OK, so here's my story and I hope this won't turn into another oil war. Last fall I changed all the oils in preparation for the long winter ahead (I like to have clean fluids when it will sit for extended periods) I drained out all the syn3 (The warranty had just ran out) and I put M1 15-50 in the engine as I could not find the M1 v-twin 20-50, M1 syn ATF in the primary as I had read all the benefits of ATF in there on another site prior to finding this one and M1 75-140 gear in the tranny. I got to put around 500 - 600 miles on her before she went into hibernation for the winter. Yesterday I decided to change them all again to be fresh for the season ahead and I was a bit concerned about the oils I had previously put in. This spring I have probably only put on around 100 miles so far so the fluids had less than 1000 miles on them. Here's what I found. The M1 15-50 was black as tar and appeared to have a silvery sheen to it. That's pretty scary! The filter did not seem to have an excessive amount of crud in it so maybe I'm just being paranoid but it looked like oil that had not been changed for 15,000 miles. Now here is the really scary part. The ATF in the primary had metal filings and yellow plastic bits in it. So I pulled the primary outer case off to have a look. The sprockets are showing significant wear and the adjuster shoe is worn about 1/3 the way through. I only have 12,000 miles on the bike so that seems significant to me, I know there was nothing out of the ordinary in any of the oils I drained last fall. I guess what I'm saying is ATF is not good for your chain case regardless what some of the "experts" on the other site say. Here I learned it might be bad and you all were right! Thank you!!! I hope I caught this one in time but that remains to be seen. I'll drain them again after about 600-700 miles and have a look. Oh yea, Yesterday I put in M1 v-twin 20-50 and in the primary I had planned to put in atf but that plan changed so it got the only other oil I had that might work, its Valvoline 20-50 blend but she'll get HD Chain case oil on the next change.
Just wanted to share this to help warn others that IMHO, ATF in your primary is a bad idea.
Ride safe!
Steve
Just wanted to share this to help warn others that IMHO, ATF in your primary is a bad idea.
Ride safe!
Steve