I just changed the transmission oil in my 03 Road King and found metal particles in oil and on drain plug. The pieces of metal on the plug were pretty decent sized slivers. The bike has 10,000 miles on it and shifts fine. Is this typical wear or should I suspect major problems?

 

Is this the first time it has had to oil changed?

 

What trans oil are you using when you found the metal? Hope you don't say Syn 3!

 

I hope you're not using any Engine Oil whatsoever in the transmission. If you do.....I would change it again.

Really should have a gear oil rated GL5 in the transmission. Change it at least once a year reguardless of mileage.

A little bit of shavings is ok.......and I would consider normal wear.

Just have gear oil in there and continue to check it on a normal basis.

 

This is the third oil change and I have been using HD trans fluid every time. A couple of theshavings were about 3/8 of an inch long and pretty flat and stuck to the magnetic drain plug the rest were suspended in the oil and about the size of a grain of sand and shiny. I changed the oil out and have not ridden since. I am afraid of more damage if ride it !But the thing shifts perfect, which confuses me some.

 

3/8", hell those are teethI'd say something breaking down for sure.
Ron

 

3/8......definately a problem. Are you positive it is 3/8 though?

 

3/8 × what × what?

Also, it might be a good idea to pull the speedo pickup and make sure there's not a bunch of metal stuck to it. I'm thinking it's got some magnetic properties...

 

I flushed the tranny out with keroseen ,by filling it to the top ,slushing it around in there ,then dumping it into a clean drain pan. I had to do this about five times until there was no metal coming out into the pan. The bulk of what came out was very fine in size, but a few peices were flat slivers about 1/8 inch long.Nothing looked liked a gear tooth. So how much metal is normal? Like I said it has always shifted fine. I dont race it and have never jambed it into gear. I plan on refilling it with trans oil again and running around a bit and dumping it to see if it stays clean .Is this a good idea or not?

 

Sounds good to me. If you still have metal again, especially slivers you should consider pulling the tranny and finding the source before it trashes any more components from debri. Normal amount variesbut you should not have more than 1-2 (1/8") and maybe 5 small flakes as a max. Dust only onthe plug is optimum.Slivers are not unusual fornew partsas there are burs, machining marks and general rough edges that need to polish themselves up with it's matingcomponents. These partsshould be well aquainted with each other by 1000 miles or less if all is in order.Sound like poorheat treatment on one or more components. Generally if a part is hardend the best you get is small flakes, normally black dust. A 3/8" long sliver is gigantic, in a case where 1/16-1/8" would be as big as you'd want to see. Shifting generally has no bearing on the condition of the tranny, at least in the early stages. Hope your next sample is fine and you don't have to go through all that nonsense.
Ron