When this was being hashed out a couple years ago and the internet engineers "trying" to reinvent the wheel, because everybody can do it better than Harley, I pulled the primary cover off several bikes including my own and measured chain free play and geuss what? They were all right at 5/8" free play.

 

Put a baker attitude primary chain adjuster in and get rid of the howl in the primary and there is a few other parts that will last longer to but i wont mention them. Dont want to get the life long harley mechanics in a uproar.

 

My 12 SG just got out of it's 1000 mi,first and last dealer service. I went with Syn3 HD oil all the way. Now after 50 miles the tranny or primary is whinning like a little bitch. 3rd gear decel is so load I cant hear the bike. I see on here that I'm not the only one with this problem. Calling stealer in a few. The tensioner makes the most sense to me.

 

I have yet to figure out why some primaries whine, drone, or whatever and some do not. Mine does and always has, both with stock and SE comps. I check my chain tension for every oil change with a long screwdriver and flashlight, and it is never too tight. I can't measure precisely with the outer cover on but it looks to be around 5/8", where I used to adjust my manual tensioners in the past.

A trusted local indy has listened to it and proclaims to hear nothing that I should worry about. He says, "some whine and some don't." When I did some demo rides last fall I rode a '12 SG and a '12 Switchback, and while the SG was relatively quiet the Switchback whined like mine does.

I have 55k on the bike now and when it gets to 60-70k I'll probably pull the cover and disassemble everything for a thorough checkup. But for now I'll leave it alone and just listen to the droning, which isn't very noticeable once I get moving anyway.

 

My story is almost the same as iclick's. It whined from the day I bought. I had it checked twice by two different dealerships and a 3rd time after I installed a SE compensator. Nothing changed, it still whined. Until this summer, I can't say when, how or why, but it hasn't been whinning the last couple thousand miles. Maybe its my hearing.

Beary

 

The whining in my 07's primary comes and goes. I assume it's from the auto adjust over tightening sometimes. Maybe not.
Guess that's why some riders are switching to the aftermarket auto tensioner.

 

Beary says his bike has been quiet lately, but mine doesn't change much from day to day. It may be a bit louder when hot, though.

 

BINGO! My whining, whirring or whatever you want to call it was normal as I was told by a local dealerships service writer and tech. I took it to a local indy and he thought it might be the compensator nut coming loose. Nah, wasn't that either, but the indy did find a bad inner primary bearing. Night and day difference now and I can ride worry free again. Oh, btw, my inner primary bearing went bad at about 36,000 on my 2008 FLHR. Good luck.

 

I get a bit only in first on decel

 

My 08 FXDF also had primary whine in coast down in first only. That was when I was running amsoil 20/50 in there. I put the Harley primary oil (I think it is called primary plus), whisper quiet now.