ORIGINAL: choochoo

because the basic premise I've been trying to tell you guys for several months now has been basically proven correct.
A lot of you told me I was full of S...., mostly because I didn't have an engineering degree, so I couldn't possibly be more knowledgeable on a particular subject than some of you or the engineers at H.D.
I tried to explain good and bad points on Straight cut spur gears and helical gears. And even gave you links to websites to prove what I was saying.
One of them was here: http://gemini.tntech.edu/~slc3675/me...re/grnts4.html
My guess is many of you naysayers never bothered to check the links.
doesn't matter that I have been doing automotive (cars / pickups) big trucks and heavy equipment repair for 30 years, working on all systems including trannies.
My contention was HDdeliberately (by building the tranny as cheaply as they could because of their bottom line) or inadvertently ( by not enough real world testing) had a built in design flaw.
I told you spur cut gears if meshed wrong will tend to whine or chatter (clunk).
Helical cut gears are quieter and stronger but tend to put axial ( sideways)
load on the case side bearings. Basically causing the mainshaft to walk sideways.
Normally this isn't much of a problem if the case sidewalls and bearings are built to withstand, tolerate and absorb this side load.
If not it can cause a whine in the side bearing. Also if you have mixed gears (straight & helical) on same shaft in constant mesh (but not engaged to shaft, as we do in this tranny), this sideways movement of the mainshaft could cause the spur gears (straight cut) to not be in proper alignment and thus could contribute to the whine.
If the mainshaft moves far enough this could let the shift dogs ride slightly out of their preferred alignment and could (notice I said COULD) contribute to the rocks in a can noise by not maintaining proper mesh with the gears. Not having access to this 6 speed tranny to test it on I'm not positive on that.
But anyway back to my first point.
Just got the brand new JP cycles catalog today. And on page 609, is a little sidebar about baker transmissions and the whine eliminator.
Or read it here: http://www.jpcycles.com/productgroup...7-7a8be5c54ebf
He basically explains what I've been saying all along about the basic cause.
Now all you guys that bought the IDS bandaid fix.....
I've been telling you all, that you, your buddies and other people you know that have this problem on your bike (and it's bad enough that it caused you to come here and complain and complain to the dealer, etc) need to band together and complain to HD and FTC. Get HD to produce a similar appropriate repair and give it to you free under warranty.
If you all would band together in that matter, you all would be helping everybody out here in motorcycle land, by making HD keep their quality standards UP. Instead of continually getting a "It's normal!!" response from them and the dealers.
A couple months ago I mentioned that we would probably hear a few complaints from the new 08 owners about the lag time between rolling on the throttle and the actual resulting acceleration.
Well real or imagined 2 or a 100 I see a couple days ago we did get a couple people that have apparently noticed it.
Well I'm done thumping my chest.
But you all have a nice day. Bedtime here after swing shift!

ORIGINAL: ultraultra

Yes, helical gears ARE much stronger. There is more surface contact area on the tooth. The side load caused by them “pushing” can be a concern. I haven’t looked in the tranny, and haven’t really looked at the parts book (yet).. but the side load problem can be reduced by using tapered roller bearings. If they went on the cheap, and used ball bearings with no side load resistance, WE GOT PROBLEMS!

Anybody out there take one apart?