main drive gear

[nascar7613]

The bike is a 03 softail. I pulled the primary cover off and noticed the main drive sprocket is contacting the transmission case cutting a groove in it. I pulled the sprocket off, the spacer is installed properly and everything looks fine. Would anyone have any idea why the sproket would be scraping the case?

 

[Dan89FLSTC]

There are two different spacers available, the early 5 speeds came with a narrower front pulley and a .850" wide spacer. HD upgraded the front pulleys and made them wider, with a spacer .600" wide. The surface the belt rides on is the same width on both style pulleys, the center part is the area that changed in thickness. If you have a .600" spacer with the narrow pulley it would run too close to the case.

 

[nascar7613]

Thanks for the reply. I went ahead and removed the gearset form the trans and found that the needle bearings in the main drive gear were destroyed. There is a lot of metal shavings in the oil. The main shaft is grooved where the bearings run, and the inside of the main drive gear is damaged. I wonder if I replace the shaft, main gear and all the bearings and seals, and of course clean the case and the other hard parts if the trans would be ok. The gears and countershaft all appear to be fine.

 

[Dan89FLSTC]

What caused the pulley to run against the transmission? Is the ball bearing in the left side of the case shot also? Even if the needle bearings in the main drive gear are gone, the gear running position is controlled by the ball bearing. Not that it matters now since you are replacing all the bearings. Good call digging deeper into it.