Wondering if anyone has had/heard this whining noise issue on their softail? Usually occurs after I'm done riding/after bike has been hot. Most of my riding is highway, 70-80mph+
Thinking it's cam chain tensioners but would love some opinions if ya got em.

Bike has about 20k miles on it, everything else runs completely fine. Just adjusted clutch and new primary fluid as well.

Appreciate it!

 

If not the cam chain tensioners, it could be the primary chain too tight, or the counter balancer tensioners.

 

That bad boy looks brand new....

Put a two-ear mechanic's stethoscope on it. Try to isolate as best as possible where it's coming from. That could be a broken tensioner on the cam chains and the chain running on the pin.

That's low mileage, but they get hard and crack with age and hot oil.

You're turning some high RPM with that 88 TCb and a 5-speed at 80mph. The safe as designed maximum speed for two up is 80 and 90 one up. That was as new out of the crate in 2000.

The rwo balance rotors have two hydraulic tensioners and the chain is roller. There is a small screen filter in the cam plate for the system.. Once grooved in, wear ceases.

Sure age could break one, but they're big. I have never seen a balance chain tensioner fail on here on the balance system.

Have seen one failure here. The bearing went bad on one balancer rotor. User did not discover it, but the drag had forced the drive sprocket on the crank shaft to rotate.

Actually, who discovered it was a sponsor on here, the user sent the crank to be rebuild and weld the crank pin.

He called it out and user then caught the rough bearing.

If you isolate the sound to the primary, check alternator rotor spline. Mine went and remained undiagnosed. Dealer just diagnosis was crank bolt was coming loose, and tighten it twice under warranty.

The compensator spring will drive the rotor, but slipping wears a face groove, and sprockets misalign. Mine sounded like that idling. In a hard, slow left-hand 180 turn, banked over, it would also tick.. There is only 1/32" maximum misalignment before sprockets nip chain links.

I finally took it all apart and discovered it at 30k. Still under the extended warranty, I carried the parts in, thinking I had done them a favor. They told me to put it back together, and they would fix it, but normally, they would have to void the warranty for me doing that.

The bike has never been back.

The attachments below are our out of the bike I described above. I forget USER name. Was a highly skilled heavy equipment mechanic. Did his own work in a shop. His bike developed a knock. No one could figure out what.. That issue was the pin bushing in the connecting rod had turned. Note the connecting rod has a piston clearance angle on sides of pin bore. Bushing turning, that wide width was hitting up inside the piston at the bottom of the stroke.

That one side of the case half is how the mother ship did it and put it together like that with the machine error.

PS The balance can fail however, probably from people beating on a TCb banging the rev limiter and high RPM..

AI Google
A failing Harley Twin Cam balance shaft (or issues with the crank/sprocket assembly it drives) causes excessive vibration, loud clanking/whirring noises from the crankcase, potential oil pressure loss, rough idle, stalling, difficulty finding neutral, and eventually catastrophic engine failure (like broken crank or damaged bearings), often signaled by a spinning crank and pinion runout.

 

Awesome I'll look into it! Bike is dam near brand new, bought it with about 12k miles on it but take good care of it. I appreciate the response!

 

Just adjusted the chain not too long ago and then also have a chain tensioner in there as well. Had to put a new gasket on from a primary leak but other than that I'll give the chain tensioners a crack. Thanks!