Hey all. I have this rattle-clang noise ,only once in a while if it's idling slow and I give it a quick blast. So as I was changing out my clutch spring I had a good look at my auto tensioner plate and shoe. I was looking for the chain to be loose or some kind of mark where the chain could be striking the primary cover but found nothing. Actually the chai had very little play at all. in this SE manual tensioner kit: http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US...ts/-J05728.pdf it says to leave 5/8ths to 7/8ths freeplay on the chain - cold. Mine was cold when I pulled it apart like I said there was little or no play at all.

Any thoughts or experience?

 

If you have no free-play on a cold chain, chances are it will get even tighter when it is hot. I would run it to operating temperature then measure the free-play.

 

Hey 128! That would mean draining it hot and popping the primary cover immediately after. I read somewhere with the auto tensioner you can't actually check the chain freeplay unless the bike is actually running. I'm thinking maybe my stock tensioner springs with 52k miles are getting weak and what I'm hearing is the result of the shoe slamming the bottom of the pan and bouncing up..... I had a look as I said the unit doesn't really show much wear at all.

 

Sorry, I thought you have an older Dyna with manual tensioner. In that case, you should have minimum free-play cold or hot. Perhaps the spring is weakened overtime like you said, it is possible.

 

mine looks exactly like this one.:

 

Probably a weakened tensioner, I would open it up and see if there is anything loose.