Oil leak near drive belt

[ChopperJeff]

Interesting. Is this the starter you purchased from HDM or the original starter? I have discovered just recently while helping a friend with his ‘06 BigDog Chopper that the starter for the RSD bikes is different than the starter on my ‘04 & earlier bikes. So perhaps on those there’s a sealed bearing that isn’t on the earlier starters. Of course I would be inclined to believe that Curtis would definitely know about that. Sorry can’t be of more help. But I sure hope it is the last of your problems and you can get to riding!

The starter that I purchased from HDM does NOT have the sealed bearing. Other than having chewed up pinion gears and leaking, it works fine. I asked the tech working on my bike about the sealed bearing. He said that most starters have a non-sealed bearing, and instead there is just a splash cover over the bearing. The "new and improved" starter has an actual sealed bearing installed.
He then made me a copy of the service bulletin from Big Dog regarding the starter leaking oil, and sure enough, it mentions installing a sealed bearing.
This tech knows what he's talking about as he attended the Big Dog service training class back in the day.
So, to say that there is no such thing as a sealed bearing for the starter appears to be false.
The people at Pro Cycles (ie. Arlen Ness) are now asking the people at Big Dog about the starter rebuild kit which basically upgrades the bearings.
So, the saga continues.

 

[ChopperJeff]

I have read on HDM website they have 2 starters for the 05-11 RSD models. One for $299 and one for $499. The more expensive one is the Upgraded Billet Nose starter. It had modifications to minimize the possibility of getting oil into the starter but not a guarantee. This starter comes with new seals, o-rings, sealed bearings and a splash washer. Maybe this is one the tech was talking about, (sealed bearings)? The advertisement talks about the amount of primary oil used and ventilation as mentioned in the above posts being the problem of oil getting into the starter.

Interesting you mention "splash washer". After talking with the tech today who is working on my bike, he said that the non-sealed bearing has a splash washer, whereas the sealed bearing is, well, just that...sealed! That is why the sealed one has an orange look to it, as that is the color of the sealed bearing. If it's just silver, then it is non-sealed and has the splash washer.
As for ventilation, he said mine has the ventilation working just fine.
As for the amount of primary oil, he said that we could dry draining the primary oil and then just adding 24 ounces instead of the recommended 32 ounces. But, he feels that if the starter is properly built, it shouldn't leak even if there is some excess primary oil.

 

[Mickmorris]

The starter that I purchased from HDM does NOT have the sealed bearing. Other than having chewed up pinion gears and leaking, it works fine. I asked him about the sealed bearing. He said that most starters have a non-sealed bearing, and instead there is just a splash cover over the bearing. The "new and improved" starter has an actually sealed bearing installed.
He then made me a copy of the service bulletin from Big Dog regarding the starter leaking oil, and sure enough, it mentions installing a sealed bearing.
This tech knows what he's talking about as he attended the Big Dog service training class back in the day.
So, to say that there is no such thing as a sealed bearing for the starter appears to be false.
The people at Pro Cycles (ie. Arlen Ness) are now asking the people at Big Dog about the starter rebuild kit which basically upgrades the bearings.
So, the saga continues.

And there you have it. As Treeguru pointed out HDM. obviously carries both for the RSD bikes. I assume the $$ difference is the sealed bearing.

 

[ChopperJeff]

Well, it appears the people at bigdogpartskingpin are indeed very good people! Donna from there just called me and she took the time to talk about the details of this starter issue I'm having. She said they do warranty their product and is confused about how my new starter from them had a chewed up pinion gear. Anyways, terrific lady! I told her I'd be happy to just pay the price to upgrade this starter to their "new and improved" one, to which she agreed to doing. However, currently they do not have that one, and it might be a few weeks before they will have it.

In the meantime she, and I will be talking with the Arlen Ness tech to see what we can come up with.

I might just have the tech drain some oil from the Primary and see if it still leaks, then go from there.

Will also, per Donna's suggestion, check to see if my bike has the primary vent.

Anyways, they indeed seem to be really great people and hopefully I'll get this resolved sometime soon.