Please bear with with me as I am fairly new to Harleys but I just replaced my clutch plates with the extra plate kit from Barnett and now I have a leak at what seems to be near the drain plug. I've been doing some reading and I've heard that the culprit seems to be the inner primary seal, is that right? I never before had a leak issue with the primary till I changed the clutch plates. I followed what I thought was the torque spec and sequence for my cover but might be incorrect (sounds weird because its not sequentially higher) as the manual only shows numbers 1, 2, and 3 multiple times. I did use a new James gasket for primary and derby cover. Any suggestions to check on?

Forgot to add that I have a '01 xl1200c

 

It's not a failed O-ring around the drain plug by any chance? Mine used to drip until I changed the O-ring. They tend to get forgotten when the primary oil is changed.

 

Clean oil is harder to track, until it hit the floor.
Wipe the primary good and clean, should leave a trail from the leak and south.
Could put post it notes near suspected areas such as drain plug and primary cover.

 

If it's coming from the drain plug, that's your culprit. When you put the drain plug back in you have to clean the surface area of the plug and the hole. If there's any gunk when you put the plug back in, it won't seal well.

Before you drain it, clean the area real good. Then wait and see where it bleeds from.

 

The drain plug is the lowest point on the case, and a leak anywhere on the primary will drip from there. As said before, clean everything around the case, start it up and let it run for a while. After it cools off, time to leak, go over it again. Inner leaks are a pain in the ***!!

 

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I was looking for a some other drain plug gasket not realizing there was an o ring on the drain plug itself. I'll give that a once over and report back with an answer.

 

I was thinking of using a uv dye in the primary oil (one that's compatible of course) and get a black light to trace the leak.

 

Not aware of a UV dye. Here's the trick some old dudes taught me...

Clean area, dust with baby powder, get it to leak. The baby power will "gum up" in a trail and show you the leak.

 

The powder trick sounds good! I've actually used uv dye to find oil pan leaks as well as ac leaks and it works great.

 

Those O-rings on the drain plug should be replaced every time you remove the plug. They get tend to get chewed up when you tighten the plug.
I also recommend coating the plug threads with Teflon pipe dope (not Teflon tape) before reinstalling.