Water in transmission

[Mavagrand]

You said bike was a repo. Possible the PO sabotaged the bike.

 

[NEWHD74FAN]

Hi there, all, I have a question for the gurus.

I went to change the oil, filter, spark plugs, and tranny/primary fluid in my 2008 Sportster 883. This bike is a repo, so it's history is unknown until it came into my possession. A little over 6k miles on it. And it's from Texas (I live in Michigan).


Everything went well (that oil filter was quite difficult to remove, but I got it!), until I took out the drain bolt for the tranny/primary. What came out can only be described as a beautiful, silver-colored sludge. Completely silver colored. The tip of the drain bolt had a very small amount of debris on it, nothing too bad.

I made sure this thing drained very well (I took it on a 15 minute ride before I drained it to warm it up and mix things up), and then I cleaned all of the foamy-white (EDIT) off of everything I could see (the clutch adjustment bolt, derby cover, drain plug). I then proceeded to put some Spectro Heavy Duty Primary Chaincase Oil in, which is a nice transparent color.

The bike rides about the same, but shifts sooo much smoother.

My question is: How would water get into the transmission/primary? It would seem a fair amount was in there, as ALL of the oil that drained out was a consisten silver color.

Secondly, could I experience some long term damage from this aqueous exposure? Short term? Is this slightly normal? The bike did get a fair amount of condensation on it over the winter storage, enough so that water was dripping off of it.

Thank you guys very much!

Doug

Please read and understand the info in this link...

A Friendly Reminder - Harley Davidson Community

Be careful, the bike could have been a Katrina or a more current victim of flooding. May want to check things out v-e-r-y throughly if you have no disposition history...just thinking out loud.

 

[W1ld Card]

Well, I'm not so certain that it was actually water in the tranny.....after more than a week of sitting in an empty milk jug, the silver-sludge has yet to seperate out into anything. Perhaps it's just a weird oil that the guy put in there....I've just never seen such a heavy, colored oil used in transmissions. Bike is still running and moving like a champ, everything else seems to be in fine working order.

Thanks again, everyone!

Doug