This has been a bad year for me so far.

2006 wide glide. 25,000 miles.

Now I have a tapping noise coming from the engine somewhere. The tapping is intermittent and taps about four to five times. Then is normal for about 4-5 seconds. I have used a screwdriver to my ear, but cannot seem to find the noise. It speeds up with engine speed and does it in neutral and in gear.

I already checked the compensator nut, and it was loose, so I pulled it and re torqued the bolt with red loc-tite per the manual. Noise is still there.

Any help is greatly appreciates. This is driving me insane.

 

if it speeds up with engine speed, its in your engine.
if it goes away after warm up its probably oil related, blockage in filter or to thick of oil.

if the sound comes from the top of the engine your luckey.... could be lifters,check oil level,oil pressure and filter for blockage ...worse case failing oil pump or failing lifters

bottom end, not so luckey..failing rod bearings,crankshaft bearings or connecting rod

or it could be as simple as a exhaust gasket....altho thats not a tapping noise but thats how my buddy described his "engine tapping noise" to me....check for leaks with a smoke

 

Just out of curiosity, wouldn't a rod or bearing tap in a continuous rhythm?

It doesn't do it when first started, but after it warms up it will do it until its allowed to cool for a while.

Oil is Amsoil 20 50. It's new and so is the filter.

 

ive personally never had a bearing go in the bottom end.But if you increased engine speed your continous rythem would certianly be a faster contiunous rythem.

doesnt do it cold eh.... could still be failing lifters...just not oil related.

amsol is great oil, thats not your prob.but id still pull the filter and check it out

 

That's the sound my bike's engine made when the bolts holding the rotor comp spring assembly started to back out. 2006 Dynas...

 

Pick up a mechanic stethoscope, I got one at Advance Auto for like $11 and it is sweet, Helped me track my noise to the intake and figure out it was my carb slides rattling.

 

On the above advice about filters, I drained the oil and replaced the filter. The noise is intermittent, but so far it hasn't come back.

 

Probably had a bad filer restricting oil flow. What kind of filter was it?

 

It was an Amsoil filter which is what I replaced it with. I'm not saying that's what caused it though.