Ok I know this is a dead horse But I just have to know!! I went to my local dealer and it appears that everyone in service is new so I didn’t know anyone , so I had no choice but to go to the GM and I don’t like to bother him. I know him a long time and he always gives my his time no questions asked ( Great Guy) I told him I had this noise on start up and take off horrible banging, I said I’m almost sure it was the compensator. I ask him if we did the compensator under warrant could do the SE compensator, he said the only way he could do that was if the price was the same as the OEM part. As we looked up the parts it was twice the money and I had to change the rotor too. He then said to me take it a part and check it and if its bad just give him the part and he would warrant it, but as I’m looking at this the only thing that could be wrong is that the bolt got loose and if the bolt got loose enough the cam slider could be jumping. Now most of what I’m seeing is newer models with this condition of the compensator plates welding together which would be 09 and up anything 08 and down is going to be loose compensator bolt IS THIS CORRECT? Please correct me if I’m wrong

 

Dont know if this answers your question have a 2007 Road King was banging like Hell, I have a service contract, I signed for inspection they took off the compensator and it was shot, I paid a $100 upgrade from a S . E. Compensator, they said with this compensator would not happen again , noise gone

 

83-06 are all the same style, in 07 they simply reversed the position of the parts to move the ring gear inside the chain to eliminate the jack shaft on the starter, now, according to the internet, the design is completely flawed and a total piece of garbage, even though most failures can be traced to new riders that lug the motor and apply more wear to the comp components than old timers did putting 100,000 miles on the early set up. Do the bolts/nuts come loose? Yep but that can be attrbuted to chopping the throttle from a high rpm on a regular basis which effectively unsrews the bolt/nut. The cure, replace it? NOPE clean the threads use plenty of red loctite and torque to 200 ft lbs on the nut(83-06) or 180 on the bolt (07 and later) and forget about it!

We built tons of 130-150hp motors that never had a comp problem once the nut/bolt was torqued properly, remember the system was designed around a less than 100 ft lb stock set up. When you make that big of power gains there are other areas that also need to be addressed also!

 

hog-doc thank you for the great answer I am going to tear it down and see just what is going on in there. I have to get the wheels back on so I can move the bike over so I have more room on that side. I wasn't planning on taking that apart.

 

My rattling noise was a bad mainshaft bearing. Whole new gearset. 07 with 45,000 miles.If its not your comp making noise check the mainshaft bearing...I put up with the noise for a long time, a tech at Harley heard it after a sensor replacement and knew exactly what it was....extended warranty covered it.

 

So Doc, can the compensator bolt /nut coming loose cause the starter to "free spin" when trying to start it up? That is the problem I am having and nobody seems to have an answer!

Thanks for your help!

Robert

 

Hey mate, this one sounds like a starter clutch problem, it just spins up happily and whirrs away, but doesnt start or turn the engine.

 

RRamsey, Sounds like solenoid is not engaging the starter shaft. Try a solenoid rebuild kit. I had the same problem on my 99' Softail. I rebuild the solenoid and also put a manual pushbutton on the end of the solenoid in case this happens again. Problem solved.