Hey All,

For the last couple of months, I've been having an issue with a weird noise and an unsuccessful initial start of the bike. I have a 2011 Street Glide with about 19K miles on it.

After stopping for gas or any other very short stop of the engine (less than 2 minutes), when I try and start the bike, I hear a "clank" noise and the engine doesn't start. When I reattempt, it starts fine with no noise.

This never happens on a cold start or when the bike has been off for greater than 5 minutes.

Any ideas?

Appreciate the help!

 

Starter bendix?

 

do you let the fuel pump prime before you do the hot start?

try it without

 

First thing is tighten your battery cables. The starters are good for a lot more miles then this. I am just guessing here from far away but you want to start simple. However starters solenoids do have a life and if you have the habit of hitting it two or three easy hits and just do not hold starter in till it starts greatly reduces it's life. The Bendix bearings will wear out but it's not a clutch. It has spring loaded pins that lock in till motor spins faster then starter. This prevents blowing the starter armature apart from centrifugal force.

 

It's probably the compansator unwinding. it's probably not a problem but, it certainly is a disconcerting noise.

 

Starter is OEM.

Sorry for the newbie question, but what is the compensator and why does it unwind? Why has it started only recently?

Thanks!

 

Just one more thing to check. I had trouble with hot starts. Finally put a volt meter on the battery during start and voltage dropped to just over 7 volts. Battery was only 18 months old. With a new battery, the problem has gone away and this one holds about 10 volts while cranking. Either check like I did or have the battery load checked at a battery store (Oreilly, Autozone, your Harley dealer, etc).

 

Works for me every time. Start bike right away when hot and no noise or clunk

 

The compensator, for all practical purposes, is a "spring" mounted on the engine crankshaft which absorbs some of the impulses from the engine and smooths the flow of power into the rest of the drive. On each power stroke, after combustion starts, the engine has an impulse of power trying to speed it up. On each compression stroke the engine is slowing down from the resistance of compressing the air/fuel mixture. These speeding up and slowing down forces, if not dampened somehow, would transfer into the drive line and from there into the frame of the machine and cause a buzzing vibration which would become unbearable for any trip longer than just into town and back. You appear to have an 11 year machine which should have the new compensator design from the factory. The new ones are much beefier than the ones they replaced, and while they are prone to their own set of problems, traveling to their limit and smacking into the stop making the loud bang when hitting the starter isn't one of their failings.

If your starter clutch is starting to slip, it may be making the sound you describe. Usually they slip in several small movements making a gear grinding like sound. The starter clutch is a "sprag" clutch. It has short, fat needle bearings which run on ramps on the hub. When the starter is activated, the needles are pushed up the ramps and jam against the housing making a solid drive in one direction. I suppose it is possible that if the starter is weak for any reason, poor electrical connections somewhere or a weak battery, the force "jamming" the needles against the housing might not be strong enough and the clutch slips. When the engine catches, the clutch housing, which is engaged with the engine starter gear, is free to run faster than the starter allowing for a smooth start and no starter over speed while you release the start button. When the button is released, the starter clutch mechanism is retracted form the starter gear and they are no longer connected. The engine starter gear is mounted on the main drive clutch housing and the engine is cranked by the chain between the clutch and the compensator mounted on the engine crank shaft. I would guess that the sudden jolt of rotation from the starter into a stationary engine puts more strain on the compensator in the "push the engine" direction than anything that can happen even going down the steepest hill or even a very poorly executed down shift.

Sorry if I "built the watch" but the starter, primary and compensator all work as a system.

 

My bike did same thing for several months dealer tells me its normal then It started to hear a noise comming from the primary..Tech doesnt know what happen first but when they opened primary they found compesator shot several teeth missing off the startor inner and outer bearing clutch pack bearing all bad and several other things broken my bike only had 15000 easy miles and well maintained...The entire job was approx 1300.00 incl parts which my extended warranty pu all but new clutch plates