5-speed Harley over 30 years old, leaking transmission main drive gear seal. Replacing the seal means the better part of a day on the lift, and you can change these seals and have them leak again the next day. And if we're going to pull the primary drive now we're halfway to the swingarm, and this particular bike has a pretty good size hole in the final drive belt and a few small ones, it's going to need a belt one of these days.
The older 5-speeds used clevebloc bushings rather than swingarm bearings. It's good practice to replace these with spherical bearings if you're already in there, special tools help, and usually you end up cutting the swingarm shaft out on a bike this old.
So going after this oil leak is going to be somewhere around $500 and a couple of days of shop time if things go well.
The leak got bad enough such that most of the transmission oil was gone in a hundred miles or so. Or overnight, whichever happened first.
I've always been suspicious of these "repair in a bottle" sorts of products but in this case I don't think there was much to lose, so yesterday I put 3 ounces of Bar'sLeaks Super Fix (why the apostrophe I don't know) in the transmission and a pint of SAE50 VR-1, overfilling the transmission slightly in the process. It normally holds 24 ounces of oil and there was a little more left than I expected.
I then burned a bout half a tank of gas and parked the bike. Let it cool and went for a short ride. Parked overnight over a drip pan and a relatively clean rag, so far no sign whatsoever of transmission leakage.
Time will tell, but tentatively it looks like this stuff might have worked.
The older 5-speeds used clevebloc bushings rather than swingarm bearings. It's good practice to replace these with spherical bearings if you're already in there, special tools help, and usually you end up cutting the swingarm shaft out on a bike this old.
So going after this oil leak is going to be somewhere around $500 and a couple of days of shop time if things go well.
The leak got bad enough such that most of the transmission oil was gone in a hundred miles or so. Or overnight, whichever happened first.
I've always been suspicious of these "repair in a bottle" sorts of products but in this case I don't think there was much to lose, so yesterday I put 3 ounces of Bar'sLeaks Super Fix (why the apostrophe I don't know) in the transmission and a pint of SAE50 VR-1, overfilling the transmission slightly in the process. It normally holds 24 ounces of oil and there was a little more left than I expected.
Super Leak Fix (p/n 1305) - One of Our Most Advanced (and Convenient) Products Ever -
In the past, when it came to using chemical repair tools to fix a leak, you’d need multiple products if you had multiple leaks – one for an oil leak, and, say, another for a minor transmission fluid leak. It’s different now. Chemical engineering has gotten to the point where a single formula can...
barsleaks.com
I then burned a bout half a tank of gas and parked the bike. Let it cool and went for a short ride. Parked overnight over a drip pan and a relatively clean rag, so far no sign whatsoever of transmission leakage.
Time will tell, but tentatively it looks like this stuff might have worked.
