TECH T PS
FROM THE
PROS: WITH DANNY WILSON
86 HOTBIKE.COM
DIY MILWAUKEEEIGHT FIRSTSERVICE TIPS WORDS: DANNY WILSON PHOTOS: BRIAN HEIDEN EDITOR’S NOTE: For 25 years, Danny Wilson has been a master-certified Harley-Davidson technician, five of which he spent training overseas technicians how to be better technicians. Danny is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to Harley-Davidson functionality and has some great tips when servicing your motorcycle yourself, or at the very least, how to ensure the work your local dealer performed is up to snuff.
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elcome back to the first print issue of Hot Bike magazine. To celebrate that historic occasion, our first tech article is going to walk you through how to perform the first service on your Harley-Davidson big twin—more importantly, your Milwaukee-Eight Harley. Or M8 to most of you. Before we get into the details of what to do, let’s talk about the importance of making sure the scheduled maintenance is performed on time and correctly. Oftentimes people will go to their local dealership or reputable shop and are shocked at the pricing. Then that shock is usually followed up with, “why is an oil change so expensive?” Here’s the thing, when done correctly it’s not just an oil and filter change. The engineers that designed and tested your bike found that after countless hours and multiple miles of testing the points at which things needed to be changed out and checked. If all you do is change your oil and filter your engine might do just fine, but that leaves your transmission, primary, forks, and hydraulic fluids at risk, which could lead to the worst case scenario: a hard part failure. Not to mention things coming loose and shit falling off your motorcycle…Well, there’s always that too. The first scheduled maintenance interval for your Harley-Davidson Milwaukee-Eight is recommended at 1,000 miles. After that, the services pick up at 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 and 20,000 (I think you get the idea). Some services are more involved than others, and not all three drivetrain fluids are changed at every service. On my personal motorcycles, I change all three fluids every 5,000 miles. I also recommend this to my customers that come in to have me or anyone at my shop perform the work. From a mechanical standpoint, the primary fluid is lubricating the primary chain, the compensator assembly, and the clutch. It is an oil bath, so it does not circulate. The clutch is a series of friction and steel plates stacked in a specific order. As the clutch deteriorates from normal use, that friction material winds up in the primary fluid. It is essentially an abrasive that accelerates wear on the metal parts in the primary. You get a similar situation in the transmission too. The Harley-Davidson 6-speed transmission is a constant mesh gear stack, consisting of a main shaft and a counter shaft with all of the gears. These shafts are supported on either end with bearings. As the metal gears cycle at high-speeds on each other there is always an aspect of wear involved. This constant friction also creates heat. Heat and friction break down any lubricant over time. Just like the primary fluid, the transmission is an oil bath so it is not circulating or filtered in any way. Worn out transmission fluid with debris in it will accelerate the
