Greetings,

It's been awhile since I posted a thread. I've been reading a lot about the compensator issues others on this board have experienced. My '09 Street Glide had recently been exhibiting many of the same symptoms I've read about here on the board: grinding, rattling, and banging on startup, mostly on a hot start. Since my warranty expires in April I decided to take it to the Dealer. Well, they fixed it. Called me today and said the replaced the starter and clutch basket. I asked about the compensator and he said all was fine. Now, my question: "does this sound correct?" What caused the starter to go bad? And why did they replace the clutch basket? I ride my bike daily, have 26K miles on it, and it runs perfectly. The only issue was the grinding hot starts. Is it possible that I have an impending compensator failure that caused damage to my starter? I'm worried that 6 months from now I will have the same issue only this time I'll need a new starter, clutch basket, AND compensating sprocket? Is is really possible that the sprocket is ok and was just unlucky on the starter? Sounds suspect...

 

Do you have a receipt that shows what pn#'s they replaced?

 

Not till I pick my bike up this Sat. I'll post the numbers up when I get them.

 

Did you ask to see the parts they replaced, that would have given you an idea of what came apart to cause your starter and clutch basket replaced. Might have nothing at all to do with the compensator.

 

Likely the ring gear that's rivited onto the clutch basket had some tooth damage.

An upgraded version of the compensator can ease some of the pain on the starter system. The components can only endure so much starter bang until something gives.

 

I appreciate the responses. I have not seen the bike or the parts that were replaced. I was just informed today by the Dealer of the repairs. My work schedule is hectic right now so I can't get over to pick up my bike till Sat morning. I'll know more at that time.

 

Here's another way to look at it. The compensator actually provides a bit of cushion for the starter system by allowing the starter jack shaft some unencumbered movement (wiggle room) to engage the clutch basket's ring gear before encountering the compression of the motor.

But guys, like me, who run dry open primary belts have no compensator at all on the front motor pulley and our starters still work fine. What I'm saying is even if your compensator was bad, it doesn't follow it would mess up your starter.

Clanging, banging, and clicking are all symptoms of a starter system (battery, starter motor, solenoid, jack shaft, and/or ring gear) going bad or not initially set up right.

Sometimes a quick fix, for at least the clanging and banging symptoms, is loosening the two starter bolts and either pushing up or down on the starter (hard) as you tighten them back down. If you have a dry primary you can also slightly shim it. Of course if the ring gear or jack shaft teeth are already damaged they need replacing.

Clicking is a weak battery or solenoid issue. And sometimes, but rarely, the starter clutch can go south. Sometimes though the dealer will just shotgun replace everything and yes, now it works, but only because a few simple angles got changed in the process.

In any case a bad front pulley compensator won't automatically cause starter issues. (Unless it's guts are completely stripped out and it won't turn the crankshaft.)

 

A whole lot of newer models are getting the starter bang. Combination of the cam and ecm map is likely contributing to the kickback type behavior.

The guys who upgrade to the SE comp have had good results quieting that down. It has to be preventing some of the pain incurred on the starter.
A weak comp likely would cause harm when bottoming out while the starter is still engaged. The Heavier comp will cushion things better.

I didn't mean to imply that a weak comp automatically causes starter issues.

 

sounds to me like starter gear not engaging fully into ring gear. and this got worse as starter got hot, this caused damage to both gears ( starter and ring).I would not worry comp. the dealer may have already sent your parts back to the factory thus you may not be able to see them. ask to talk to the teck and build a relationship with him so you can go to him and ask questions about any future repairs you may need. this repair sounds legit to me

 

Mustang,
I had the kicking back, squealing, banging with my 09 Ultra w/103 n SE 255 cams. The dealer kept saying it normal etc etc. It finally broke the starter ring gear on the clutch basket so they replaced the clutch basket, installed SE comp and all was well for a long time. Then it started to sound like the starter wasn't engaging, back to the shop....they found a starter pilot pin was missing and letting the starter shift. So far so good now. My 2 cents worth. BTW the SE comp is a much heavier unit and quietened the noise level.