So I took the new to me 2011 FLHTK on a road trip this past weekend. About 250 miles into the Adirondacks from Maine. Had her freighted up and riding 2-up with the wife. All seemed wonderful until we got to our destination. Pulled up to the place we were renting, popped the bike in neutral, and immediately started hearing a rhythmic knock from the primary. Enough that my non-mechanically inclined wife even noticed. Put it in gear, let the the clutch out to the edge of the friction zone, and it went away. this was now midafternoon on Saturday. My gut feeling was that it sounded like the primary chain slapping the case...

Having just done my first clutch adjustment on the bike, I had all kinds of "oh crap, what did you screw up now?" type stuff running through my head. Unloaded the bike and brought our gear inside, settled in, and discovered we had access to a garage. Perfect. Went back outside, fired up the bike to put it inside, and, lo and behold, no knock. Sounded totally normal.

Sunday, decided to take it out to have a listen, so we headed out. Every time we pulled up to a stop, I was listening. Nothing. Sounded normal to even my paranoid ears when riding. Got down into some traffic in Lake George, and the knock started back up. Only at idle. Decided to continue on to McDermott's Harley in Fort Ann, to see if the service guys had any ideas. By the time we got there, the knock had gone away again. And the service department was closed. The guys behind the sales counter were nice enough, but didn't offer any input.

Decided to take a chance and head north to Ticonderoga, then loop back around the west side of Lake George to get back to where we were staying. Stopped at the fort but decided not to spend the $40 to get in - but there went the knocking in the primary again.

Headed out and back around the lake - no more knocking for the rest of the trip.

Somewhere on the west side of the lake, it occurred to me that this bike has EITMS, and the knocking was only happening when things were hot, and the bike was idling. Only time it happened was at 230-240 oil temps (240 was about as high as I saw the whole trip) and at idle. I've never had a bike with EITMS before, and have never experienced it in operation. Does it make noises like this, or do I have other issues?


Dan

 

If it only makes the noise when "in neutral" you probably are experiencing what thousands of others hear. It is commonly known as "neutral rattle".
It was so prevalent that the MOCO even issued a service bulletin which was made available on the companies intranet website for technicians. According to the blurb there is no harm in the noisy rattle and urges technicians to explain this to concerned riders who have this noise. It does not present in all bikes, only some and has to do with tolerances which occur in the gear set of the 6 speed transmissions.

Google the words "neutral rattle" without the quotes and you will see lots of explanations, most of them better than mine.

 

the little bit I've read since I got home last night (no service where we were staying) seems to indicate neutral rattle is from right side around transmission cover?

This is left side. Happens in gear (at least first, didn't think to try going to second) with the clutch disengaged, as well as in neutral.

 

Is it possible that your hearing a common muffler bracket squeak? With the fairing and the ground, sounds will bounce all over the place. When the brackets squeak, it's usually only at idle and can be intermittent when it starts to rear it's ugly head. If you hear the noise again, get off the bike with it running and put your boot up against the end of the tail pipe and see if the noise stops.

The first time it happened to me it drove me nuts trying to figure out where it was coming from. It did sound like it was coming from the engine.

Quick fix is to spray the brackets with WD-40 or even better, a dry silicone spray. Better fix is to replace the rubber pad in the bracket.

Hope this is it since it's not going to hurt anything and is easy and cheap to fix.

Good luck.

 

Could be a loosening/ or failing compensator. If it were me I'd take a look

 

They do sound pretty strange when the rear cylinder shuts off.

 

I'm not sure of the '11 FLHTK's have this and/or if it's only on the Boom 6.5 screen, but if you toggle the "info" button on the right grip, you get a screen on the 6.5 which has, ambient temperature, oil pressure and EITMS "enabled" or "disabled". When and if the EITMS activates, it changes to "active". Perhaps you can match what you're hearing to what the screen tells you is happening with EITMS.

 

This. I would definitely want to have a look--or have a qualified indie have a look....

 

This is certainly a concern in my mind. If it is a failing or loosening compensator, anything I can do to try to induce the knock to demonstrate?

I'm able to arm/disarm the EITMS system, but as far as I know, there is no visual indicator that it is active on my '11. I'm not fully convinced it was even active - as the knock would have been the only significant change that was going on....

 

• Turn the ignition switch to the ON position and push the engine OFF/RUN switch on the right handlebar to the RUN position (the motorcycle may be running or not running).
• Push the throttle to roll-off position (forward) and hold.
• See Instrument Lamps. After approximately 3 seconds, the cruise indicator lamp will either flash green (EITMS enabled) or orange (EITMS disabled).