02 SE RK

Started hearing what I thought an abnormal knocking sound, very slight at first, about 1K miles later it increased,, so I listened with my engine stethoscope,, narrowed it down to the very front of the primary and it was the loudest at the rear cylinder inner intake lifter, so I thought loose compensator nut or bad lifter.

I started on the primary side, checked out the HD 125 tensioner,, it was o-k and working,, the comp nut appeared tight and no movement ( note most I've seen loose rubbed the outer primary case) buttoned everything back up and I moved on the to cam chest,, cut the push rods and tore it down,, everything appeared to look normal, no excessive wear, lifters looked good, all the push rod lifter caps were up to the clips, inner/outer cam bearings looked good, inner and outer tensioner shoes well within wear limits,, so I thought damn what could it be,, so I turned the crank, I could hear the knock, sounded like down in the crank, I thought no way, so I pulled the primary back off, and decided to eliminate the trans and the clutch and then turn it over,, as I started to back off the compensator sprocket nut it was just too easy for the 180 ft lbs I had put on it when I installed my chromed inner primary.

It was the compensator nut after all,, I've got a geared set of cams I want to install, but I want to have some head work done and I've been trying to build the business so extra coins go toward that now.

I put the chain driven cams back in with new adjustable push rods. She's fine now, just thought I'd share this with y'all and maybe save someone the extra work I had to do. At least now I've got the new push rods when I get ready to do the geared cams. I torqued it back to 180 ft lbs,, red lok tight and then a bump up a bit more tight with my air impact,, I know you're not suppose to use one, but I said, screw it I don't want it loose unless I do it myself.

Moral of story if it's a knock, check compensator nut with torque wrench even if it feels and appears tight.

 

Geez, I could have saved you all that work and told you what the problem was.

Just kidding. I don't have the slightest idea what your talking about. I would have changed the oil and brought it to my dealer....because that's all I know how to do. Oh yeah, I can change the tranny and Primary also.

 

Very good info.

It is members like yourself that are willing to share their experience that make this forum what it is. In the end you found the problem and also saved someone else a lot of extra work. Thank you

 

That was the idea,, if it helps one person it was worth the extra work I had to do!!

 

good job

 

A friend had a knock in his, he wanted me to ride it, so I did. No knock. He took it for a ride and couldn't hear the knock any more and left. Came back a few minutes later and I could hear it knock. I told him that the comp nut was loose. Coming up my street the first time he jumped on it a little bit (tightened the nut), when he left and reached the stop sign at the end of our street he did his usual downshift to hear it bark (loosened the nut back up).
He asked me why I didn't notice it when I downshifted, I told him it was because I downshift like a normal person.