Just turn up the tunes....... that's what I do

 

I took mine in for what I thought was valve train noises, turned out the chrome cover I put on the voltage regualator was too close to the oil filter, remedied the problem, noise went away

 

 

I see by your sig you have an '02 Deuce. I just traded mine in on my new road King. I love the king but sure wish I could have justified keeping the Deuce. It was a great bike through my 10 years of ownership and use.

 

My Duece will be mine 'til the day I die. Or at least that is the intention. On the other hand, I could see getting rid of the Limited somewhere down the line. I like the rawness of the Softails whereas the Touring bikes are comparably sterile. That's only my opinion and I'm sure many of you will disagree, but please don't tell me how wrong I am.

 

And finally............I Had a 93 soft ail custom, 0 miles on it when I got it. 20,000 on it when I traded her in, that 1340 evo sounded better than any Harley I've ever heard, absolutely no engine noise on or off the bike it sounded great, then I got my 97 Electra glide.......from the day I got it I noticed only what I can describe as valve train noise, or more commonly referred to as the sewing machine effect. After the bike reaches operating temps it's much more noticeable. But when it's cooler out (50) degrees or less it becomes much less noticeable but its still there none the less. I spoke with three veteran mechanics all with 40 years of experience with Harley engines on a professional level (2) of them from the Harley Davidson engineering research department. They said and I quote " the reason you hear the engine noise more on a bagger especially, is because of what's called the fairing reflective ambient phenomenon. The engine noise especially from the front cylinder creates noises that refract off the Lower part of the fairing and reverberates it up into the area under the radio in between the gas tank ad fairing. It is for all practical intents and purposes the quietest area on the bike....sort of a pocket that's trapping the engine sounds right close to your face.......you can't help but hear it especially if your running anything taller than a 4" windshield. So this is " why" you hear it more especially on the bikes with batwings. Its common on every Harley from panheads to evo's to twin cams.

Even if the motors were brand new you would still hear this. There is nothing wrong with the engine. If you were so inclined to do so, you could pull the fairing off and run it full throttle to idle and the engine noise woul be almost totally gone. The varying factors that determine how much noise you her is controllable to a point. While you will not eliminate it here's the deciding factors.

Exhaust......exhaust creates back pressure, or on a Harley sonic pulse....without going into an impromptu physics lesson, the more "back pressure" or pulse the louder the valve noise or sewing machine noise that's confined to the engine. But if you run a less restrictive exhaust two things happen, the engine will quiet down because less noise is pulsing back to the engine, and these engines just plain run better, cooler, with an more open exhaust....of course you lose torque, and some power unless not rejettted or mapped but that's addressable. Also, the louder exhaust helps drown out any remaining noise making it less noticeable.

Next, switching to a full synthetic oil, and using Lucas oil stabilizer, which thickens the 20 w 50 and helps the engine run cooler, also reduces engine noise.

It is important to remember, off the bike usually no one else can hear this same noise because in reality it is a normal anomaly , remembering that the reason you hear it is because your head is attached to your ears, and is in the bikes "quiet zone" is the only thing that will keep you sane. The noise is real but it's really not . Yea it's insane to ask us to wrap our brains around this, but it's the truth, so remember it. And understand we are riding the best designed machines HD makes, the numbers don't lie, and that's all the reason you or I need to be able to tolerate this annoying noise that's not even really there in the first damn place.

Now that I know this and have come to accept this truth, I don't feel compelled to trade it in every time i ride it because I'm scared the engine is jacked up cuz really it's not. I hope this eases everyone's minds that's either going through this or is gonna go through it. Your motor is fine, in realty it's the fairing that's the issue, and I don't know bout you but I love my fairing. Talk about a double edged sword hugh?

Peace.