Over 102,000 miles on my '85 4-speed and it's never been opened up. I use the cheapest gear oil I can find in it. The seal between the input and output shafts has been leaking for close to 50k miles and I just use it to lubricate my chain. I check the tranny oil level every 1000 miles and change it out every 5000 miles.

 

Can anyone "define" beating a bike tranny? I do leave kinda hard sometimes, have chirped it once or twice, and poped the wheel off the ground shifting from 1st to second once, right after I built the carb, new exhaust, intake, and hypercharger. (had to test for power increase) these are the only times ever tho, my bike is a 96 FXDWG, bought by me last year, from a little old man, with fourty two hundred orig. miles. it now has almost 13k and I have changed all oils before schedule with good synthetics, blend in the primary. My bike does occasionally have a "false neutral" both up and down, usually when im riding mellow, and I have thought I was too gentle, but it do it a ride or two ago when I was kinda on it, but no where near racing aggressive. it also does the clunk into 1st, and the 4th gear whine, but as I understand it, these are fairly common for harleys in general. I am thankfull it isn't noisey like my buddys 6 speed, it sounds like a bucket of bolts in a dryer! my questions are.... Is a fasle neutral a "harley thing"? and if not, what causes this? also, has the above mentioned aggressivness caused possibe damage, or are these bikes built for a little of that? like a performance car, they build things stronger, because they are driven aggressively, and the engineers know it. thanks all, I am a almost daily reader, rare poster.

 

I would define abuse as constantly shifting at max power an dumping the clutch... Just what you would think is rough...

As for your problems, I believe you need to adjust your shift linkage. Check your shop manual. I saw a troubleshooting chart in mine that I seem to remember seeing the false neutral description... My '94 WG will only do it if I dont pull all the way into the next gear, it will stay between shifts..

The best thing I did for my tranny was to put some Ford synthetic gear lube, that I had laying around, into it.. I'm pretty sure its the 75w140. I didnt have a problem before, but it was a rougher, noisier shift before (when I had the Harley fluid in it).. Now, its smooth and quiet..

 

That particular '78 FL was the best Shovel HD produced, IMNSHO. My Dad bought it new in Dec '77 for $3945, put only 900 miles on it until 1981. He was 5'7" and weighed 110 soaking wet, and preferred riding his '73 XLH. He did swap the Keihin butterfly carb with a take-off Bendix I found for him. I got the bike from him in early '81 with the 900 miles on it. Tweaked the carb, loaded up, and hit the road until October, rolling back into Dad's with about 40,000 miles on it. Did nothing except change engine oil every 2500 miles. Some oil was HD 50 or 60 weight, but most times it was Castrol 20w-50. Primary oil was changed at about 5,000 intervals and was the old Ford ATF. Tranny oil was not changed until I got back home, then drained, flushed, refilled with whatever went into the engine. Bike had no, nada, none, zip, oil leaks except when it was time to replace the worn out countershaft sprocket, usually every two drive chains which happened about once every year. It also never broke down, except once when I pinched the battery vent and ruined the battery, and once when the aftermarket primary belt broke because I failed to vent the primary to help with heat dissipation.

At about 125,000 miles I pulled the top end apart, had the cylinders bored +0.10, installed low compression pistons, rings, valve job. Ran it until a bit past 200,000 miles, pulled it down to fix swingarm bolt hole in frame, and pulled top end off again. Bottom end was now in need of a rebuild. I had the bike in boxes, built a house, got laid off, and sold the bike to keep from losing the house. Got $3,000 for a completely stripped down bike, in need of a complete engine o'haul, and frame repair. Bike probably had close to 210,000 miles on it and was 20+ years old. Would've had a lot more miles on it but I was in the Navy for most of the time I had it.

Tranny was never taken apart, and last I heard still hasn't been.

Best bike I've ever owned, and wish I could get it back.