Hello everyone. I ride a 1990 ultra classic Electra glide. When I'm accelerating or just pretty much on the gas at all, my primary makes a loud like chirping type noise. As if there are super loud crickets in the primary. Its so loud that it over powers the exhaust. It's all I can hear when I'm riding. But the sound completely goes away when I let go of the throttle. Would it be my primary chain grinding against something? Or maybe my clutch? Its done this for quite a long time now. I've even taken my bike to my dads Harley mechanic friend to change the speedo cable and he didn't even say anything about the noise. He pretended as if it wasn't there. Has anyone else ever experienced this noise? It's only when I'm on the gas. Accelerating and cruising. I don't get what it possibly could be. I hope it's an easy fix. Thanks for any help.

 

Sounds travel in a strange way on a bike. If you primary chain is adjusted correctly, check for a blown head gasket. That sometimes chirps.

 

Go for the easy stuff first.
Check for loose exhaust components , hard bag attachments etc.
If all is well there , do a comp.test and also a intake test.
Are the spark plugs tight ? etc. etc.

 

Check the teeth on your drive belt. I Had a chirp, first guy said the speedo cable, next guy said I needed a $3000 transmission, another guy said some other bs. About a half dozen teeth on the drive belt were missing or cracked.

 

Mine chirped like that and it was the rubber inserts on the rear exhaust mounts. A little spray silicon lube cured the problem.

 

Yea, that too. they are only a couple bucks at your local Harley dealer. I sprayed mine with WD40 for a couple years, before I made the plunge and bought new ones!

 

Awesome thanks for the tips. I will try everything said here and hopefully it's not the head gasket. My dads Harley mechanic friend said that with these 80ci motors, the studs that's go down into the casing have a high chance of getting striped and once their striped your SOL. cause he said he saw some oil around the area where the head gasket is. But he said it's most likely not bad. This bike only has 56,000 miles. So the mechanic said if the head gasket is blown, to basically ride the bike till the motor is toast and just buy a whole new motor. And that might be cheaper than trying to rebuild it. He said that the ultima 100ci motor is a damn good replacement. So I will try all the small stuff and if nothing changes the noise then I guess I will just ride it till detonation. The previous owner said he rode this bike to sturgis 1 times and the bike sat in his garage the rest of the time

 

Ummm, I think you need a new mechanic. Top ends can be rebuilt fairly cheap, well under $1000 depending on what you do. That's sick, run it into the ground because of a bad gasket? And studs CAN be repaired. Jeez.

 

Get yourself a new mechanic.

 

No **** man, that head gasket can be replaced in an afternoon, if it's even needed.


Hey HD4EVR, just for the hell of it try adjusting your drive belt. It's free to do anyway. If your drive belt isn't good and snug, just give a 1/4 turn on your rear wheel adjusters to move the wheel back a little. See if that has any effect. If doing so makes the chirping less, go another 1/4 turn to see if it goes away. If it's the drive pulley on the trans, behind the primary, it can sound like it's coming from the primary.


Good luck with that. Personally I doubt either way that it's a big issue.