I have been traveling on business and just now got back to this thread. Ron, the damage I spoke of to the rotor is actually to the cup attached to the magnet that holds the springs. You can see in the below picture the damage, and loss of metal from the comp bottoming out.



There is actually wear in the "teeth" of the comp and transfer of metal. Not to mention the shock loading to the crank, rotor and god knows what else. The next picture shows the words "NO SHARP BLOWS" on the cup. Imagine that[:'(]



I am still not sure which way I am going to go when I reassemble this but am leaning very heavily towards the EVO 30 tooth sprocket and throw the damn comp out in the snow[sm=headbang.gif]

 

Good God, do you have any spline left in the shaft extension. That's not from the comp bottoming out only as they all do it under load. That's from the comp bottoming out when in a loose state. The whole shaft extension has been moving in there. The rotor would have to be rattling around in there too. Splines on it are probably shot as well. It would be the first thing to self destruct when run loose. How's the crank splines? Like I said before, the comp assembly should still be good due to it being so friggin hard, but check the spline section of the cam itself. At the least you may need a shaft extension,for sure arotor/springpack assembly, and maybe the spacer that is in behind the rotor on the crank. Due to the hardness of the shaft extension I am somewhat concerned about the crank splines from the amount of rotational movement that's shown on the rotor, particularly the spline area where the rotor sits. I bet that was quiet when running. NOT. I hope your dealer didn't say the sound was normal? If you have ids the 30 tooth should work out fine for you. A new correctly installed orginal comp will be fine also with the ids, as your original was never tight enough from the start from reading your previous posts. It may have been marginal and quickly loosened with a few miles. It should not do that.
Ron

 

Yes, it worked loose, had it tightened in the middle of my 4k mile trip this summer. Believe it or not, the local dealer said this was "normal wear". I know normal when I see it and this is not it. I am hoping Gutman also see this as he is adamant there is not a compensator problem, nor do they come loose.

Splines on rotor are ok, I checked them.. The crank is ok although it is not going back in the engine as I am installing a JIM's 4-5/8 crank with the4.060 cylinders to go to 120". The spline area of the comp is showing wear. I do believe I am going to chuck it all and order the 30 tooth sprocket. Propely torqued, it will not give me any issues.

 

For me, that is not normal and the dealer don't know chit. As for the rotor, if the splines are good it should fit reasonably tight on the crank with almost no slop with just barely noticable back and forward rotation. Really sucks this happened in the first place but even worse that these highly trained techs can't figure out how they work and know how to fix them when there's a problem. Sound like you'll have a mean setup when you get it finished.
Ron

 

Hi,I have an 07 Dyna FXD,my bike ran great (apart from 5th gear clatter)for the first 1,000mls.or so then I started to feel a Knocking noise in the bottom end of the engine which coincided with vibration starting in the footrests etc.Took it back to the dealers they said it was the compensator needing adjusting or tightening,they did this 3 times up to 3,500mls.& I now know thanks to reading the forum (this section)a lot more about the compensator(what it is & does)I have spoke to the dealer both Service & Sales to tell them I want this noise & vibration gone!& they are saying that Harley now say this Compensator noise is NORMAL.I think I see a difficult time ahead with this.Any helporadvice you Guys could giveon how to put/fight my case with Dealer or Harley would be gratefully received.
Cheers,Graham.

 

The knock or clunk when starting, HD says is normal and it is from the compensator bottoming out. Also, If you take off from a stop and dont give it enough throttle, you will get the same clunk. I do all of my own work, but things got bad on a trip and took it to an out of state dealer, they pulled the primary cover and the service tech and manager indicated that the comp was loose, and had caused some damage. They would replace the entire assembly, but they did not have one in stock, so they put it back together and really tightened down the comp bolt. They said take it to my local dealer when i got home and have it replaced. Did that (warranty again) and they pulled it apart, looked at it and said nothing was wrong. (see pictures earlier in this post). I argued and got nowhere. Bottom line, short of it grenading the engine, you are not going to get it replaced unless you have an exceptional dealer who can push this through HD's warranty dept.

 

Just installed a .032 shim at the back of the springpack, and running it up to the wall in first was knock free, finally. For the time being that's the best I could come up with. Not going to buy the whole damn rotor just to replace the spring pack with another marginal one. When I first got the bike there was no knock. Started at about 2k. When I took it apart at about 5k the comp was tight. From what I can see, the disc washers either slighty take a set or the contacting edges wear slightly. With this comes lack of preload on the comp. There is very little to start with as mine only had .065 when I took it off. It now has .097, which don't sound like much but it should replace the initial wear back to the point of new or a bit more. I have no idea what it was when new. Starting knock was way less too, but that is somewhat normal is some sick way. Won't know anymore until spring but first test was good. If I ever get an IDS for this softail the comp will only work half as much. Don't expect help from a dealer to resolve the noise unlessthe comp islaying in pieces in the bottom of the primary.
Ron

 

Ron,
Where did you get the .032 shim? ALso, if using that thickness, would it not make more sense (here I go trying to use logic) to go with an even thicker shim, say .100 to keep the compensator from bottoming out?

I agree that buying another rotor is out of the question just to get the shim pack.

Guy

 

Dalton: Got a piece of 4130 sheet which I had laying around from my aircraft building days and made one at work on a lathe, and gave it a case hardening treatment (optional).When a comp bottoms out, it's the disc washers that are compressed flat to a solid wall. My calculations with the amount of spring travel left after intial preload put me about 1/16" less travel on the ramp than when I took it apart. My disc washers from what I could see and measure were good, but there was a slight wear area on the inner edges that will intially happen with a few cycles, or few thousand. Once theses edges are smoothed off the wear and stack length should remain constant for a long time. Basically what I did was replace the wear that happened from the new state plus a little for insurance. When you reduce the space in the springpack by going with a larger thickness of shim the comp will bottom the pack out sooner. If that happens it's somewhat pointless to even have it on the engine. I guess maybe .050-.060 could work as well, but it does not increase the pressure on the springs after a correct preload has been established. The spring rate is almost constant from preload to bottom from the testing that I did. That means a thicker shim will not increase pressure, only reduce cam/gear travel. It's a lot of bullshit to go through just to eliminate that dull rod knock sound when leaving the stop light, but it's behind me now. If that piece of crap gives me trouble again it's in the garbage with it and I'll go with the solid for sure. For anyone wanting to make the spacer it's 4.120 od x 2.785 x .032 thick. The sheet stock (4130)can be purchased through Aircraft Specialty Spruce, or any homebuilt aircraft supply co.
Ron

 

Treeextractor,
Is it the additional torque multiplication of the 30 tooth sprocket causing you to feel a need to upgrade the clutch?
Steven