I've searched and can't find an answer to my starter clutch issue and I also have a few compensator questions. I apologize for the potentially long post in advance.

I bought a 2010 street glide back in March of this year. It had the start up bang and after a lot of reading, I was convinced it was a bad compensator. Well, I read and read literally for months and after reading more and more about starter clutch issues I figured I'd put in an All ***** starter clutch and look at the rest of the starting system to eliminate the starter clutch and get a better idea of what shape the bike was in.

My reasoning was I'd read more than a few threads about what a great improvement the All ***** part was even on bikes where the owners felt they had no particular starting problems.

I looked at the battery and it is less than a year old and was purchased locally even though the bike came to California from Arizona sometime around December of 2016. It is a Deka battery. I made sure it was charged up and took it Friday at lunch and had it load tested. It is fine.

Friday night I pulled the starter and replaced the starter clutch. I had watched a ton of videos and everything went smoothly,...so I thought. I reassembled everything and now the starter is hanging up on the ring gear.Not as if it is electrically charged and continuing to crank but rather the starter bendix is hanging up and not being allowed to retract.

I pulled the starter back out and bench tested it, it operates flawlessly. I inspected the starter mating surface on the inner primary to make sure no debris was between the starter and flange and there is nothing there. The two dowels that the starter mounts to are fully in place . I made sure i tightened the starter evenly to avoid binding. The ring gear is not chewed up.

So I slept on it and pulled the primary cover today as I wanted to see how bad the compensator is. (All the threads I'd read about starter clutch versus primary had planted the seed of doubt). The bike has 61,000 miles on it so it was easy to believe I needed one. To my surprise, it shows very little wear in my opinion based on what I've seen on line. Please give me your opinion.

At this point, if I can figure out the starter problem I want to put the compensator back in and see how it sounds with the starter clutch operating properly. The thing that had me leaning towards a compensator was that most threads that reference faulty starter clutches reference warm start banging. Mine will bang cold starting as well. I still need to check voltage drops throughout the starting circuit as I haven't done that yet and know low battery voltage ,(or high resistance) can cause banging as well.

I was going to install 2 gauge battery cables preventatively as well but the starter clutch was supposed to be preventative and that's gone poorly so far. Has anybody experienced this problem or have any ideas? I apologize for the long post. I'm really hoping for feedback on the comp. pix. as well as insight on how I screwed up the starter clutch. I'm about to tear it down again and put the original starter clutch in it. I don't want to do that as now more than ever I'm suspecting it may be my real problem.

 

I have a 2010 Road King, I also installed the all ***** starter clutch assembly. my issue with starting occurred on both hot and cold starts. When I torn into the starter it was obvious what my problem was. It wasn't so much the clutch but the pinion gear that was worn. It solved my problem. when you tore it down was the gear worn?

 

Thanks for the reply. No, the pinion wasn't worn. If and when I take it apart again I'll take pictures. I was careful not to let the solenoid separate at all but like I said it's not cranking electronically, it's hung up.

If I can get someone who's done a few to give me their opinion on my compensator pictures I want to put that back together, install the starter and crank it with the outer primary off just long enough to see whats going on. If I take more pictures of the starter I'll pop one of the ring gear as well. This is driving me crazy. I'm a mechanic by trade....

The only other bit of info I have is that I did not replace the o rings when I did the starter clutch even though All ***** sent new ones. I didn't because the Harley O rings seemed more stout and weren't leaking. I'll change them out even though I can't see how they could make a difference.

 

When I was into my inner primary on my '06 FLHX, I had the same problem. ..turned out I had left out the spring in there...it had bounced away when I cleaned it!

​​​​​​​Not certain if that's germane to the 2010, but it's something to ponder.

 

All in all those parts of your compensator look good, a little wear on the shaft extension, but the main culprit with them is the spring pack and I don't see it in those photos. Did you remove it and inspect it?

 

His is a 2010.
If comp is stock spring pack is built into the rotor.
.

 

Correct, and I'll bet it's probably shot.

 

I haven't removed the spring pack but with it installed I can't compress the springs at all. I know at 61,000 miles the compensator has been replaced. Just a question of how many times? I will pull the spring pack today. Is there an actual test or specification for the spring pack?I'm going to take apart the clutch as well and look at it.

Having mechanical experience I would say the wear is very minimal compared to what I've seen on line. The shaft extension does show the most wear and honestly, it looks worse in the pictures than it does in person. While there is wear there is more rusty discoloration and the splines aren't rolled like a lot I've seen online.

I was also trying to ID the comp. The only markings I can find on it are "AP18" and what looks like an "M" inside a circle just before that. Like a registered trademark label but with an "M".

It's supposed to be 107 here today so I might throw in the towel midday. I want to get this handled though. I said I was a mechanic by trade. I was a Volvo tech for about 20 years before owning my own parts business. Now I make my living rebuilding electric motors, pumps and gear boxes. Yea, I deal with gears and bearings all day. The main reason the starter problem, in particular, is pissing me off.

I don't have an FSM for this bike yet but I've got one for my Sporty so I know how valuable they are and will be getting one. Thanks again for the responses.

 

HubBub, There is one ball that sits in the starter clutch, the all ***** clutch comes with it packed in grease so it is hard to see. If you put the original one back in the new starter clutch it will have the pinion gear too far out and won't clear the ring gear.

 

The ramps on your compensator don't look bad at all. The shaft extension doesn't look the best to me. The area of the sprocket than runs on that extension doesn't look so good either. Maybe it's just the picture. With 61K on the starter motor I would have just replaced it as a whole assembly. How much wear is on the bushings / bearings that the armature runs on? This may be the cause of the gear hanging up. Alignment of the armature may be off slightly due to the wear. Just something to consider.