Primary drain plug o-ring fraying and front tie rod bolt torque spec

[drootang]

Thanks to the help of various old threads on this forum, I installed a new clutch cable today. I drained the primary for the first time in a decade of sitting and replaced it. I used a new drain plug o-ring (same as main swingarm oil drain plug o-ring). After tightening to the specc'ed torque i noticed a small strand of orange hanging out. A piece of the o-ring had frayed/sheared off during tightening. Did I do something wrong or is this normal? It was fully seated against the bolt head and lightly oiled.

The drained fluid was pretty gross, and I couldn't warm it before draining because its on stands with no wheels and somewhat precarious. My plan is to just keep an eye on the plug for leakage and probably replace the fluid sooner than later to get it cleaner in there.

Second question is the front tie bar bolt that that holds the clutch cable bracket does not seem to have a torque spec, or I couldn't find one in the service manual. Oops, nevermind, i see it now: 25-27 ft-lbs. I'll leave this in case it helps anyone else in the future.

 

[geder]

Probably just crushed the O-ring too much and it's sheared as a result. If it's not leaking I can't see why it'd be an issue; but sounds like a good idea to do the oil flush anyways. I've always just gone hand tight, followed by 1/4 to 1/2 a turn with wrench to seat it. I believe that the primary can be torqued to the specs in the manual but the swing arm one can't be as they changed to a softer material and didn't update the specs; there's countless posts about stripped drain plug threads on this forum and by the previous owner of my bike.

 

[Cooter]

IMHO, Change the swing arm drain plug tightening spec in your manual (Step 2, Page 1-13) from 29-31ft/lbs to the same 11-15ft/lbs (step 3, page 1-23) for the primary drain plug spec. Same bolt, same o-ring, same materials. I would also recommend the same thread sealant.

As old and commonly over-torqued as these paint shaker engines get, they do need to be tight but remember all you're doing is compressing a small o-ring into aluminum. Put away the breaker bar:black_eyed:

 

[Barrett]

Thanks to the help of various old threads on this forum, I installed a new clutch cable today. I drained the primary for the first time in a decade of sitting and replaced it. I used a new drain plug o-ring (same as main swingarm oil drain plug o-ring). After tightening to the specc'ed torque i noticed a small strand of orange hanging out. A piece of the o-ring had frayed/sheared off during tightening. Did I do something wrong or is this normal? It was fully seated against the bolt head and lightly oiled.

The drained fluid was pretty gross, and I couldn't warm it before draining because its on stands with no wheels and somewhat precarious. My plan is to just keep an eye on the plug for leakage and probably replace the fluid sooner than later to get it cleaner in there.

Second question is the front tie bar bolt that that holds the clutch cable bracket does not seem to have a torque spec, or I couldn't find one in the service manual. Oops, nevermind, i see it now: 25-27 ft-lbs. I'll leave this in case it helps anyone else in the future.

After tightening to the specc'ed torque i noticed a small strand of orange hanging out.

All Harley Davidson products built during the XB decade had a light proprietary coating of "orange" colored sealant on all drain plugs....including XB primary and swing-arm plugs. That is your "small strand of orange hanging out". Normal.
Do not replace the old thread sealant. The O-ring is more than sufficient.

 

[Cooter]

Barretts right, thats probably what it is and not to worry.

I never heard of any wazoo proprietary thread sealant for any MFG's, but I would follow the Buell factory service manual and use Loctite 565 on the drain plugs, as they say too. I believe the thread sealant also acts as a light locking agent.

Step 2 page 1-16:


and note the incorrect torque setting.