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[Rickasha]

Since I've owned the new bike I hear a rattling noise coming from the primary. When the bike is idling in neutral not touching the clutch lever, I have a noise like a steel ball is rattling around in the primary. When I pull the clutch lever in the noise goes away?? I have taken it to the dealer and the service advisor says that's normal. Funny thing, that noise wasn't there on my 09. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Rick

[Boatman]

When you pull in on the clutch lever, the gears in the tranny quit turning.  There have been several people with bad tranny mainshaft bearings and/or inner primary bearing.

They would have to pull the inner and outer primary covers to look at these bearings.  The tranny doesn't have to be disassembled.

Any metal shavings on drain plug other than the normal particles?

Good luck.

[Rickasha]

Just switched over to redline in the tranny. There were a few shavings on the plug but nothing unusual.

[FUZZNUTS]

I'd been having some what of a similar noise issue going on myself. I've also went the route with the dealer with the Compensator noise. Dealer replaced the Chrome starter and then the clutch bearing but not the Compensator. So I bought the SE Compensator on my own and took it to my Indy and he installed it , torqued it . HD Specs, and the bike started very nicely after that.......................................... But on the way home from Ribfest, I was noticing the rattle comming from the primary. Quiet when first starting and around the block or so, but at normal cruising an hour or so..... At idle after starting or filling up at the gas station , the noise starts ....................... I believe that it's time to try a new chain and tensioner before I go ahead and spend the dough on looking into any more issues. I have a little under 21,000 miles on the scoot. .............................Fuzznuts

[Ghost__Rider]

I had a buddy who was complaining of noisy primary. He took it to the dealer a couple of times and they even replaced the compesator once, still had the noise. I took it for a ride and I could even hear it. I took a shot in the dark and tried something. I gave the primary chain tensioner a extra couple of clicks manually on the chain to take out the extra flop in the chain.
Bike is quiet now and he is happy. May not be your noise but just a thought.

[LC110]

Any metal shavings on drain plug other than the normal particles?

What would you consider normal? And how much in relationship to the amount of fine particles stuck to the magnetic plug?
After a few fluid changes the magnetic plug, shouldn't it be almost clean.

[moscooter]

 
You might want to consider one of these.   The (stock) tensioner has rachet "teeth" on it and will not slacken up............This one is hydraulic and might solve your noise problem.

http://sohotbikes.com/HB%20Wedge%20Instructions.pdf

[FUZZNUTS]

You might want to consider one of these.   The (stock) tensioner has rachet "teeth" on it and will not slacken up............This one is hydraulic and might solve your noise problem.

http://sohotbikes.com/HB%20Wedge%20Instructions.pdf

Thanks MO, I've seen this once before. But could not recall where the hell I saw this before. Thanks..........................................Fuzz

[Rickasha]

 Well it seems the MoCo has issued Service Bulletin M-1304 dated August 31, 2011. They call it "Big Twin Neutral Rattle", caused by necessary backlash within the first gear pair. Backlash is a combination of gear tooth pitch,relative location of the support bearings to each other, along with many other factors. Dealers are encouraged to share this info with customers who have reported the problem, and advise them that it is normal.

[willyB]

Just got back from a 4000 mile ride. About 5 miles from home we stopped for dinner. When I started it back up "BIG RATTLE IN PRIMARY".

Not just at idle but while moving as well. Noise increased with any load on the motor.

I'm assuming it's the POS compensator since the noise is directly behind the clutch inspection cover. I called HD today about 8:30 am to start the reference number process before calling the local dealer. I called the dealer a little after 9:10 am and was told that they could not get me in for over a week. I then called HD to make note of this delay. About 9:45 am I received a call from the dealers "new" service manager saying that he could get me in this morning to take a look at it.

He said he had talked to one of his techs and they said it was probably the primary chain tensioner. I told him that the sound was not coming from the area of the tensioner but behind the clutch inspection cover so I was assuming it was the compensator. Believe it or not the service manager said "well if the noise is coming from the left side it could not behind the clutch inspection cover since it's on the right side".

I stopped him before he went any further and said "obviously you know nothing about HD's because the clutch is behind the primary cover which is on the left side".

I said, let's start this all over from the start. You can tell your tech that it's not the chain tensioner and I know enough about HD's to not be fed a line of BS. He apologized and said the they will make sure that the bike is fixed right. He went on to say that as the new service manager he is out to make a quality name for his service department.


I think he was a little surprised that I knew the 2011 compensator part number along with the new 2012 part (designated A). I also pointed out to him that if he wanted to tell me that it had anything to do with the 8/31/11 service bulliten #M-1304 "Big Twin Neutral Rattle" that he was going to have his tech disassemble the bike with me right there to show me exactly the problem.

Getting ready to ride it down there now. We'll see!!

A special thanks to this site for keeping us all well informed.

[TB]

I had very little metal on the primary drain plug when the inner primary/trans mainshaft bearing failed (ie: very loud whinning with clutch out).  Luckily I caught it before it had a chance to granade the primary.  Bearing wear was evident on the rollers and inner race.  The inner race in particular had grooves worn in it the size of the rollers.  The rollers obviously had tried to beat the inner race into submission. 

[moscooter]

 
Willy,  do NOT discount the fact that the primary chain tensioner could indeed have led to the problems with associated bearings, etc.  On another forum that I have been on for years,  we have a head tech at a large HD dealership and he is a loyal Harley guy.  But he recently stated some reservations and concerns with the tensioner used since 2007 and problems he has seen that may well be related to the "banjo tight" or "bowstring" tight primary chain that the HD "ratchet teeth" tensioner applies to the chain.

[gmills]

I've had the new style tensioner ruin 2 chains on 2 different bike so far the both were as tight as a piano string. One I put the old style tensioner in it and the other is still apart and deciding what to do at this point

[moscooter]

 
Here is the post from another forum that just might be similar to what problems are in this one.

http://harleyzone.tenmagazines.com/ew/forums/Topic.asp?id=82378&pos=1

[willyB]

Willy,  do NOT discount the fact that the primary chain tensioner could indeed have led to the problems with associated bearings, etc.  On another forum that I have been on for years,  we have a head tech at a large HD dealership and he is a loyal Harley guy.  But he recently stated some reservations and concerns with the tensioner used since 2007 and problems he has seen that may well be related to the "banjo tight" or "bowstring" tight primary chain that the HD "ratchet teeth" tensioner applies to the chain.

Well, I rode the machine over to the dealer yesterday (noisy and clattering and the "new" service manager was the nicest service manager I've ever met! It was his first day on the job after coming from the automotive industry. Within a minute his top tech came out and started the bike. He shut it off right away. After a little conversation/debate about the problem the tech was so sure the it was the tensioner sitting between adjustment notches that he bet me lunch. I told him that if it was truly the tensioner I would buy him and the service manager lunch.

He took the bike in the shop and asked me to come along. He quickly pulled the primary cover off and described in detail how the tensioner operates. He then took the end of a screw driver handle and tapped the tensioner fairly hard. That's it! He even showed me where the slacked chain was hitting the inside of the primary cover. He put the cover on and filled the primary. He started it up and the noise was gone. He said he sees this normally at around 5,000 miles but has seen it as far as 15,000 miles.

I asked him if I should change to an adjustable tensioner and he said no, the auto adjusters are great and that the only issue he has seen are issue related to its first slack adjustment.

These were two top notch Harley service folks to buy lunch for.