Butch
Active Member
On my '99 ultra, as the front wheel rotates I can hear a, kind of loud, intermittent, more like cyclic in nature - chirp . At first I thought it was a rotor rubbing a pad. Removing the calipers/pads didn't solve the problem.
I dropped the front wheel and looked things over, and all looked ok. Cleaned and re coated the axle w/grease, put a little grease in the bearing chamber. and replaced the speedo felt seal (it was mangled after nine years use). All was good for about 5 miles when it restarted for a few hundred feet then stopped. Now (two days later) instead of happening all the time, it may chirp once or maybe a couple of times and stops. I've also noticed prior to this, that my signals seem to be turning off sooner than expected. In fact, on a recent weekend run my signals seemed to turn off long before the other bikes.
Because of the original intermittent nature of the chirp, I'm leaning away from bearings being the problem (nothing is hot or even warm in the axle area after it runs). Although with the directionals turning off quickly, I am leaning towards the speedo unit or cable being the problem.
Then again, maybe I'm completely off my nut and it's something else? Any thoughts from you guys?
Also, while I have you. I can't find it HD manual, is the front wheel unit serviceable (or is it a replace and forget unit). And, what is the procedure for lubing a speedo cable anyway?
Thnx.
I dropped the front wheel and looked things over, and all looked ok. Cleaned and re coated the axle w/grease, put a little grease in the bearing chamber. and replaced the speedo felt seal (it was mangled after nine years use). All was good for about 5 miles when it restarted for a few hundred feet then stopped. Now (two days later) instead of happening all the time, it may chirp once or maybe a couple of times and stops. I've also noticed prior to this, that my signals seem to be turning off sooner than expected. In fact, on a recent weekend run my signals seemed to turn off long before the other bikes.
Because of the original intermittent nature of the chirp, I'm leaning away from bearings being the problem (nothing is hot or even warm in the axle area after it runs). Although with the directionals turning off quickly, I am leaning towards the speedo unit or cable being the problem.
Then again, maybe I'm completely off my nut and it's something else? Any thoughts from you guys?
Also, while I have you. I can't find it HD manual, is the front wheel unit serviceable (or is it a replace and forget unit). And, what is the procedure for lubing a speedo cable anyway?
Thnx.