It's not just Harley-Davidson shops. I've had problems like that with GM, Ford, Mopar, John Deere, Case IH, and even........................ Yahama. Everyone makes mistakes once in awhile. I even made one, but it was a long, long time ago.

 

Main reason why I try to do everything my self and if I dont know how I figure it out as I know first hand that no kid out of tech school is going to practice on my ****.

 

I'm always p.o. if I pay someone to do a job and it's not right. I doubt it was pipe dope, probably Never Seize. But they did want to make it right and that's what you have to look for when doing business. It's not a perfect world. When buisness screws up at least make it right. I would have trusted them to make it right. If you don't do business with anyone that makes a mistake, you will run out of places to go real quick............especially these days.

 

at least u have proof they actually changed the oil

 

I think thats a little picky.

I'm not saying your wrong I'm sure in theory your absolutely right.

I've always put a little oil on a gasket and some sort of lube on o-rings. On a plug or in a seal.

I'm also not saying you should dip the thing in sealent but a little blue stuff on the thread isn't (IMO) going to hurt.
I've been doing it for 30yrs and it hasn't hurt yet. Of course I mayjust be increadibly lucky.

 

I have had scratches, fogged/flooded spedometer, they even swapped by fule guage to someone else bike and gave me one all scratched up because they did not have on in stock to replace on the other.
Need I say for now I doo everything I can on my own, and even went 30 miles out of my way to another dealer for my new bike, service parts, and other Harley BS i want or need.

I just ride by the old dealer, I just act like it's not even there.

As for your own service, I just feel more a part of the machine by wrenching on it myself, at least I know if some is screwed up I can only blame myself.

Ride On

 

I don't want to come off as overly sensitive or **** but I thought the subject was thread dope (or tape) on drain plugs and not loctite or pre-lubing o-rings and seals (which goes without saying). I have 30+ years of professional experience in mechanics, pneumatics, hydraulics and fabrication. What I wrote is more than theory - it's common practice for every mechanic I've ever been associated with. HD (and HD only) marches to the beat of a different drummer in this regard. That's why you find pipe dope and torn o-rings on your drain plugs after a dealer service.
Do it any way you want to - it's your bike, knock yourself out. I was just trying to lend some direct experience to the post.

 

Leftcoaster is not being picky, he's telling you straight up about installing gaskets and 0-rings. It's standard practice to lube an o-ring on a drain plug or oil filter gasket. anything else is not helping and could interfere with the function of the o-ring. It's also important to torque your drain plugs and bolts to the right specs.

I know exactly what happened to the OP's drain plug. The HD tech put a lot of teflon on the threads and when he tightened the plug, the teflon rolled up the threads and pushed the o-ring out of place.

 

I have service manuals for everything i own. I service and repair all my equipment and toys. I was very hesitant to take the bike in for the 1000 mile but thought i would cover my *** in case of a warranty issue. The o-ring squished out caught my attention and i look at it as someone that worked on my bike either didn't give a **** or was not paying attention enough to rip the hanging o-ring off so the customer wouldn't see it. I'm sure they have some very good mechanics at the dealership but i guess it's just a crap shoot who works on your bike. I got what i deserved i guess as i almost didn't allow it to go in for service. The steering neck does not look as though a grease gun was on it and unless they pump it full of grease a small amount would never get to the bearings anyhow. My new Windvest windshield is scuffed up nicely from someone trying to scrub the bugs off it when they washed it and i need to wash the spray lube off the denim paint where they sprayed the saddle bag hinges,latches and gas cap hinge and latch. Kind of put it away for the weekend so i can cool down before i look much further. I would never take the bike back to another service and feel for some that have to. I think i would burn it and put an insurance claim in before i brought it in for a warranty issue. While i was waiting for them to bring my bike out of the service department when i went to pick it up i can't get the service tech or or whatever he was out of my mind he kept telling me that " You ought to let me build you a motor 103 110 " You need to have me put that on the Dyno i can get you 15 more horsepower. Sure!

 

I dug the white thread sealant out of the little chamfer and the o-ring goes in there and stays in good enough shape to use more than once if you had to. I coated it with some oil but you will have enough in that area to help it slide in after an oil change anyhow. The service manager wanted to argue that the pipe sealant was to soft to push the o-ring out and did'nt want to hear that the o'ring was to seal the plug and thread sealant is used for tapered pipe plugs and stop thread gauling. Your draining oil out the plug isn't that enough lube when you put the plug back?