I have been enduring a whining sound coming from my primary in first gear since I bought my 2010 Ultra. Now that whining sound is getting louder and happening in all gears, including neutral. I am concerned that I've got a compensator or other gear problem but HD Service seems to think the sound is normal. I've got 53,000 miles on the bike so it is likely there is some wear in there.

Thoughts?
Paul

 

I would take it elsewhere for a 2nd opinion. Has the drive belt been overtightened since new?

Service Bulletin M1284 issued August 9, 2010 amends the belt tension from 3/8 - 7/16 (old) to 3/8 to 9/16 (new).

Seems I recall a few complaints about over tension of the belt possibly causing main-shaft bearing issues but I only read it on the 'net FWIW.

 

just wondering if you can help me please ?

ive also got a whining sound and seems to be coming from the primary too and it sounds like its running dry and its not

sounds kind of like the whining a supercharger makes

 

when I use light weight oil in the primary (10W40, 20W50, ATF, etc) I get a whining noise. But if use 75W90 gear oil in the primary...no whining. I also get less metal fuzz on my drain plug magnet using 75W90.

 

Same here on my 12 flhx only in first gear on coast down,heavier gear oil?

 

Wow, gear oil in the primary, now that's new....how long have you guys been doing that?

 

The whining noise is most likely from too tight of a primary chain. Makes a woo woo kind of sound.

The auto adjuster will sometimes allow an 'extra' click and then the whole thing is too tight, especially when cold. Too tight is NOT good. That puts extra stress on the mainshaft as Mr V2Evo96 has stated. This will ALSO put a great amount of stress on the output side bearing on the engine.

A test, fo anyone of you guys, would be to remove the outer primary, and loosen the chain one click, re-assemble and see if the whine is still there.

I just bought myself THIS.....http://bakerdrivetrain.com/attitude-chain-adjuster

to fix the issue. Sometimes the march of progress has a misstep or two along the way, and I feel the auto adjuster is one of those missteps.

 

could also be the inner primary bearing. if you pull in the clutch does the noise go away? thats what mine would do.

 

probally 40 years off and on. I try all the new stuff, but always go back. 75W90 in the primary and 90W140 in the tranny. don't be fooled about the weight numbers. engine oil use SAE weights and gear oil uses another. So basically 20W50 (what Harley says to use) is the same as 75W90. difference is the shear rating of gear oil with stop all the whining that folks get with 10W40 and 20W50 espeasically after 20W50 breaks down.

see the chart.

its like the Dino vs synthetic ...Harley was down on syn and emphasized dyno until they started selling it.

 

Wurk truk is right on with his statement about the auto-tensioner. Harley's version of auto-tensioner is the only one that has the ratchet system, and they do over tighten more often than they should. That is why you still have the noise in neutral because over tight chain is still moving over the shoe of the tensioner, and using heavy weight oil deadens the sound but does not fix the problem. I too have stopped using this style tensioner after seeing damage they can sometimes cause.