Primary Seals / Shifter Shaft Seal

[1993FLHS]

Hello All. Newbie questions.

1993 FLHS. Need to reseal the primary and replace the shifter shaft seal while it's apart. What brand seals are recommended? Also, what's the best place to buy them online?

Thanks,

Glenn

[Dan89FLSTC]

I have had no problems with original equipment seals from the dealer. You can also get them online from several sources including Zanottis or Bike Bandit. (Both sell OEM parts).

If you are going to replace the seal on the shifter shaft then you will be removing the inner primary cover. I suggest that while the cover is off that you replace all the seals (Also inspect the splines on the end of the shifter shaft, if they don`t look really good, now is the time to replace the shaft).

On the transmission:
Main drive gear seal, spacer and quad seal.
Mainshaft seal.
Shifter shaft seal.

On the inner primary cover:
Starter jackshaft seal.
Mainshaft oil seal.


A couple of other things to think about…
Since your bike is a 1993, it originally came with the old design belt pulley/spacer/lock/nut. If that old stuff is still there, you should throw it into the scrap bin. The old design allowed the pulley nut to loosen, which could and often did cause serious damage.

Another “while you are in there” thing to think about…
The springs on the shifter pawl have been known to fail, not a chronic thing since about `88-but you still read about them failing even on much newer bikes. You have to remove the right side tranny cover and gearshaft assembly(it comes out as a unit) in order to remove the shifter shaft that has the springs mounted on it.

[berserker]

Harley shifter seals have history of failing. Around 03-05 they went to a double lip seal. Same as cometic was already doing. The bulletin from Harley said to keep using the defective seals, until sold, before using the better ones. What a croc.

Cometic's website is for 10 packs, you can ask them for singles.

[Mtclassic]

Originally Posted by berserker

Harley shifter seals have history of failing. Around 03-05 they went to a double lip seal. Same as cometic was already doing. The bulletin from Harley said to keep using the defective seals, until sold, before using the better ones. What a croc.

Cometic's website is for 10 packs, you can ask them for singles.

i changed my shifter shaft a while back and had both the latest oem version and the cometic seal and the cometic appeared to be a superior design and that is what I went with. I should not complain tho as the original did not start leaking until 60,000. The cometic is going on 15000 and still not leaking.