I noticed after about 150 miles of riding today, my primary had started making a whirring sound. It may've been doing it before, but it's definitely more pronounced now. I can hear it over the straight pipes. The clutch also seems to be grabbing much further out, and in the 300+miles I rode this weekend, I barely used it.I'm thinking/hoping changing the primary oil and adjusting the clutch a little may solve this. I just bought the bike last week anyway, supposedly with all new fluids, but maybe it'd be best to play it safe and go ahead and change the crankcase & gearbox oil too. The gearbox is pretty loud when shifting too, all though butter smooth and neutral is very easy to find. So my questions are...

Are HD primaries typically noisy? Mine was very quiet at first, and the clutch was much better.

Do I need any gaskets or anything extra for this?

Is there a clutch adjustment procedure anywhere on this site I can be linked to?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

Check to see if you have a Primary Chain Tensioner installed. I have one and it tneds to whine every now and then. Your clutch probably needs to be adjusted. Check with your local H-D service people, they can tell you.
Good luck

 

I changed all the fluids this evening. The primary chain was sloppy loose - like 1"play, and the oil in the primary was filthy and gritty. I adjusted the clutch and put about 20 oz of Valvoline 20W-50 oil and 12 oz of type F ATF. It's very quiet now, and the clutch is 100% better and much smoother. I changed the engine oil twice because it was so filthy, once without a new filter and the second time after a warmup and short 4 mile ride, with a new filter. Put in some Mobil1 15W-50 - couldn't find the vtwin 20-50 stuff anywhere. When I drained the tranny, the dope looked new, but I went ahead and filled it with Mobil1 75w-90.

After a quick cold 30 mile test ride, the primary is very quiet now, the clutch is awesome, the shifting is still butter smooth but almost silent now, rather than clunky sounding, and the engine idles smoother, and quite noticably so. Some new spark plugs tomorrow evening and I should be able to concentrate on modifications instead of maintenance for a while.