#@*!...Primary Cover Blues

A couple of months ago I had an inner primary bearing go tits up on me. The dealership was pretty prompt about getting things set right. I think it was because I made it vocally known that I didn't trust 'em. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and if I was gonna be the bitch in this relationship...then a bitch I will be.

Now I have to give a hand to Tom who has been trying to repair the damaged rep of the local dealership...but some things take time. I believe that he is really giving it his best shot. My faith had been pretty much restored...well, almost.

After the work on the primary inner bearing was complete I notice an oil leak on the underside of the cover. I was told that it was residual. There is only one thing I wanna see residual on...and it ain't my bike.

I kept an eye on it and it started to get worse. After my last trip to Southern California I noticed that my spotting had turned into a full blown 3rd day flow. I did a on the road fluid check and there was enough oil to get back home safely.

Being a good brother WillyD offered to let me use his private shop (garage) to do an inspection. I really didn't want to take it back to the shop just to replace the primary gasket because it is my only means of getting my ass from here to there...yeah, it's pretty much my choice but that's my problem now isn't it. Pay the reg on the car...or the reg on the bike...hmmmmm....that's not a choice in my book.



I hooked up with Wolf at the coffee shop. While we were sitting and talking about random crap, along came some chick who really wanted to sit on his bike. Well, as you can see, he obviously didn't have a problem with it. Then we shot over to WillyD's with a $40 gasket in tote. Let the wrenching begin.



I figured it would take an hour or so. Nope. When we got the primary cover off the bike we found that the mating surface of the cover had blistered. WTF! Take a look.



I guess the weak ass plating and my hard riding had done in the cheap ass chrome work on the cover. I wasn't happy. Has anybody else contracted this BTD? (Biker Transmitted Disease)

To boot, I found some pretty heft chunks taken out of the primary housing cast. Right in the same spots where a bearing puller would have been place...the same bearing puller that the dealership had broken trying to fix my ride.



WillyD and I hopped into his truck, with the primary cover riding bitch and headed off towards the HD shop. Tom, the service dude, said he had never seen this before. (Why am I the only sorry sap who hears this?) He promised to get me a new one free of charge and re-imburse me for the gasket. However, there was only one problem...there was not one in stock. I felt a tear trickle down my grizzled, unshaven cheek as he said this. He must have seen that tear because he returned with a cosmetically damaged cover that came off a wreck they just got in. It had some road grindage on it but it would keep me up for a week or two while the other one was being shipped. Ok...I'm happy again.



OH YEAH! I ordered the matte black instead of the chrome. Looks like I'm gonna murder-out my bike after all. Let the murdering officially start! It might look like a mutt for awhile but eventually I will have everything blacked out on the cheap. (I gotta find some other crap to break now before the warranty expires.)

Tramp is back on the road and I would like to offer thanks and free coffee to WillyD for helping me out on this. (I was gonna do it myself but I knew if I did it at his house he wouldn't be able to help himself and would wind up doing all the work himself....plus he doesn't trust me with tools. I guess he has a point...I sorta ape handle things.)

By the way, it was WillyD's Birthday November 3rd. Happy Late Birthday Brother! I owe you a good steak dinner...or chinese. Take your pick.