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[grc]

Wanna hear beau-coup noises??
Pull the hood off your car/truck,(liquid cooled, tighter tolerances, to boot) sit on top of it, and have someone drive you down the road at 60-65 mph.
You won't like it at all, but in your vehicle, your insulated via the firewall from those sounds.
Scott

     Yup, I sometimes think we have insulated folks from the normal sounds in life so well that they think everything should be as quiet as a tomb.  Then they jump on a Harley and assume the world is coming to an end.

Mechanical stuff tends to make noise as it operates.  The trick has always been in how to determine which sounds are truly normal, and which ones indicate a problem.  Some "technicians" find it to be much easier (on them) to just call everything normal and wait for stuff to fail.  Replacing obviously broken parts is easy compared to performing real diagnostics and actually understanding how the whole pile of parts works.  When you encounter this type of "tech", I suggest you find someone better suited to the trade.  And if something is truly "normal", then they should be able to show you the same thing on several other bikes chosen at random.  That was the technique I used as an automotive service rep way back in the 70's when customers complained about characteristics that were truly normal.


Jerry

[wadez1]

The noise is still there, maybe a little quieter after the 1000 mile service.  I visited a dealer in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago that had the identicle bike that I bought in KY. Naturally I asked about the noise and the salesman led me to the head mechanic who said that the noise was common among the 110 screamin eagles.  He even showed me a work order from a customer who had complained about the same noise.  So I guess for know I will live with it until something gives out.

[sadunbar]

The noise is still there, maybe a little quieter after the 1000 mile service.  I visited a dealer in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago that had the identicle bike that I bought in KY. Naturally I asked about the noise and the salesman led me to the head mechanic who said that the noise was common among the 110 screamin eagles.  He even showed me a work order from a customer who had complained about the same noise.  So I guess for know I will live with it until something gives out.

Unfortunately, "common" doesn't mean all is well.  ''Common'' in this case means there are many suffering the same problems.  Although it doesn't seem that either the MOCO or dealership service technicians would necessarily agree...

[Robmay]

Wanna hear beau-coup noises??
Pull the hood off your car/truck,(liquid cooled, tighter tolerances, to boot) sit on top of it, and have someone drive you down the road at 60-65 mph.
You won't like it at all, but in your vehicle, your insulated via the firewall from those sounds.
Scott

Jump on a Goldwing or BMW and you won't hear it..... My bike noise was the lifters just fyi.  

[sadunbar]

Wanna hear beau-coup noises??
Pull the hood off your car/truck,(liquid cooled, tighter tolerances, to boot) sit on top of it, and have someone drive you down the road at 60-65 mph.
You won't like it at all, but in your vehicle, your insulated via the firewall from those sounds.
Scott

Want to hear beau-coup quiet?  Listen to 88" or 95" twin cam motors. 

Wanna hear noise?  Listen to many of the 96" and up twin cam motors.

[Hx3]

My 99 RKC (88 Twin Cam) had a ticking noise from the front valves for the 7,000 miles I had it.  No issues.  My 03 Ultra makes no noise.  My  08 Crossbones with the 96 makes no noise.  My new CVO Ultra makes a LOT of noise but I haven't put my stethoscope on it yet.  The fact it was half a quart low on oil at delivery did make a little bit of difference once filled up.  My philosophy at this time to ride it until I either can't stand the noise or something breaks.  I'm betting neither of those are going to happen....

[skreminegul07]

My EVO FXR4 is relatively noisy which I assume is the gear drive cam, which is to be expected.

[Mount'nman]

My 201CVO Softail had the same noise and it turned out to be piston slap... Bore was out of spec on both cylinders (too big of course).  New cylinders and piston kits from HD... no hassles... and took the motor to stage 3 while it was apart.  The noise is gone and motor runs strong.

[knackers]

Just a follow up from last year. My engine has travelled about 3000k's since the top end was replaced with no rattles and no oil consumption.
Totally satisfied with piston slap being the problem.

[cahdbiker]

Knackers, I tend to agree with piston slap being confused with valve train noise. I went thru this on an S&S 107 that I have in my 95 Heritage. When you listened to it you would swear it was the valve train noise. Luckily I had a Bennett's Performance in Long Beach, Ca. (an authorized S&S rep) do the engine work the third time it started making that same awful noise.(S&S rebuilt the entire engine under warranty and sent it back with loose pistons) He said that the pistons(put in by S&S) had twice as much clearance as they should). Since Bennet's reassembled it (new jugs and pistons) no noise runs great after 2k miles. For anyone in So Cal. I would highly recommend Bennetts. They are located in Long Beach, CA. I will be taking my 09 SEUC there for the same reason a lot of other guys have, noisey between 2200 and 2800 RPM. Sounds like valve train noise, but is probably piston slap. If piston slap is the reason I am just going to ride it until something breaks, because other than that irriating noise it is a keeper. Idles quiet, hot or cold, minimal oil comsumption etc. Sorry about the ranting, but whenever this issue about valve train noise comes up it makes me think it is piston slap.CAHDBIKER

[2harleys]

H. D. Re bored mine .010 oversize last October to get rid of the piston slap ( under warranty). The jugs were sent out for some custom machine work to keep tolerances to the low side of specs. I had to do a lot of screaming to get them to do it. Maybe that is where the "screamin eagle" originated from. The noise between 2800 and 3200 is gone and bike is running exceptionally well the past couple of thousand miles. We will see what happens on my two week trip on June 1st. That will be the test for any oil consumption also. At this point I could not be happier.

[cahdbiker]

2harleys, thanks for the tip. I tend to think my noise is piston slap. If Bennett's sayes leave it alone I won't do anything about it because I can tolerate the noise, but if it starts using oil or needs some other kind of head removal repair I will certainly do what you did to yours. Thanks CAHDBIKER

H. D. Re bored mine .010 oversize last October to get rid of the piston slap ( under warranty). The jugs were sent out for some custom machine work to keep tolerances to the low side of specs. I had to do a lot of screaming to get them to do it. Maybe that is where the "screamin eagle" originated from. The noise between 2800 and 3200 is gone and bike is running exceptionally well the past couple of thousand miles. We will see what happens on my two week trip on June 1st. That will be the test for any oil consumption also. At this point I could not be happier.

[dlaws01]

 At 12,000 miles we finally decided to do a leak-down test, and found the front cylinder at 28% leak-down and rear cylinder 35% leak-down, both measured with piston at the middle position in the cylinders.


Just curious, how did you possibly perform a true cylinder leak down compression check with the pistons in the middle of the cylinders?  Don't you need to be on the compression stroke at top dead center with both intake and exhaust valves closed?   

[grc]

At 12,000 miles we finally decided to do a leak-down test, and found the front cylinder at 28% leak-down and rear cylinder 35% leak-down, both measured with piston at the middle position in the cylinders.


Just curious, how did you possibly perform a true cylinder leak down compression check with the pistons in the middle of the cylinders?  Don't you need to be on the compression stroke at top dead center with both intake and exhaust valves closed?   

You can do a leakdown test with the pistons at any point in their normal travel as long as the valves are closed and you have a way to keep the crank from turning during the test (if the piston and rod aren't perfectly straight, like at TDC, the air pressure can easily force the piston down and rotate the crank just like regular combustion).


Jerry

[CVOJOE]

Jump on a Goldwing or BMW and you won't hear it.....

Thus endth the lesson as Hubbard would say.