12limited: How did the dealer determine that your main drive gear was bad?

Fill your primary to this level, bike standing straight up.

 

are there alternate source bearings aka Timken or?

 

The dealer service would not really say...just said I got a main drive going out. Said they had it up on the rack and noticed it was going out...

This is a dealer I do not usually visit but I needed a rear tire real bad, so I took the bike there. This place is local and my closest dealer with only 43 miles away. I usually deal with a dealer in Tenn...4 hour ride away.

These guys went right into scheduling me to replace it...I told them I would get back with them later get this done.
They had just stiffed me for $554.xx to install a new rear tire and put brake pads on the rear. I needed a cigarette as I felt like I had just got FUXXED

The next day I called them 3 times to talk to them about how and what gives them an indication that I had a problem...
1 - service would not pick up the phone, so they asked me to leave my name and service would call me back. I did - 3 times
2. Service never called me back until the next day. Then I was so pissed I did not take their call.

I already have a history with these jackasses.
I was about to buy a new bike...I went to this dealer about 10 am...looked at the limited bikes...and street glides. Went a found a sales person and ask him about the seat height of both bikes as I was not sure which i wanted. He told me he would be with me in a few minutes. 20 minutes later, I was pissed and left.
Next day, I went there about 3 PM...rolled a street glide and a limited out of the row of bikes into the middle of the floor...measured the seat height on both of them...sat on them both...I layed down on the floor to measure ground clearance of both bikes. Did not see anyone in the show room. Finally I pushed them back in line and left, I was there about an hour.

The next day I called right after they opened...asked to speak to sales...got this jerk on the phone...told him to give me a price on that Black limited they had on the floor...I wanted it itemized out...shipping, tax, dealer prep...all that listed out. "Yes Sir, I will call you call you right back" All day waiting...they never called back.
The next morning, I drove to Tenn and bought a new bike. The jackass called 5 PM the next day and was $2000 higher than the Tenn Dealer.

These punks gave me the impression they would do me a favor and take my money for a Harley Davidson motorcycle... If I did not agree to their prices...no problem, some other poor SOB will pay what ever they ask to get the prized HD motorcycle they have to offer.

sorry...just got on a rant...done now.

 

Ummm
How much oil does it take to fill it this this level you indicate above? I cannot see in the primary cover to see how much it in there... Service manual says 38oz...I measure out 38 oz and dump it in.

 

You can`t see the clutch with the derby cover off?

 

Dump in 38 oz as long as you have it all well drained with bike level and then held up off stand if you are doing it that way. It actually hard to peer in there to see it. I made a little dip stick with a 90 degree bent wire. +/- 4 or 5 oz truly will not matter. This is more what you will probably see with a small led flashlight and your eyes are good. My bike only takes 26 oz to get it to the bottom of spring. Think your 38 oz will actually get it to the other or top of spring in my picture. Think Harley did this to add a little more protection to the compensator bearings without causing adverse oil windage with the clutch disks are apart (clutch pulled in). I would not worry about the maindrive bearing unless you can hear it. I believe the Harley dealer was trying to take advantage of you. Any Harley with 40K taken apart will show some bearing damage due to metal chips in the primary and transmission that they can show you. However, if the cage breaks, it needs fixed and maybe that is what an expert hears. Until the ***** really get damaged, it probably will not make a lot of noise. Interesting to me is does the bearing fail and break the retainer/spacer or does the cage just brake and cause the bearing to fail. See a lot of non metal bearing retainers that held up well over the years.

 

I can see the outside of the clutch...not the bottom to determine where the oil rides on the assembly