Ok, so I jumped into the bagger blues, with a 75' superglide, 01'softail, 04' American ironhorse, now a 07' streetglide with 96inch 6 speed
1st, like the ability to ride farther, less wind, (wife can actually go couple hours)!
Picked up used with 35k miles for 7k, runs well, true dual Reinhardt, all black everything else stock
Not use to the vibrations (rubber mount), has other vibrations at various speeds, actually 6th speed vibrates more,, gotta get new tires, but, other issues are
1st,: loud primary whirring sound,, most likely chain and new style adjuster ( check slack, got half inch or better)
​​2nd, dreaded transmission leak, gotta rip it down, it's not pouring, but 1,2 drops after a ride
3rd, radio , shuts down over half volume, 1 speaker not working,was all working when purchased
4th, starter is banging out here and there, mostly when hot!
I'll address the issues and then assess the value
any incite from all you experienced baggers appreciated

 

#3 - sounds like a blown voice coil/spider on at least one of the speakers. Will drop your ohms too low when it grounds and put the amp in protect mode.

 

Actually, it pops on and off, be going along ,all of sudden both working, then hit a bump or not goes out, might be loose connections, gotta rip apart
thanks

 

It's a 15 year old bike. It's gonna have some issues!

 

#1, #2, & #4 could all be from the primary...

Sadly, your primary has two sub-par parts in it... In an effort to "beef up" the drive train for the new 96" engine, the MoCo upgraded both the compensator, and went to an auto primary chain tensioner.... sadly, the MoCo's first attempt at both of those parts was a big failure... but the newest versions are much, much better...

The '07 primary chain tensioner was problematic to put it mildly. It was a poor design, and frequently over tightened the primary chain. That "banjo tight" primary chain could lead to issues with the inner primary bearing/seal and trans main shaft bearing/seal (could be the trans leak?). Luckily, in 2010, they upgraded the auto primary tensioner to the "B" version (#39929-06B). The newer version has several improvements and is far less problematic than the "A" version. I ran a "B" version in my 2016 bagger, with a 124" S&S engine @ 135HP & 151TQ with no issues.

Additionally, the '07 was the early version of the new improved compensator... again a big fail. There were numerous failures and several people went through a couple compensator replacements. A lot of the issues were due to weak spring packs and poor oiling. The newest version, also called the Screamin' Eagle compensator came out with the 2014 Rushmore bikes and can be retro fitted to the earlier bikes with the problem compensator. The new, best comp for your bike would be #40100061. While your banging could be a bad starter gear (among a few other things), the clunking when hot start-up or shut down, is also a symptom of a compensator going bad.... If you have a bad comp, and don't replace it, you will eventually need to repair the starter too...

Pop open your primary to inspect the tensioner/chain tension (I'd just get the new one and put it in, very easy to do) and the compensator. I'd also check closely to see if your trans leak is from the primary side of the trans... It could be related to an over tight primary chain..

Let us know what you find.....

 

My 01' is 21 yrs old and 04' 17 yrs no issues

 

I have an '01 Springer and '03 Heritage... both those primaries are virtually bullet proof... they have the old style compensators and primary chain tensioners. Of course, they both had the lame spring cam tensioners...

It was in '06 with the dynas and '07 all other models, when the new improved (albeit junk) compensators and auto tensioners were added to the primary.... the rest is history.

Here is a pic comparing the first version of the improved tensioner (bottom) and newer tensioner (top) together... not hard to see which one is better:



And here is a video that explains the progression of the compensator "upgrades"... he sure sugar coats it.. I especially like his comment, "They had a good design. But they were failing"... Um' failing comps means it's NOT a good design... oh well.. they finally put out a better design in 2014... 7 years later...

 

Thanks Hattitude for the info, I believe I have the newer HD tensioner, it's beefier at the neck ,as some pics describe the difference, but definitely going to upgrade both!

 

While ya got her torn apart you should consider doing the inner primary bearing and race...very likely the race has walked into the seal and is causing the leak. With all that stuff off you'll be able to check the main drive gear bearing by rotating the main/primary shaft by hand and feeling for any roughness or tight spots. It's not super common but mine was bad at about 40k and a friend of a friend was bad with 60k. Also look at the splines inside the clutch hub...you might find the first half inch or so are gone. Lots of crappy parts in those primaries but once you put some good stuff in you'll be trouble free for a long time.

 

Look into the S&S Easy Start cams. I put the 551's in my '07 FLHTCU about 20K miles ago and my bike, now with 68,000 has never run better.

I had all the symptoms of a "bad compensator". Batteries wouldn't last 2 years, starter clutch issues, loud bang from primary on hot starts. Was about to go to the trouble of replacing the comp with the SE but then read there were still problems with the way the oil in the primary bathed the comp and that unless you replace the primary cover with a new style that had some internal oil flow director bullshit or add some ridiculous piece of plastic that needed special epoxy (which at the time was not available anywhere in the US Harley parts database) in order to properly bond to the inside of your existing primary cover.........well, you get the idea.

I began doing some research and came to the conclusion (my conclusion and I'm not saying it will work for all compensator problems) that the BANG, CLANG, CLUNK was not caused by the compensator but was a symptom of a different problem. Hot start kickback. Now I don't have all the information at my fingertips anymore nor do I have the time to do all the research again but it has to do with the entire electrical/starter system and where the crank happens to be positioned and probably a lot of other things that I either don't remember or didn't even understand at the time but here's what I can tell you. Since I put the Easy Start cams in about four years ago. I'm on my same battery. My starter clutch no longer has fits and most importantly, I've not had a single BANG, CLANG, CLUNK startup since. Hot, cold or otherwise.

Now I did have to immediately put in a better clutch because I was pulling the snot out of the stock one and couldn't keep it from slipping above 4K rpm in any gear past 2nd . But I have the same stock compensator that previously sounded like the percussion section of a high school marching band and it's now as smooth as the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra on start up. Yes, the difference is that significant. I can't say enough about what the the Easy Starts did for me and once I got a good tune using a Power Vision my regrets are that I didn't do it years earlier.