I had the whirring sound in my primary the last few months on my 09 ultra with 47 K on it, thought it was the IPB, even though it did not go away when I pulled in the clutch, I thought I would replace it anyway.

After replacing the Inner Primary Bearing and race, the noise was the same. After more testing found that the noise went away when I put it in first gear, since the output shaft does not spin at that point, noise is from the tranny. Pulled the tranny and found the main output shaft was galled right through the hardened steel and the roller cage bearing it rides on in the main drive gear was trashed as well. It was the outside roller cage bearing closest to the pulley that was damaged, the inside bearing seemed fine. I have included pics of both.

Since I had everything out decided on a Jims rebuild kit and do it up right. I have a new output shaft coming ups from Omaha. I am very careful about my belt tension and fluid changes so not sure what caused the issue. I spent many nights on this forum looking at IPB threads because who wants to take their tranny apart? My chain tensioner was not tight, had 3/8 inch play.

Waiting on a few more tools from George's Garage and the Jims rebuild kit should be here on Monday. I am retired so decided to do the rebuild myself.

The main drive gear bearings are INA made in the USA so I was surprised at the damage. I am just glad I caught it early, we were heading to the Blue Ridge Parkway this weekend until I downed the bike.

 

subscribed.

 

Same bearing failed on my 09" Classic. I was able to get HD to cover the repair even though I was well outside the warranty.

 

Do not think it had any thing to do with it, but I noticed that same 3/8" play in the primary chain on two auto tensioners I installed. Older bikes like mine call for 3/4" or so. See a few other big cruiser with the 6 speed with this problem on here. Appears almost like just a few rollers failed. Think maybe some trash locked them up?

 

How hard was it to disassemble the tranny with it still on the bike??

 

I feel for you. Same kind of issue sidelined my 5 speed last September for the whole month. I ended up puttting a new/takeoff gearset in it and a brand new trans case. Metal shavings were in every crack and crevice there was and the main bearing had spun inside of the case rendering it useless. Not fun and plenty of $$$$ was spent.

I too thought it was a IPB after reading about it on here but no such luck....

BTW the Indy mechanic I took it too accredited the heavy gear wear on mine and eventual bearing failure to someone probably not using heavy enough oil in the trans. Just his opinion but he said the Formula + and 20w-50 are not heavy enough for these transmissions. Who knows what the PO of my bike was running in it. I bought it from the dealer with 16k miles on it and they serviced it when I bought it and added Formula +. I drained that shortly after and ran Mobil 1 75w-90 full syn in it. Trans failure came about 4k miles later. The gears were worn so bad though that he said there was no way they wore out in 4k miles of my riding.

 

Damn, mine makes a whirring sound that only goes away when I put it into 1st gear as well; guess I know what my next big project is.

 

Taking the tranny apart was not to bad as long as you have the proper tools, I ended up buying most of them from Georges's Garage, I figured the money I saved doing it myself pays for the tools. The one problem I did have was finding parts, Harley does not sell a rebuild kit, you must order each part and I went to 3 dealers and still could not find all the parts I needed. I ordered a complete rebuild kit from Jims to solve that problem. It is also difficult to find the main input shaft, most dealers do not stock them and harley has them on back order. Having the service manual was a great help on this project, a press is essential as well to push out several bearings along with a wedge to press part of the race from the main case bearing off of the main drive gear, they show all of what you need in the service manual. It is not as hard as it looks once you have done it yourself, it is a little intimidating at first but with the right tools you are fine.

 

I know you said you don't know what caused it, but here is your reason.
>>2009 Ultra Classic<<
The dealership I work at has replaced many, many bearings and more. And not just on the 09's.

Mark

 

My 2010 Ultra is in the shop now for the exact same thing. Your tranny input shaft looked exactly like mine. Took it in for that whirling sound and a new IPB. Found exactly what you did. I have 36k miles. Mechanic told me probably the heavy oil, but I only put it in there about 500 miles ago trying to see if the noise went away. Ran either amsoil or mobile 20-50 every 10k. I personally think its the rachet tensioner. Going back together with a SE comp and a Hayden M6 tensioner. We'll try that. Hope it last longer than 36k. I dread the bill.