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noise in primary

nascar7613

Active Member
2003 Road King, had a lot of noise coming from the primary, took the cover off and found I could take the compensator bolt off with my fingers, cleaned the threads up. red locktited it, torqued it to 165 and put it back together. When I started it, I hear a squeaking noise coming from the primary. Let it run a few minutes, noise still there, shut it down, took the derby cover off to see if I could see anything, Nothing unusual. Jacked up the rear wheel, then the noise only appeared when I pulled in the clutch lever. I mean just barely putting pressure on the lever, and it squeaks, let go of the lever, it stops. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Bolt or nut? my comp nut wouldn't hold it's torque and ended up eating up the rotor and other things. 1500 dollars later all was replaced, thank god for extended warranty.

Being that loose it might be a good Idea to take a look at it again especially the rotor.
 
The big bolt on the outside of the compensator. The squeak sounds like it's coming from the clutch area, and pulling the lever in is when it makes the noise.
 
Problem found. I was going to take the outer primary cover back off to look around in there again. When I loosened the drain bolt to drain the oil, I saw the clutch move. Turns out I turned the drain bolt in too far and the clutch basket was scraping on it. It has one of those drain bolts that don't bottom out. Loosened it up a little bit, noise gone. Thanks for the replies.
 
Glad you found your problem. Screwing the plug in that far can sometimes damage the primary cover. I have seen them crack on the backside of the threads. If there is no crack you may still see a drip. There are several types of oversized drain plugs on the market, and your Harley dealer may have them in stock.
 
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Glad you found your problem. Screwing the plug in that far can sometimes damage the primary cover. I have seen them crack on the backside of the threads. If there is no crack you may still see a drip. There are several types of oversized drain plugs on the market, and your Harley dealer may have them in stock.

Or you might try some teflon tape first. All my other bikes prior to this one and the '11 FLSTC had pipe plug type drain plugs on the primary which can be installed too far. I always used a good wrap of teflon tape to ensure they did not leak and to make the plug snug up sooner.

Cheers,

TQ
 
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