I have a 2002 FXD that I picked up two years ago. My previous bike was a 1982 FLH and I was amazed how much more mechanical noise there was from the FXD engine!

With 44K miles on it now I decided to pull it down this fall to check the cam chain tensioner shoes. While I am at it, I'd like to make any other changes to get rid of as much of the mechanical noise as possible. (Rockouts are definitely on the list!)

I was thinking about changing to an S&S gear drive but understand they can be more noisy than chain drive cams unless the gears are carefully matched. (I also don't know yet if my engine pinion shaft run-out is within limits for a gear drive.)

What else can/should I do to lessen the mechanical noise while I have the engine open?

 

When I switched from dino motor oil to synthetic I noticed there was more mechanical noise with the synthetic. It doesn't bother me, but if you're using syn than maybe change over to dino.

 

Louder pipes...ear plugs

 

I put an S&S 510G gear driven set of cams in last Christmass in my 05 Softail Deluxe. It made almost no more noise. If you go this way, check your crank runout. Harbor Freight has a decent enough dial gauge with a gooseneck clamp. Mine was well under the 0.003" limit. Use adjustable S&S pushrods. It's ballpark $750 in parts. A little more if you replace the OEM lifters with something like S&S. I reused my OEM lifters at about 39K miles. This all may or may not quiet things down, but you'll be thrilled to death with the change in performance and the fact you never have to do tensioners again.
You might want to do the lifters anyway in hopes that you catch something that's starting to make noise, plus it's probably a good idea in general. Follow the S&S instructions to the "T". They show you how to preload the lifters, etc.
If you've wrenched your bike regularly, it's a very doable job.

 

Thanks BK, I am leaning toward the S&S gear set. I don't need any more performance but I like the idea of no more chain tensioners. At my age, I don't want to have to be 'cracking the case' regularly to do inspections. While it is apart, it just makes sense to put in new lifters.

 

Gear drive units are not noisy as a rule, whatsoever.
Harley-Davidson motorcycles were always gear driven, prior to the T/C's.
We have clients with modified Shovel's, and Evo's that have less mechanical noises than some untouched, OEM T/C's.
Scott

 

I'm pretty much in the same boat Dianne.

My attempt to quiet things down some will include S&S lifters and adjustable pushrods (a little more preload), rock out sleeves, CYCO tensioner shoes, and at least inner cam bearings. I'll have the heads off to get the valves serviced, and I'm still on the fence about using S&S 509 cams.

It runs "good enough" now, but a bit more low end punch would be nice. It gets really good fuel economy and I'd hate to mess with that for the sake of a bit more hill climbing grunt. I'm not a WFO all the time kind of rider.

Mine isn't super noisy until it gets hot. Like after a ride of several hours. It was with forum opinions along with my own, how I came to this course of action.

The bike has never failed me, although once I was pretty worried being 400 miles from home and about 100 miles from any kind of civilization. It was clattering pretty bad after starting it back up to move it couple hours after stopping for the day from a 300 mile ride. The lifters had bled down, and it sounded like it was about to spit out its guts. Caused me a bit of a sleepless night trying to figure out what I was gonna do "in the event of." As it turned out, all was back to normal in the morning!

The work may not produce the results I'm after, but I have to try.

 

Scary Mike! I'd be worried about it too.

Mine doesn't seem to be lifter or push rod noise but just a mechanical noise when running. It doesn't seem temperature dependant either.

Good luck with your changes!

 

Thanks Dianne.

In that case, someone on another noise thread suggested loud pipes and earplugs!

 

Hi Mike, that was me, a few posts back.
The comment may have come across as snotty, but it wasn't. Most folks that ride these things make use of one or the other, or both.
Some of the reasons...
(Don't know about the M8s)..the Twinkies are noisy.
They're air cooled with pretty big cooling fins, when the TCs came out their claim to fame was 50% more cooling fin area over the Evos. Cooling fins amplify sound, unlike water cooled motors where the coolant absorbs a lot of the sound on the inside parts working away...you get the picture.
The rocker arms make noise, it's a hit and miss thing, some make a racket, others a smaller racket, but they all make a racket. There's a solution for that too, it's advertising in this site somewhere
The cam chains, now they're relatively quiet. When they get noisy, you've got tensioner problems.
The gears aren't really noisy, they're sort of whinny, some sound like a squirrel in heat trapped behind the cam cover... I kid you not!
Mechanical noises are ok once you're familiar with them. They let you know things are working in there. If you really wanna hear how smooth your valves are operating under all that racket by the rest of the valvetrain, put on a set of ear plugs, the foamy type. They'll mask all the bangin and clangin, while you get to hear how your valves are really behaving against their seats and in their guides.
And that is ok, cause an air cooled Big Twin with 100 year old technology, no matter how refined, is gonna be noisy.
What's good sound and what's trouble, and how to tell the difference...just gotta keep riding