intermitent front wheel chirp

Butch

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.

glider

For lubing the cable, it slides out of the casing I believe from the top.There's a tiny screw facing downwards on the drive unit that will allow the removal of the cable from the drive for servicing there.It unscrews after the removal of that screw.

Ever think of the wheel bearings needing a greasing with a 99 bike?

__________________
Psssst!
Please stop by the "self help section" for maintenance tips, diagnostic codes and much more.
click me!>>Self Help Information and Tips<< click me!

Butch

Thanks Glider. Was hoping you'd chime in.

Yeah, repacking the bearings is definitely on the mind (wanted to see if it was something a little more simple first).

*sigh*...guess I'll be up to my elbows in grease this weekend.

dangerdan

What about the speedometer drive attached to the front axle.

Any chance it or the attached cable is causing this noise.

I thought I would mention it, just incase the new bearing grease did not work.