Have 40K on my Softail and have always used Formula + in the primary. Went thru the primary and got the runout close enough to run the primary chain one notch up tighter and still be in the chain play tolerance thru a complete index of the sprockets. Only had SYN3 and figured why not just put that in there. Since then everything seem to be fine with a lot less noise at idle. However now in about every 20-40 starts I get a bang from the start pinion not meshing quite right with the big gear. It goes on in and starts but just bangs before starting to crank. Is it the oil or just me running a tighter chain. Before I worked on it my run-out made me run the chain with 1" or so play.

 

my son had weird clunks, bangs and jerking while starting sometimes. found out the compensator was broken. has an 07 nighttrain 30+K on it

 

Check the starter gear bushing in the primary cover...If that bushing wears enough it will cause the starter gear to slip while turning over the engine!!!

 

Oil has nothing to do with the starter....they work just fine dry with belt drives. How tight are you running the chain? Could have damaged a bearing or compensator....too loose is always better than too tight. Could be the starter drive is starting to go south, and has nothing to do with your mods.

 

1/Good thought on the dry primary. 2/ Know it's not compensator. 3/Bushing looked good. 4/ When I was in there a few weeks ago I checked the bushings,compensator and all the bearing hoping it would be last time I needed to go in there and now got rind of the noise I had only to seem to create one. Chain was 1 " play and now is 5/8". Tried Harley's auto tensioner and it put it at 1/2" and I pulled it back out after 1 day. When I study the the starter drive it appears it works in two stages. The first is when you first hit the switch the solenoid engerizes the starter motor and spins the gear and then continues on in its travel forward engaging the ring gear. For the last 4-6 months I have been getting a slow initial 1/2 turn or so crank like the battery is low. Have pulled it twice and both times a check showed the reserve amps as fine. I believe it just may be the starter motor is not turning on fast enough till the gear drive jumps on forward and sometimes the non turning gear catches the ring gearwith gears centered rather then slide in. That's what it sounded like last night. (been trying to carefully listen at each start) Think that would be the easy thing to try since it appears I can get the solenoid contact out with out pulling starter. On mine the primary has to come apart again and the oil tank needs pulled to get starter off. Interesting but all the bangs have been on cold starts (primary chain gets tighter when engine is hot) except last night and that was the one it went clack as metal to metal and then started cranking. Was not real loud. A few days ago I thought something broke it was so loud.
Really appreciate your thoughts.

 

Are you sure your primary chain is adjusted right? A lot of people adjusted the chain but didn't rotate it and check it several times. Not sure why the chain can be right ---rotate some and then be tight.

 

At about 25k after the primary had been into 3 times by dealer I got tired of noise and discovered alternator rotor spline drive was gone and only thing driving alternator was pressure from compensator spring. As it slipped slightly it would wear the pressure area more and rattle more and the dealer would say nut was loose and hit it up tight and charge $50. more since it had the extended warranty. After they milked it till warranty ran out I finially gave up and went in and fixed it my self. More details in my albums. By this time the spline was pretty warn in the rotor area and the front sprocket was running out about .007 So when it was all together as you checked the chain at different areas (by rotating it in 5th with spark plugs out and turn rear wheel, the tension went from little over 1/2" to a little over 1" of play. However this last time in (third for me counting removing autotensioner I tried) I got run-out within .001 and chain tension remains between a tad less then 5/8 and 3/4" of play. The manual tensioner bumps due to the v locks in it are about 1/8" steps in chain slop.

 

Starter bang in a TC96 or on some 88's is usually the POS compensator springs collapsing....get a SE compensator. It is not the oil.