In the last couple of days I have heard this terrible grinding noise when starting after my bike is hot. Is this the compensator or the starter? I'm leaving for Nova Scotia in about a month and don't want to break down on the road.

 

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It could be either one, My bike would gear bang and rattle more then grind when my compensator went out, But it also would do it only when hot. If your bike in under warranty take it in. If not check all the starter bolts then remove your primary cover and check it out.

 

Maybe this will help - I had a starter go on my 08, fortunately the dealer covered all costs. https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...rter-goes.html

 

Assume that you do not have kick back - check your starter attachment bolts. had that noise problem too, which I ignored. Then later, got the no start problem. Went back and tighted the starter nuts and both the grind noise and the no start problem went away. I do expect the problem to return. when you tighten the starter bolts you will see what I mean. While in there, there's a bracket that goes from one of the starter bolts to the engine case, that will usally be loose too. Now, if you have kick back...whats that....well if the bat voltage drops too soon, the starter looses tourqe and plays fist fight with the engine. the starter usally looses and you hear the grind noise. check your battery terminals and if you have things like battery teather, oil cooler fans, extra lighting, cig lights, etc attached to the battery terminals, you probally have a crappy battery start connection. If this is the case, take all those connections off and move them to either your accesory lead or to the fuse box using fuse extenders.

 

Check the starter bolts, when Harley changed over to the new ring gear they started having problems with starters because torque spec on the bolts need to be 25 ft/lbs vs. the original torque spec, came out in a Harley Service Bulletin in 2009. Hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. I will check my starter bolts. Hope that fixes the problem.

 

Starter ground has been an issue...Compensator has been also...both these have been replaced on mine and a High output SE starter....I believe my problem was a bad compensator...i will eventually change it again to a SE comp. or BDL

 

look into the starter clutch also. If the pinion gear cant get out of the way of the ring gear, it grinds pretty good.

 

on the new bikes the pinion gears is right on the ring gear