2011 103ci Street Glide - 18000miles

Ive been chasing a weird knock I can feel through the highway pegs that feels like motor to me for the entire year. I can feel it at specific loads and RPM and seems to be in sync with muffler cadence. I felt that maybe on ignition stroke the compensator maybe was giving just a bit and creating that knock as it only happens under slight load maintaining speed. Off throttle or hard on throttle I can't feel it.

Being familiar with compensator issues and the fact that I'm at 18000 miles, I began to think maybe it was the compensator failing. Most recently I began to notice a clunk at shutdown which I have read is a symptom. When I shut the bike off it ends with a clank on its final engine rotation.

I cracked open the primary today to look. Looking for opinions on my compensator photographs. I was expecting much more wear in my head. Is this really worn or normal? I also noticed 2 gouges in the clutch basket. They look like they were material defects rather than gouges because they are rough and not a smooth uniform gouge. The plug had some debris on it but didn't seem horrible to me. The chain probably had 3/4" of travel in it when pushed up. The interior of the primary cover also had some weird scratches on it. I used Redline the last 9000 miles.

Thanks for your time guys. Appreciate any help. Im prepared to put a compensator on it over winter. Just want to know do I need one?

 

You need to remove the compensator assembly in order to inspect it. Changed mine on my 2013 at 19K. I find the clunk at start up to be far more irritating than the clunk when you shut the bike off. Mine had gotten bad and would clunk any time i started the bike when it was worn.

My 2013 came with old "new" upgraded compensator assembly. I replaced it with the new for 2014 upgraded version and added a Compensaver oiling tray from GMR performance to the mix for good measure.

I am a little over 50K miles now and it is still much better than it was with the original comp. One of these days I'll crack the primary and take a look at it. I am running the plastic oiling tray on the outer primary cover, the Compensaver tray which mounts off the compensator bolt and it seems to be working a lot better than stock as I have an extra 11k miles on this setup and it rarely clunks on startup. Yes, you can hear it when you turn the bike off, but that is the nature of the beast.

Here are some pics of the wear on my original compensator at 19k miles. You can see the spokes are worn a bit (although I have seen much worse)

For comparison sake here was the new part before installation.

Here is the other piece and pic is terrible but you can see the wear.


Here is the Compensaver tray which has been well worth it thus far.
http://gmrperformance.com/products/compensaver/



Here is everything installed (except the plastic tray that comes with the new comp) as it is on the inside of the primary cover.

I took this to the dealer for "warranty" and they called me in and had me look at the comp like your pic above. I told them it had to be removed for inspection. This is not something I want to get into here but needless to say it was not covered under warranty.

My engine is all stock with a stage 1 and a Power Vision in case you are wondering. I also bought a Baker compensator but sold it to a buddy in need and have yet to see a need to change anything. Time will tell.

 

To the OP-That is more crud than I like to see on the drain plug magnet. What was your change interval? (miles since last changed)

Also, 3/4 of an inch of play is a bit high for the primary chain. I had the same problem. My stock auto adjuster was not working. Primary chain got so loose, it carved a groove on the inside of the cover. You could hear the chain hitting the case under hard acceleration. I replaced the HD adjuster with a Hayden. No more problems with that.

 

Loosen and re-torque the comp bolt to 170 pounds and see if that stops it.
The wear looks about normal but you'd have to turn the gear over (take off) to be certain.
Could be a loose bolt, or what I've been seeing lately, weak comp springs.

Also, flatten the crud on the magnet out across a piece of paper to see if there is any solid metal in it.

 

Thank you guys for the assistance! I don't think the bolt is loose because I can't get the #$#@#@$ thing off. My impact did nothing and anytime I wrench on it manually the compensator moves and compensates for the torque. I have the gears locked so they can't move but I got nothing. Borrowing the old mans impact tomorrow which is better than mine.

I could definitely see the springs being weak as part of the problem.

My Primary fluid was at around 9K. Only has been changed that one time that I know of. Bought the bike with 9K on it. Switched all the fluids that day.

 

Uhhh …..
I would heat that bolt to soften the red Loctite before I try putting another impact wrench on it!

 

I put some heat on the head of the bolt. Didn't work. Afraid to heat up any other parts. I don't know whats hardened or heat treated in there. Or if any bearing seals might get residual heat.

 

Spring pressure is the big enemy, pull the comp and take a look at the rotor. The springs are probably digging into the rotor which will allow them to relax.Once they relax enough, bye bye spring pressure hello, clunk, bang, knock.Also time to welcome your new guest starter kick back.

 

I'm absolutely sure Mark (@Baker) will have the best advice for this but don't use an impact if you have a long wrench and breaker bar. When using the bar you can feel - like if you are going too far etc rather than having an impact hammer the thing to hell not knowing if you're screwing something up before it's too late. It's also not good on bearings and such.

Make sure you are locking the clutch hub and comp sprocket together really good by using a 5 and 15/16th inch or something locking tool (or something about that long). That way the comp should not rotate.

So when the comp is first put on, the bolt is lock tighted. So later after a little wear you go to tighten the bolt and it's stuck good and feels like it's tight enough when it's really the lock tight and not the assembly.
That's why you need to break the bolt loose, clean it and the crank threads real good, and re-install it at 170 foot pounds. To take up any slack.

Worth trying anyway...

 

Good information. I can tell you I have the sprocket locked. The Compensator sprocket doesn't move. The engine crank does and rear compensator lobes are what moves. No way to lock that down. Maybe thats a sign that the springs aren't tight enough as others have posted since I can turn the whole compensator 1/8 turn with hand tools.