Good day to all.

Running a 1975 FLH (74 inch) and for as long as I can remember I've had an irritating squeal when I take off from a standstill. Squeal is only in first, never in 2, 3 or 4. I'm running a dry clutch and a belt primary. Logic tells me it would be an issue with cable tension, I've let it out a bit and no appreciable difference. I tighten up the cable and I don't get full clutch engagement in the upper gears.

Any tips or tricks would be most appreciated.

 

Dry clutch ? Doubt a cable can make clutch squeal , may be time to pull the clutch pac apart and clean everything . My clutch will start doing that after a few month after a little wear and some crap gets in there , I run dry with a belt common thing .

 

Uh...it wouldn't happen to be a BDL "Quiet Clutch" would it?
I had one of those and I was never able to get it to stop squealing when engaging from a stop.
I talked to the folks at BDL and they sent me some "fixes" including two new clutches.
Nothing worked.
I gotta hand it to 'em at BDL. They really tried to help me with that squeal.
I went back to chain drive and installed a Barnett Scorpion clutch. I'm very pleased with this set up.

 

Got a BDL complete clutch and belt system I took out after 2000 miles never could quiet the damn thing down , sounded like a barrel full of cats rolling down a gravel road .

 

Nasty!!
I bet you don't miss it.

 

Whole thing was pain belts didn't fit too tight or too loose and the noise . I've run an open with exposed chain before on an old rat pan and it wasn't that bad . Still have the thing because I would feel guilty selling it to somebody knowing what it does .

 

I'm hip. Mine's sitting in a box. I don't know what to do with it. I'm using the engine pulley with an adapter I made to rotate engines. That unit has some outstanding design in it (clutch hub) but they came up short with the clutch.

 

I,m in the same boat. I have this beautiful, work of art performance machine, belt drive. Made by BDL. After 1,500 miles I just cant take the sequel noise anymore. It cost 2,500 dollars. But It has to go.