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[Jui]

I have almost 10.000 miles on my bike and when the engine is hot and I shift gears uphill with low rpm there is a rattling noise around 2.000 - 2.600 rpm in gear 2 and higher. It sounds as if there are screws jumping around in a can. The noise is only like that when engine is hot and somehow limited to this rpm band when 'requesting' torque and power from the bike.
I don't know where it is exactly coming from, but it must be somewhere 'inside' and not just vibrations from e.g heatshields.
All other tickin noise I have seems to be normal (e.g. from Hydros), but this rattling makes me nervous as it sounds as if the engine is eaten up from inside out, although it is not always there to this extend.
Any idea what to check further or how to identify where it comes from?

Jui

[willyB]

My 2011 CVO Street Glide seemed to make some odd noises since new. On two occassions it made a "Scary" sound that I described to the dealer "like a box of bolts in the motor".

This first occurred around 10,000 miles and the second around 16,000.

The last time after really pushing my dealer to open it up and take a look we found that the Compensator Sprocket Assembly was bad.

NOTE!!
The old compensator looked completely fine and they actually just put it back together. But after the test ride it made the "noise" for them.

With the new ones in it's like riding a brand new scoot. It has never ran so good. I'm sure that this compensator was not right from the beginning. I can't believe the difference.

Still same 110 ticks but now the throttle seems connected to the rear tire. My wife, who knows nothing about mechanical things, commented "the bike really feels solid now".

Based on this experience. Check your compensator.

Mine only had very minor wear but it was bad.

[grc]

I have almost 10.000 miles on my bike and when the engine is hot and I shift gears uphill with low rpm there is a rattling noise around 2.000 - 2.600 rpm in gear 2 and higher. It sounds as if there are screws jumping around in a can. The noise is only like that when engine is hot and somehow limited to this rpm band when 'requesting' torque and power from the bike.
I don't know where it is exactly coming from, but it must be somewhere 'inside' and not just vibrations from e.g heatshields.
All other tickin noise I have seems to be normal (e.g. from Hydros), but this rattling makes me nervous as it sounds as if the engine is eaten up from inside out, although it is not always there to this extend.
Any idea what to check further or how to identify where it comes from?

Jui

What you are hearing is detonation, commonly called pinging.  It's abnormal combustion, and it tends to be worse when hot and under load, like when accelerating from low rpm's.  If allowed to become severe it can in fact cause internal damage.  Make sure you are using the correct grade of fuel; Harley calls for an octane rating of 91 or better in the USA,  I'm not sure what that translates to in Germany, but your owner manual should tell you what fuel to use.

If you are using the highest octane fuel and still having this problem, you may have mechanical or tuning problems.  Is the bike stock, has it been tuned previously, 


Jerry

[Para Bellum]

From your description of upshifting on an uphill at low RPMs, it's likely the engine is pinging. The easy fix is to upshift at higher RPM, where your engine is making enough power to pull up the hill.  The steeper the hill, the higher your "after shift" RPM needs to be--like 2500 RPM, or even higher for a very steep hill.  If this doesn't eliminate the pinging, there's a problem with low octane fuel, the timing map, or even carbon build-up in the combustion chamber.

[guppytrash]

X2 or X3 on the pinging.

My 09 USE4 110 used to ping exactly like you describe.  Same rpm's.  Dyno tuned with a race tuner, still pinged.  Tuned by me with a Thundermax, still pinged but I could get rid of it if I retarded the timing way back.  When I did that it was a dog in performance.
I now have the Revolution Performance EMS and it runs great and I have never once been able to make it ping.
It is annoying as hell until you get rid of it.  Sounds like ball bearings popping in the heads like a bag of popcorn in a microwave.
Let me guess... you still have the 255 cams.  

[Jui]

Hi all,

thx for all the information. The bike is still unmodified, so no cam changes nor any tuning. I use 95 octane fuel which should be fine, but here in Europe all bikes are (from the factory) delivered with a very high AFR (more air:fuel than the US / Domestic setup is).
I know that this means that our bikes get hotter than yours and the mapping is typically not providing the power that you could get from the bikes screamin eagle engine. So maybe this AFR map is somehow part of the problem. I intend to go for a SE Ventilator Air Cleaner and exchange the very much "closed" stock pipes (which also increases heat) with a different exhaust system. Due to these changes I want to get a better matching map and as such I wait for the TTS Mastertune 2 to become available.

So if the bad noise I hear is not really a "serious" problem but what you call pinging, then with a proper mapping I might get rid of it, decrease he heat of my engine (enhancing it's lifetime) and get some better performance (currently 84hp according to the official papers for european FXDFSE).
I hope it is nothing serious and that I can tune it away.

Thx for the input so far.

Jui

[HILLSIDECYCLE.COM]

Do not let that detonate any more than you have to until you get that in to a tuning center, and have that addressed.
Lucas, or Amsoil fuel modifiers, can aid in this issue until you get that timimg pulled back.
Scott

[Para Bellum]

Do not let that detonate any more than you have to until you get that in to a tuning center, and have that addressed.
Scott

Don't let it ping.  Upshift at higher RPM.

[cahdbiker]

JUI, when my 09SEUC was new and stock it was also pinging on a regular basis.(especially when it was hot outside ) On my first long trip (4K miles) it pinged so much I was going crazy.It especially pinged when I used gas from any state other then California. I put in a stage one map from Fulsac,got a non-catalytic header,1.75 baffles, HD highflow air cleaner with K&N reusable filter element and it immediately stopped pinging. It still has the stock 255 cams. On a trip I took from Simi Valley, Ca. to Arkansas and back I remember filling up someplace in Texas where their supreme gas was only 90 octane with 10% ethanol it was about 104 degrees outside and still no pinging. That is with passenger and luggage. I am confident if you make the changes I did your pinging will stop. Even if I lug it a little by mistake it still doesn't ping. Sorry for the long post, but I am sold on the Fulsac stage one map, especially because in most cases you don't even need any dyno time. Good Luck CAHDBIKER

[Midnight Rider]

Don't shift until at least 3K RPM when you know the engine is going to be under a load in the next gear...like going uphill.  My bike rarely sees anything under 2200 RPM other than flat ground under NO load, and NEVER below 2K, no matter what the circumstances (other than idling, of course).  Pinging is bad, and lugging the engine with high loads at low RPM is very, very bad for things like Chinese Crankshafts...

[Jui]

Ok, I will anyway go for a TTS Mastertune. I don't know if I can change the timings on my own (or if I should do that) with the Mastertune but I think I will figure it out. For now I will act as recommended by you and just avoid for 2nd and higher gears to request power from the bile at rpm below 3.000. It did not happen too often yet and only one time I really tried to figure out when it happens and where the noise comes from and as such I actively put the bike into this situation.

Just to be sure: Besides that rattling, extreme scary sound I do have a klicking & ticking noise all the time (at lower and medium rpm) but this seems to be normal. I could avoid to hear this just with louder pipes than my stock pipes ;-)
To me It seems to come from the  hydro valves (when I was low on oil this sound changed in a low frequency getting louder and this indicated low oil level even before the oil lamp came up).

But the rattling I refer to is a completely different story.

Jui

[HD Street Performance]

I know it's no short jaunt but consider having Vosselman tune it. He is very sharp and is very 110 sauvey

[Jui]

Ok, I found a video with a sound sample which is similar to the rattling noise I have below 3.000 rpm (different load, different throttle) depending on engine temp.
Sound comes from second 11 onwards.


I just have been in a parade at Faak Harley Festival and it got to an extreme during stop&go and I had no chance to avoid pinging  as it even happend in 1st gear. I tried to go to 3.000 rpm before having the clutch lock in, but that isn't that good for the clutch I guess.
So I need to do smething against this pinging at high engine temp.

I hope that I can do something with the Mastertune TTS but might need some expert help.

Jui