Noticed this weekend that when I start my bike it makes unusual noise. Sounds like it is coming from forward primary cover area, like a clunk. Is this a sign of imending compensator failure. I installed FM107 kit about 1K miles ago. Any help or suggestions appreciated.

 

Glad you asked that question , I am noticing a knock , not steady but maybe two or three times a minute in the rear area of the primary , it can be heard easily over the engine running .

 

Pretty good indication for sure..Starter will be acting a little cranky..or uh lack of..Good luck plenty of threads on this issue..

 

My compensator went out on my 08 at 30,000 mi. I thought it was a bad starter gear, but it only did it when it was hot (gas stop) It would make a grinding and hard grabbing banging noise. I waited too long and it destroyed my alternator. It made no unsual noise while running though. I am about to hit 80,000 mi. and I am sweating it out. At the first sign now I'm gonna replace it with a Screaming Eagle.

 

Why wait, if your in the year group and youve got a good amount of miles just get that incompetant compensator the frick outta there....i wouldnt wait for it to start tearing things up, pre-empt it and put it behind you. If my 2011 was in the year group i would have gutted that garbage out of there as soon as i read about it.

 

I replaced my stock comp with the newest version of the SE comp a couple of months ago. I had around 20000 miles. I also thought I was having problems. Lots of noise, banging on startups and a sloppy feeling. The new SE compensator is much better. However upon taking the stock compensator out I found nothing wrong with it. It's just a sloppy, noisy component. I'm still glad I changed it out.

 

I'm getting the same noise on my 2005, but that has the old EVO compensator. Do those go bad?

 

Mine started to have alot of banging on startups and abnormal noise throuhout all rpm ranges. Dealer removed and replaced the clutch and drum assy., compensator sprocket and starter. The Clutch drum was missing a couple teeth along with the starter missing one tooth which explained the kicking back. The clutch assy. had a couple teeth broken off inside also. (Have no idea how that happened). I'm guessing all of this was due to my primary bearing failure!!!

 

There's a lot that can make noise in the primary "area" and sometimes it's hard to distinguish. Sometimes it might be the starter/starter clutch, sometimes maybe the compensator, sometimes associated with the clutch assembly itself, and sometimes a noisy chain/worn out chain tensioner combination. Just a lot of crap that can go wrong, but for the majority of bikes never does. I hope mine is one of the majority, but I have been thinking hard about getting the SE compensator and putting it in by 2010 Ltd.