Hey guys I am a new harley owner of a purple FXDXT (have owned many other bikes but this is my first harley) I know harleys are known to make a lot of noises but this just does not sound right. It sounds like it's coming from either the transmission or the cam case. I have tightened up all the bolts to make sure it's not just a rattle. Previous owner says the bike has been upgraded to gear drive but had no paperwork or proof of the actual upgrade. Drained both oil and transmission last night and did not see any obvious signs of large metal in either, the transmission drain plug did have some small fine metal built up on the end of it. Any suggestions on where to go looking for the problem would be appreciated. Unless this is just one of those many noises a harley makes.

 

 

Doesn't sound right to me but I can't identify that noise on the video. I hope somebody else can give you some idea what that noise is.

 

Tough to diagnose online of course. Will say that gear drive cam conversion were heralded by many and not so much by others. Short story....some motors just didn’t do well with that conversion. I went with a gear drive in a 2001 FLHT Standard. The added noise was bad enough that I went back to the original chain drive set up with tensioners. In my case, noise problem solved. Checked tensioner pads every 10K or so and rode it for another 10 years. Never had to replace a tensioner pad, but if I did it wouldn’t have been a big deal. Harley updated those tensioner pads and best I can tell they worked well. So, might be worth considering.

 

My 02' RK sounded just like that. I swore nothing was wrong, it seemed to run fine. I started noticing small drips of oil on the garage floor, brought it to the shop and ended up having to replace half the engine because one of the pistons broke. It was rubbing against the side of the engine wall and dug a grove into it. Luckily I didn't have to pay for it.

 

Use either a short piece of rubber hose or a piece of wood (i.e. a broom handle) held close to your ear and with the engine running move around the engine/primary/transmission in order to locate the area where the noise is the loudest.

 

Not mine. Hope this helps.