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Sealing an 84 Shovelhead primary

hogrotten

Junior Member
Looking for any advice or experience of anyone who has sealed a primary case on a shovelhead, I'm working on a 84 lowrider and the guy wants to know if we should seal the primary? If so will I need to change the clutch also?
Thanx in advance,
Hogrotten.
 
The '84 Shovel had a sealed primary. Does this bike have an aftermarket dry clutch and lost oil lubricating system for the primary?
 
They come equipped with either a belt (dry clutch) or a chain (wet clutch). The wet clutch system pumps oil into the primary cover to lubricate the chain and then returns the oil via a return hose at the bottom, rear of the primary to the crank case. What I am interested in knowing is if anyone has converted one to work like the newer style, were as you just add oil to the primary and close it up? I have read a couple of posts online from other forums, but they were just back and forth about the idea didn't seem like anyone had actually done it. :15:
 
Looking for any advice or experience of anyone who has sealed a primary case on a shovelhead, I'm working on a 84 lowrider and the guy wants to know if we should seal the primary? If so will I need to change the clutch also?
Thanx in advance,
Hogrotten.

This is a loaded question, if you are running a wet clutch you can seal it, if it is an older dry clutch then you could face slippage By sealing it you can shut off the oiler on the oil pump
 
On my 1982 FXRS, I removed the original primary case lube system plumbing after about 5000 miles when I saw the condensation and rust during chain adjustment - could not see any reason to feed that stuff into the engine oil. I would fill the case with oil to the bottom of the clutch drum when it was on the side stand with Mobil 1. Never had a problem - sold it in 1997 with 81,000 and it was still going strong. (Wish I still had it.) Never altered the clutch from stock - basically a splash system without submerging the plates.
 
This is a loaded question, if you are running a wet clutch you can seal it, if it is an older dry clutch then you could face slippage By sealing it you can shut off the oiler on the oil pump
Thanx Jack, according to the book there are two types of clutchs 1.Dry clutch(wich is on the belt drive primary models) and 2.Wet clutch for the chain drive primarys.


On my 1982 FXRS, I removed the original primary case lube system plumbing after about 5000 miles when I saw the condensation and rust during chain adjustment - could not see any reason to feed that stuff into the engine oil. I would fill the case with oil to the bottom of the clutch drum when it was on the side stand with Mobil 1. Never had a problem - sold it in 1997 with 81,000 and it was still going strong. (Wish I still had it.) Never altered the clutch from stock - basically a splash system without submerging the plates.

This seems to be the way to go from what I can find, seal up the primary, use the old feeder line for a vent and fill to the bottom of the clutch basket.
 
As of yesterday the project has turned into a full tear down and rebuild. We found the oil leak wich turned out to be the transmission seal, but we also found several other small problems and the owner decided to just pull it al apart and rebuild it. Look for pictures to follow in the Dyna section.

Thanx for all the input.

Hog.
 
A little clarification,

The clutch on an `84 Shovelhead was configured with a lube system that used engine oil which circulated to the primary and was then sucked back to the engine. Although this primary system had oil in it, it was still considered a dry clutch.

The wet clutch system which came out in `85 used an isolated primary which used its own lube, and the clutch was the modern diaphragm spring clutch.
 
My '82 FXR has had the primary lubrication system disconnected and the clutch was replaced with a "wet" type. When I first purchased the bike I wanted to know a bit more about the primary and what had been done to it. If memory serves, this forum and some general internet posts revealed a lot of info on the modification. If I recall on mine, there is and outlet on the oil pump that has to be plugged as well as a drain (return) at the bottom of the primary that needs to be blocked off. From there it's a matter of the clutch discs and adding some oil to the primary.
 
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