once in a while, say two to three times on a three hour ride, i will be at a stop, start to throttle up, let clutch out and i hear a rattle rattle rattle coming from what sounds like the front half of the engine. its mechanical. cant reproduce it. i pull clutch in, get the rpms up and the let the clutch out again. no problems second time out. seems it happens on times i ease out instaed of really hit it, but it is notin jeopardy of stalling. i have been riding 30 years, so not a rookie.

bike has less than 500 miles on it and i am definitely mentioing it at my 1000k service, but do you have any ideas? something to do with the cyclinder shutoff?? cant imagine - hasnt been very hot here. anyway, your opinion is appreciated.

tin

 

The only thing I can think of (and has happened to me) is the low rpm timing is to far advanced and it's pinging a bit under load when you take off. Getting the rpm up and slipping the clutch a tad more will reduce the load and stop the ping (short of a dyno tune). That's the best I can think besides things that are bolted on that can come loose.

 

Kinda tough to hear sounds over the Internet... I had a slight, almost imperceptable rattling type sound coming from the front of the primary on my '10 Ultra. It was most prevalent letting the clutch out and sometimes you could hear it after a cold start at warm-up RPMs. I didn't notice it until it had 3 or 400 miles on it. At the freebie 1k at the selling dealer everybody just kinda shrugged and didn't know what to make of it. "Maybe it's the auto adjuster?" More shrugging, nobody seemed concerned as I was.

I took the bike to another dealer with great service and parts where I just can't seem to buy a bike. Lady Service Mangler and senior tech gave a listen and within 5 seconds of startup they both said simultaneously "that's gotta come apart!"

When they tore into it the compensator sprocket and clutch assembly was out of alignment, everything was way out of spec. H-D readily agreed to a warranty comp replacement. Knowing the '07+ comp sprockets are a weak POS I picked up the difference on the upgrade to the SE comp.

Started up after the fix and the noise was still there only not nearly as pronounced. D'OH! Thinking it just might be the auto adjuster I put the bike in gear, engine off, clutch engaged and rocked it back n forth against the drivetrain's resistance. No noise after that. Did the comp contribute to the noise? Dunno. I feel a lot better having the SE comp in there though. Especially after seeing the two parts side by side! I know the SEs come OEM with the SE comp sprocket, don't know if the Limiteds do.

You might try the shadetree method of getting the adjuster to click up a notch. I suspect mine was just shy of clicking up to the next notch and my nudging it convinced it to adjust. If you have no luck have 'em give a listen at the 1k. If you don't get satisfaction or they say "they all do that" find another dealer.

TL

 

sound is similar to an empty spray paint rattle can shaking it very quickly. maybe a little higher pitch.

 

Sounds like detonation (pinging)...had that happening on my LTD with engine loaded and with it unloaded...

Pinging was caused by "canned" download being "way" off...running too lean in midrange and too rich on the top end...dyno tune fixed it (yesterday) but hot cat "yellowed" right-side slip-on...not sure what to about it...B

 

Don't listen to it too hard, finish breakin it in. I had a few weird sounds coming from my bike (mostly chit in the saddle bags). Once i hit about 2500 miles it was smooth as silk.

 

Tin Cup, what were the results your noise?

I backed mine out of the garage, the wife loaded up and it made the same type noise you described. It was pretty loud and sounded like something dragging. I would almost sware you could feel it too. Like it wasn't all the way in gear but I know it was. I stopped to check if something came off and was dragging. The wife heard it too. No problems the rest of the day, only on the first takeoff.

 

Mine does this as well. There was a post on here awhile back about the same thing. Apparently it's "normal" for the 09s and 10s.
Another complaint is that you hear it rattling at idle and when you pull in the clutch it goes away. Let out the clutch and it's back.
A lot of folks think it's the comp, but have it replaced and find it's still there.

I'm just going to run the bike till something breaks....or don't. I'm starting to appreciate the little noises the bike makes. No worries.

lp

 

You can chase noises till the cows come home on the new bikes. Get some more miles on the bike and don't worry unless it really gets noisy.

 

my limited does the same, just sounds like its lugging a little from takeoff. more throttle, less noise