Calling all FatBoy Lo Owners
Cruiser
Joined: May 2014
Posts: 104
Likes: 1
From: NJ
Okay...well...my engine blew up. 20,432 miles. Apparently on some twin cam engines the cams fail. HD service just said "it happens". They have to tear down the whole motor and see if its worth saving. An extended warranty dude is supposed to inspect it. All maintenance and service performed according to specs. Oil n filter changed every 3 months regardless of mileage. HD Syn 3. I miss my bike. Its been in the shop for 2 weeks and 4 days now. Its probably the longest I've gone without riding since I was overseas. I'm glad I decided to get the extended warranty...damn. Ride safe.
Elite HDF Member
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 4,501
Likes: 26
From: Sheboygan,Wi
Sorry to hear about that Fatburger. I hope they take care you on the extended warranty. My local shop just replace the engine on a 2012 Slim with 32,000 miles. Don't know if it was cam related or not. But they did get a brand new engine for it. Best of luck bud, hope your rolling again soon.
Advanced
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 68
Likes: 3
From: Pennsylvania
So, I'm looking at what different seat options are available. I like a couple of the Mustangs, but I have one kind of silly question. Their seats list the Fatboy under fitment, but no mention of the Lo. Are they (Fatboy vs Fatboy Lo) pretty much interchangeable?
At any rate, here's is my Lo when I brought it home.
At any rate, here's is my Lo when I brought it home.
Elite HDF Member
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 4,501
Likes: 26
From: Sheboygan,Wi
So, I'm looking at what different seat options are available. I like a couple of the Mustangs, but I have one kind of silly question. Their seats list the Fatboy under fitment, but no mention of the Lo. Are they (Fatboy vs Fatboy Lo) pretty much interchangeable?
At any rate, here's is my Lo when I brought it home.
At any rate, here's is my Lo when I brought it home.
Road Captain
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 635
Likes: 7
From: Sin City
Wow that blows, sorry to hear that. Interesting to know that it "just happens" why, poor design. Did the bike loose compression while driving, if you can take a second and educate me. Did the failure occur while in motion on the bike ? Did the motor just seize, shut down etc. Hope that get it repaired quickly for you.
Last edited by Fatburger; Jul 20, 2014 at 02:25 AM.
Road Master
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,248
Likes: 1
From: Jacksonville, NC
I guess I shouldn't have said "blew up". My engine was going to fail. It got me to the dealer before it blew up. After a trip to Reno the engine sounded like something was rattling around inside. It sounded way worse than just lifters. The techs at HD put new cams, cam door, shoes, tensioners and oil pump in and it still made they same noise so now they're tearing the whole engine down. I really hope I just get a new engine. We'll see what the Zurich extended warranty folks say. Meanwhile, I did some research on twin cam engines. Supposedly before 2006, cam failure was more common. Now because of improved cams, hydraulic oil pump, and shoes its not supposed to happen as quickly if at all. I don't beat on my bike. I don't do burn outs and high revs. I was just one of the unlucky ones to get a bad motor from the factory. Some guys checked their cams or had them checked after they read the article I read about this. If you ride hard for lots of miles and you want peace of mind you may want to do that. If you want to know more about "Harley Davidson twin cam engine failure" just enter it into the search on here. Don't freak out. If this happened to every twin cam engine with 20,000 miles on it, nobody would be buying Harleys. There are plenty late model twin cam bikes out there with many thousands of miles on them that never had this problem.
Ok may make some feel a bit better or not I have a 2010 Lo and around 20k I developed a ticking that would come and go and drove me nuts, I had it looked at and was told that was a bad lifter, so instead of having a shop pull apart (no warranty) I desided to due a cam swap and swaped out lifters at the same time, then when started up no noise.... After about a few houndred mile it returned, so added a 1/2 turn on the rear cylender pushrods and went away for about 50 miles... A bit frustrated did a bit of research and talk to a few engine builder and found out Harley has a issue with the rocker arm support rod, easy way to tell if that's your issues, warm up your engine and rev to about 2k or so and hold for 20-30 sec and let idle if goes away, there's your problem..... Was told usually just rear cylender and unless you have a miss or stumbling it's not not a big issue, so I'm going to hold off repair until I do my big bore, and replace them with s&s, until then going to ride on
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Road Captain
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 635
Likes: 7
From: Sin City
If you bought the extended warranty and have not modified the motor with non-harley parts, you're covered. For example if I'd swapped out the cams for Andrews Gear Driven cams the HD tech told me it would have voided the warranty.
Road Master
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,248
Likes: 1
From: Jacksonville, NC
Well I need a new switch for my passing lamps. I installed them a while back and I guess I torqued them a little too tight causing the powder coat to crack and in one case peel off. No problem, I'll just get a cheap set off the forum. Well I go to do the install and while removing the switch from the old set it just spins and the nut won't come off. I'm sure harley will only want 20 or 30 dollars for that. I figure that since I have the covers off I'll go ahead and try to adjust the headlight up since I left it where it was when I installed the trucklite. I couldn't get the adjustment bolt to budge at all. I'm about ready to take it to the dealer to have them do it for whatever exorbitant price they want. I'm sure they have some kind of impact wrench or something. Never had any trouble adjusting the headlamp on my old Fatbob. If anybody has any ideas on how to break loose that vertical adjustment bolt I'd love to hear them.