was going bad? With all the talk lately about the standard compensator on the later model bikes and with HD moving to the SE compensator on the 2011 models how do I tell if I am having a problem? Sorry for the ignorance but I guess I do not really understand what it does completely.

 

Mine had hot restart issues, sounded like the crank snapped or the primary chain slapped the case when it kicked back. Also had shutter on take off sometimes, kinda like clutch chatter mainly when two-up riding. Now that I have the SE compensator both of these issues seem to be resolved and the engine even seems to have less vibration. If the moco didn't know they were having a problem, you can beleive they wouldn't have upgraged the 2011's to the SE as a stock item.

 

I have another thread running regarding the SE Compensator, but can tell you that, according to my local dealer, Harley says there is absolutely no problem with the OEM compensator, starting with the redesigned one from model year 2007 and newer. When I questioned ‘why’ Harley has replaced that compensator with the SE version, starting with model year 2011, the dealer told me that ‘it wasn’t due to it being a weak link or a problem, it was because H-D wants to REDUCE parts inventory numbers.'
At this point, unless one of our forum veterans states that to be true, sorry, I don’t buy it.

 

Fancy word for a cushion mounted on end of crankshaft that the front chain sprocket mounts to. It gives some give to absorb shock and actual take some harshness out of the v-twin engine that you would fill otherwise.The engine drives a three v shaped fingers drive that face outward. The sprocket is attached to a similar drive that faces inward . What keeps them together is a spring unlike what most people recognize as a spring. It is a spring steel washer shaped similar to a funnel. They are called belleville springs. They are actual three of these springs that keep the v-shaped fingers together and normally there is no shake between them. They give some give by allowing the fingers to rotate slightly as force push then apart and compress the springs. They can only move apart so far and can never get far enough apart to allow little more then 45 degrees of rotation. They can never turn a complete turn. There is some more pictures of it in my albums under grf000. In my attachment you can see the opposing v-finger drives and the cup with the belleville spring in it. Once the spring cup is on the space between the fingers is not there like you see it in the picture. There is little difference in the regular and the SE compensator except that the SE is slightly bigger and I assume the springs are slightly thicker. I can understand why Harley does not want this part too stiff. It would be cheaper for them to just not use one but they would be replaceing 90% of the drive line components -primary drive,clutch,transmision,rear belt on the bikes because they would not make it a year for even the average ride.

 

I don't buy that either, as I understand it just the touring line is getting the upgrade. If they were reducing inventory why would't they adopt it across the board?