cover gasket. Some said (correct) that Harley put out that the new part # for it included a totally different configuration and material for the derby cover gasket. The original gasket for my bike was a neoprene, reddish colored "band type" of gasket. The updated one they tried to give ma at two dealers was made out of a flat, black, rough gasket material. In looking at it vs. the derby cover and in relation to the original type gasket, the newer one would obviously fit, but I did not like the mechanical integrity that, IMHO only, was not as good as the original neoprene type. Finally I got a dealer who said they still had the neop. type kit, and I have gotten that each year for the last three years. It is part # 17369-06 which I keep for ref. in case I run into another dealer that , per his Harley guideline (if not changed by now), thinks that
the other type is what has to be. I'm not saying that the other one would leak, it's just the confusion, and my judgement as to that other one, that concerns me. Sorry, i don't know the part # of the other gasket.
Thanks again, Steve