oh yeah

 

dont know how this can be.lol

 

Starter heat soak. Read up on it.

The problem (at least for me) is not the compensator. The clank, bang, boom was a symptom of the heat soak issue and not the fault of the compensator. I think this is the cause of many (I'm not saying all, but many) compensator noise and eventual failure. But rather than continuing to replace the compensator (multiple times in many cases) find out what the cause is. In my case the new cams with the easy start feature made all the difference in the world. I've had hundreds of flawless starts since the cam upgrade and prior to that I was having the problem starts at least 70% of the time on cold starts and it got to 100% on hot starts. It got so bad it was embarrassing to stop and get gas. I knew as soon as I hit that starter button after a fill-up it was going to sound like my engine was about to explode. And I'm not BS'ing you when I say my batteries wouldn't last 2 years. In fact I only got 18 months out the last one before the cam swap (and all of my vehicles batteries are on tenders 100% of the time they are not being driven). Now, several years later I'm on the same battery and getting flawless starts EVERY TIME I hit the starter switch.

I can only tell you what my real world experience is. I'm sure the cam upgrade along with the beefier clutch and then a PV tuner was a bit more money than just the compensator swap would've cost but I did the work myself and the added benefit of the increased performance and no more compensator racket made it so worth the effort for me and my bike now with about 75K miles runs better than it ever has. As I said, I wish I'd done it sooner.

 

Also, all the above talk about the weak battery is correct. The fact is, or the question that should be asked is: What is causing the battery to be weak? It's the strain that is put on it every time you hit the starter button. And it's much worse when the entire system is heat soaked. After awhile it reduces the battery's ability to effectively do its job. However, again the battery is not at fault but just like the compensator, it takes a beating until it finally just gives up. You replace the battery with a new one and you think all is good, and it is...for awhile. Then the entire process begins to break down all over again.

I really have no dog in this fight and I don't care whether or not you all call BS on my theory but I truly believe that many of these compensator replacements could be avoided by reducing the strain on the cranking system during start-up. Either a compression release or the marvelous design of the easy start cams will do just that.

 

Or it could be an old battery that needs to be replaced.

 

With the bike running clutch pulled and in gear, hold the front brake lever and slowly leave out the clutch to load up the motor do you hear any banging clanking? If not then it's not the compensator

 

makes sense.

 

Have seen the easy start cams fix this many times.
When Harley jumped up to the 96" it was fine while battery and starter were both fresh. This is why they eventually went to the compression releases.
A new battery and or starter does help but either and or both are still temporary unless ya go for higher cranking amps and high performance starter.
The easy start cams was the fix for this issue and best deal with the adder of more power while cruising.
Ride Safe!

 

The loud bang on start is only one symptom and it might be addressed (not fixed) by the above solutions. If you also have a noisy and rough primary under light load conditions (often described as sounding like a box of rocks) the comp is tired. Until 2011, when the new style comp was installed at the factory, the old comp just wasn't up to the job, though it was fine for the 88 ci engines. the 96 and 103 engines exceeded its design limitations. If you update your comp, I believe ALL revised designs will require a new rotor, no one is trying to "pick your pocket" when they advise you of that.

Changing the rotor requires care and either some grinding of the primary case lip from about the 6 o'clock position to the 9 o;clock position or removing the primary case.The magnets in the rotor are quite strong making the first bit of lifting off the shaft difficult. When installing the rotor, the magnets will rapidly grab the rotor as it nears the seated position and snap it into the fully seated position and painfully pinch your finger tips if you aren't holding the rotor correctly. There are many videos on youtube and step by step pictures in here for guidance if you wish to do it yourself. Though I have not seen much comment lately, when I replaced mine a couple of years ago, the belleville springs would either slightly loose tension of weren't tall enough to begin with and the new comp would get noisy. Mine took about 1500 miles and I had a rattle, not a starting bang. Harley sells shims which will fix that problem. I had the old springs from the "A" model SE comp I removed so I used one of the middle sized springs as a shim and things have been great ever since. Bottom line, if you go with the Harley comp I would recommend getting the shim kit and install that at the same time to avoid having to go back in later.

Just because someone says "they all do that" doesn't mean it SHOULD do that. The banging on start will rapidly accelerate your starter clutch wear and that will lead to a terrible grinding noise while starting. Don't delay or you will need a new comp AND a starter clutch By the way, the Allballs starter drive/clutch has given me excellent service for about 90,000 miles so far. If you change the starter drive/clutch, there is a single ball bearing that MUST be installed at the opposite end of the starter drive shaft or the starter won't work properly. It is frequently over looked during reassembly.

 

What does a damaged comp look like?
I am pushing 70k on my 07. i suspect riding style might be it. You could open and look. Though sucks this time of year, having bike down waiting for parts, if only bike.