Hi guys.

I've got dramas.
I have just aquiered a 1994 sportster 1200 from my old man. It has been stood still for a few years and not used at all.
Long.story short, I got half way home (2hrs) when I stopped for fuel. When I started the engine again I put it into 1st and released the clutch and got a horrible grinding noise. This only happens in gear with the.clutch being released.
Any clues? I would rather try and fix it myself.

 

Does the tranny have any oil in it? In Neutral the clutch hub is spinning on the input shaft, put it in gear and let the clutch out and it spins the tranny shaft and all the gears. Is the tranny dry?

 

My first thought is the riveted spring plate about in the middle of the clutch plate stack. Has brass rivets, and their reliability seems to be from great to pathetic; quality control problems by whoever makes them? When the rivets loosen and break free, they grind around in the clutch basket, bound to make some kind of noise. Before riding it again, I'd at least remove the big round clutch cover plate on the primary and see if I could feel any brass bits down in the bottom. If you have a jack, you could also pull the spark plugs (just so no compression to make it hard to turn) and have someone turn the rear wheel while you listen for bad noises from the open case. But the only way to be sure would be to pull the clutch plates, might not be showing any outside evidence yet - if that's where the noise is coming from.

How many miles on the bike? Some forum members have said they had clutch rivet failures before 15,000 miles, others have gone 60K+ with no evident problem. I pulled my '04 1200 clutch at about 30,000 miles, and all the rivets were loose, but none had fallen out or broken off yet; suspect that was a darn good time to junk it. I put in a Barnett plate set that doesn't use the riveted plate, and there are other brands with good ratings, too. The only special tool you need is a clutch spring compressor for Harleys; I just got the Barnett tool, worked fine and easy.

This is a serious problem if that's what you have; the clutch basket can be ruined if it's run too long with loose bits gouging it; I certainly wouldn't ride the bike again till I found the cause of that noise. Hopefully it's something simple, like needing oil, as Scrmnvtwins suggested - definitely check that first. You'll have to pull that clutch cover to check that, too. Let us know what you find, and good luck.

 

Upon closer inspection it seems as if there is not much oil in there. Would this be the problem

 

With the bike standing level, not leaning on the kickstand (might need help with that), the oil level should be even with the bottom of the clutch diaphragm spring. Since you can see there isn't much oil, I'm supposing you have the cover off already. It won't look like a lot of oil, but that's enough. When you do an oil change, a fair amount comes out; more there than it might look like.

If you need to go farther in there - removing the primary cover and taking anything apart - I'd get a manual if you don't already have one; sounds like you don't. You can get them as PDF downloads online, but some of that ebay stuff may be illegal reproductions. Amazon has a selection of printed manuals and a link to digital downloads that hopefully are legal, and an internet search will find all kinds of manuals. Personally, I like the Harley manuals best.

 

Cheers guys
I have had the primary cover off after drainage and there was a little / no oil in their.
No metal to be seen and just a little gunk on the plug. The gasket was absolutely welded to the sides so that should be fun to remove.
Any recommendations as to what to do from here? I.was just going to fill her up with some good quality oil and adjust the clutch accordingly to see if it's any better. I'm hoping the fact it was empty is the problem. Heat and expansion etc.
Suggestions?

 

Sounds like your best choice of action. Fill it up, adjust the primary chain and clutch, see how it goes.

John

 

How many miles on the bike Clark?

 

Just under 10k but I am not sure if that's accurate. Shouldn't be.any more than about 15k

 

Clutch plates should be ok then. Disclaimer: anything that can go bad on a Harley will go bad for somebody...

Let us know how it runs when you get it back together.