I rode out to my Harley dealer to purchase some oil for the 40,000 mile service. As I was riding out I thought I heard a funny noise in the engine. Sounded like a like a rattle. I had the Harley mechanic come out and he wasn't sure if it was the top end or bottom end. Maybe the compensator nut was loose. I leave the trike and they call and say the crank is bad and debris has gone throughout the engine. I have the extended warranty so now I am waiting for a person from the warranty place to come look at the engine and see whether they want to rebuild my engine or put a re-manufactured engine in. Meanwhile I am sitting a foot during Sturgis. Anyone heard of this happening anywhere? Someone said 103 cranks are soft.

 

4500 miles my 12' went to crap. They put a new motor in. Had they said rebuild there woulda been some words said at that milage.

In your shoes and if you still have good parts to rebuild. I would let warranty pay for labor and oem parts costs and pay extra to have a bullet proof motor rebuilt.

 

You got 10k more miles than I did on my 103" build. The stock flywheels are not soft, they lack the stability to keep the crank pin from shifting. Harley uses a pressed in plug to hold the connecting rods in place. Over time the load placed on the engine with either weight or hard take off and high rpm down shifting will cause the flywheel on some engines to shift the crank till it destroys itself internally

Rebuilding or replacing with another stock built engine is crap shoot especially when it comes to the flywheels for a engine in a trike . Even the SE flywheel assembly would need to be sent out to be trued, plugged and welded to ensure the connecting rod assembly wont shift again.

I would suggest if you decide to keep the trike, have a 117" built for your trike. Depending on how the pinion side of the crank looks meaning its not too scored to have the flywheel assembly rebuilt. Get them done by Dark Horse crankworks, have a good shop bore the engine case for the larger cyl from S&S, have your stock heads reworked from a good head porter, use a good torque cam and you will have a stronger engine with a bullet proof crank in the engine.

I can recommend a few to deal with if you choose to go that route

 

That is truly a pisser.

Same thing happened with my Road King at around 60k miles (the week before Sturgis). Crank twisted, then sent debris thru the engine.

I had an extended warranty and they did a reman. Took 6 weeks. I took advantage of the "new" motor in it as a good time to sell.

I am half expecting the same/similar to happen with my TG. I figure the heat it went thru before they replaced the top end under warranty must have put some premature wear on the bottom end...

Or, all my hard take-offs will eventually result in a twisted crank.

Unfortunately for higher mileage riders, HD is making the Twin Cams more and more disposable because it suits their bottom line, because the majority of their Customers are low-mileage riders that rarely have an issue with it.

Hope they get you back in the wind quickly.

 

+1 One of the reasons I will not reward Harley by spending any more of my hard earned money on a new Trike or Bike, their in it for the bottom line and to hell with the customer. Once the 2 year warranty is past their in the clear and the customer is left holding the goodie bag. I figure if I have the itch to add another Harley to my stable it'll be an older model used, or maybe I'll check out the new Indian.

 

I truly agree with you. I t would be nice to see the new Indian as a trike. I wish Honda would also come out with a trike. I wish I had triked my 02 Ultra and upgraded the engine now. I think a lot of people are in for a big surprise when they get some mileage on their trikes.

 

Well I have 7000 miles, probably time to sell....

Sorry about the engine, let us know what happens

 

Despite what I said above, I would buy my TG again. I don't trust any Twin Cam engine, in a TG or a 2 wheeler, that is why I have an extended warranty.

 

That's why I took out the extended warranty also. I was lucky with this trike and never had any warranty problems during the two years Harley warranted for. I just hope they get it taken car of quick as I have a couple of overnight rides planned towards the end of August and I really do not want to cancel them. I am hoping the warranty person makes it out to look at my bike today. I am a firm believer in the extended warranty for a Harley. The least little breakdown is so expensive.

 

I had better luck dealing with my extended warranty than I did with my dealer and the 2 year factory warranty.