Primary eating itself!

[Doc Comer]

Went out with my Legion Riders chapter and had a blast. On the way back my primary on my 2012 Tri-Glide seemed to making a lot of racket like it was full of rocks or trying to eat itself. Baby'd it back home at around 40 MPH for abut 35 miles. The underside of the bike is clean and there have never been any oil spots on the floor. My last service was about 6,000 miles back using the usual Lucas synthetic 20w-50w in all three holes.

Clutch works fine and shifts smooth. I drained the primary oil, which appeared to be the right amount of oil, and found the usual amount of fuzz on the drain plug magnet. Removed the primary cover expecting to find something rolling around inside. It was very clean inside. The chain tightner looks good, but it is the first time I have ever seen one (never had the need to open one up) and according to the diagrahm in the service manual it is about three teeth from the initial, original collapsed/install position. There aren't an areas on the case, cover, clutch, compensator and tensioner that show any wear, scrapeing or rubbing. All of the chain and sprockets look good and nothing has any heat marks on it.

I am at the point of thinking I am hearing things. Has anyone had this problem or one similar? I would just as soon not take it to the dealer. They can get pretty greedy.

[Jack Klarich]

Have you updated the comp sprocket?

[Papa Zook]

Went out with my Legion Riders chapter and had a blast. On the way back my primary on my 2012 Tri-Glide seemed to making a lot of racket like it was full of rocks or trying to eat itself. Baby'd it back home at around 40 MPH for abut 35 miles. The underside of the bike is clean and there have never been any oil spots on the floor. My last service was about 6,000 miles back using the usual Lucas synthetic 20w-50w in all three holes.

Clutch works fine and shifts smooth. I drained the primary oil, which appeared to be the right amount of oil, and found the usual amount of fuzz on the drain plug magnet. Removed the primary cover expecting to find something rolling around inside. It was very clean inside. The chain tightner looks good, but it is the first time I have ever seen one (never had the need to open one up) and according to the diagrahm in the service manual it is about three teeth from the initial, original collapsed/install position. There aren't an areas on the case, cover, clutch, compensator and tensioner that show any wear, scrapeing or rubbing. All of the chain and sprockets look good and nothing has any heat marks on it.

I am at the point of thinking I am hearing things. Has anyone had this problem or one similar? I would just as soon not take it to the dealer. They can get pretty greedy.

This is a long shot, but is the compensator bolt fully seated? I had one come into my shop with the same described noise/issue and it turns out that it had been worked on by a shop that reassembled it using blue loctite on the compensator bolt "because that is what Harley uses" they said.

Yes the Harley applied thread lock is blue colored and leaves a risidual blue colored material on the bolt's threads, but it is an industrial grade thread lock not a "Loctite" branded product. One should always use the Loctite Red thread lock. I have found that this error is more common than you would think.

On this one, that last person who worked on it had made this mistake and the compensator bolt had backed itself out and was scrubbing on the primary case inner surface, making a hell of a racket.

[Notgrownup]

Could be a few things, compensator spring plate is shot, bolt is backed out, shaft bearing is shot making the clutch rattle, if the chain is tight it’s probably not the tensioner. Good luck keep us posted.

I would remove the tensioner and check the comp and the clutch basket for looseness.

[Mykneesbehurtin]

Inner primary bearing possibly.

[Gorilla]

Doc I'm with Jack and Papa Zook. I'm will to bet its the compensator. I had to replace mine on my 2013 at around 30k. I put at that time the Screaming Eagle in. If the bolt is tight then I suggest you look at replacing the compensator.

[Dan SC]

There is a simple way to determine if the noise is a bad Inner Primary Bearing.

The noise will be present when the bike is moving, and also when stopped with transmission in neutral.

Engine running, transmission in neutral, clutch lever released: Noise is present.

Pull in clutch lever: Noise still present.

Drop transmission into first gear: Noise stops.

[520fd]

My engine is making a lot of noise. I'm thinking, it's the Compensator. Can a competent certified Harley trained tech, just listening to it and think it's the compensator, without taking it apart? And, is it covered by the warranty? Trike has 25000 miles on it.

[Jack Klarich]

My engine is making a lot of noise. I'm thinking, it's the Compensator. Can a competent certified Harley trained tech, just listening to it and think it's the compensator, without taking it apart? And, is it covered by the warranty? Trike has 25000 miles on it.

A good tech should be able to identify this, and yes this should be covered under the factory 2 year warranty

[Dan SC]

Apparently, the OP lost interest...

[Jack Klarich]

Apparently, the OP lost interest...

Ya got to love these kind of posts, sometimes I wonder why bother

[rhino 2]

Ya got to love these kind of posts, sometimes I wonder why bother

Sometimes I think that the problem was so benign that the OP was embarrassed to post it…..(IE maybe the noise was coming from his key chain)..