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Transmission Whine/Tranny fluid leaking from primary seal

mjb582003

Member
Hey Everyone, I was out riding about 50 miles from home when bike started making loud noise like a bearing going. It was real loud by the time I got it home. Shut it off and when I come out to check what went wrong, I see a puddle of tranny fluid (I use a red fluid) on the floor. I track it down as leaking from the Mainshaft seal on the primary chaincase. I pulled the Primary apart and all indications point to the seal on the primary leaking, but I cant figure out how the tranny fluid is leaking from that seal. I also found the splines on the clutch hub were all ground up, unusable (mainshaft splines are ok) and the bearing was gone. I replaced the clutch, shaft bearing and seal, put it back together. Tranny still has a loud whine only when the clutch is out. If I pull the clutch in the whine goes away. Put it in gear, no whine. let out the clutch and it whines. Hour later a big puddle of tranny fluid on the floor leaking from the primary. And no, the transmission is not overfilled.
I am guessing the whine must be a bearing gone in the tranny itself but the fluid still baffles me. Anyone have any thoughts?
Thanks , Mike
 
Did you check the inner primary bearing race for wear or movement? Should have replaced all the seals, i.e., the main shaft/5th gear seal, quad seal and spacer, shift shaft seal, inner primary bearing and seal. Maybe I misunderstand but I don't see the mystery regarding trans fluid leaking from the big main shaft/bearing seal; the seal in the attached photo. What else could leak past that seal?:confused:

Does that model have the auto primary chain tensioner?
 

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dolt; it has the auto tensioner for primary. '07 and later have it plus it is a 6 speed.
When you replaced the large seal dolt is referring to did you look at the large bearing behind the seal. A friend's '07 also developed the leak like your due to the large double row bearing going bad. When we looked at it you could see pitting on the balls in the bearing. You have to pull the tranny casset out of the case to replace that bearing. Special tools needed. The tranny housing can stay in the frame. dolt is correct in what he is saying about other seals and inner race.
tourbox
 
The auto tensioner is often times the reason the IPB/race goes bad; it over tightens and puts excessive load on the bearing and race. A common repair is to replace the auto tensioner with a manual adjuster or install the auto tensioner, adjust to the correct tension, remove tensioner, weld and replace. Once adjusted, unless the chain is new, a manually adjusted primary chain will does not need checking very often. I put 25K miles on my softail and never checked primary chain tension after an adjustment at 1K miles. Next time I saw the chain was at 25K miles when I pulled the primary to install a Baker DD6 and it did not need adjusting then.;)
 
Thanks for the comments dolt and tourbox. I will replace inner primary race and have a look at the bearings in the tranny.
 
Thanks for the comments dolt and tourbox. I will replace inner primary race and have a look at the bearings in the tranny.
Hello, l hope all went well. All the replies are absolutely correct. I had a bad experience as well, I ended up replacing all the transmission bearings, main shaft along with 6th gear. It seems as though the primary chain tensioner is the culprit. If that main seal is leaking, there's a good chance that the bearing behind it is now faulty. I'm about a month behind. I hope you are able to repair it yourself.
 
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