When I replaced the drive belt on my ’96 Super Glide this spring I very carefully set the primary chain tension. Since the primary was open it was easy to measure. Once the bike was fully assembled I noticed a whining coming from the chain case. I loosened the chain a bit and the whining went away. After that all seemed good except for a chirp when running over bumps. I posted about that in another thread. The chirp turned out to be an over tight belt. By backing the adjusters off a quarter turn at a time I was able to get rid of the chirp. The belt seems looser than spec but it’s quiet, and runs off the edges of the rear pulley, not quite centered but close.
Last week the wife and I took a day trip, first time two up this season. About 50 or so miles into the trip the bike started to make a grinding noise when decelerating. If I pulled the clutch and decelerated with just the brakes there was no grinding noise. When we got home and the bike had cooled down I loosen the primary a bit more and took it for a test. The decal grinding was gone but the chain was slapping the top of the chain case.
A few days ago I took the outer cover off. I removed the compensator nut, cleaned the threads, re-applied red lock tight, and re-torqued to 160Ft. lbs. I rolled the chain over several times to find the tight spot and set the chain slack, up and down, to about 13/16. It doesn’t slap the inside of the case now but there seems to be some shudder/chatter on decal.
I have the FSM and do things by the book as best I understand it. Am I setting this up wrong or is there something else I should be looking for?

 

If your chain was loose enough to slap the inside of the primary I recommend you replace it.

 

Any primary chain that is way out of adjustment will slap the primary case.

 

Thanks THC. Are there chain stretch specs in the FSM? Guess I'll look that up when I get home tonight.

 

I'm pretty sure the spec is "adjuster won't take the slack up." What does the adjuster puck thing look like? Deep grooves? New?

 

Adjuster puck has mild shallow grooves. To my inexperienced eye it didn't look like excessive wear. It looked about right for 49K miles.

 

Avoid the hassle and get the automatic primary chain tensioner. Install forget.

I installed two of these, one on my wife's '85FXEF and the other on my '01FXDXT. Haven't adjusted the primary chain since I installed these 12yrs ago.

Grasp the belt at about 1.5in. back from where it exits the bottom of the primary case. Now using your thumb and two fore fingers twist the belt along it's axis. It shouldn't twist more than 45deg. nor less then about 30deg. this should be about right. Using this method only I got 115,000 miles out of my belt, and it was rock damage that did it in. Cut the rubber to the steel belts and they rusted in two, then broke in my drive way after riding all day from Austin, Tx.

 

OP if you want to try one I have a Hayden m6 and an hydraulic one that I'm not using.
PM me if interested.

 

I used the HD spring loaded one.

 

I had my new S&S engine installed at around 40+k miles and the primary chain was worn enough to replace it (according to the indy who did the work), also the compensator teeth were sharp, indicating that also was worn. The clutch sprocket was fine. So a new compensator and chain would be a good idea, plus a spring tensioner of some sort. I have an M6 and it has improved the ride noticeably.