I have read a great deal about the compensator saga. My 2009 FLHTC is my daily ride (avg. 20k a year). I heard what I believed are the typical bad compensator symtoms. I had read a number of folks say the bad comp is just an annoyance (the sounds) and won't really hurt anything. However, I finally had enough of the noise and ordered the latest SE unit (It sure sounded like it hurt).

The day I ordered the parts, I lost all drive in the bike on the way from work to the hospital (92 year old mom fell and broke her hip). When I was able to tear the bike down, I found that the springs were shot in the compensator - there was free play in the rotation of the assembly. I believe this allowed the primary drive to act like an impact hammer which sheared the splines on the clutch hub. I could be wrong...but be wary y'all.

To add to all of this joy. I have a trans leak at the main shaft. After removing the pully, it appears to be the o-ring on the main drive gear - which requires pulling the gear set. It seems that the special tools required to do this job total about $500 (mostly George's Garage - more if Jims). I figure it would probably be silly to go that far without rebuilding the trans with 93k miles on the clock (found Jims rebuild kit for around $350). I'm thinking I would probably be wiser to replace the trans with a new one from HD (about $1300).

 

You're wrong about the compensator being a protective device. Sur, it does some but you can wind it up to lock. It's designed to ease the odd impulse of a V-twin for driver comfort. People driving Harleys like crotch rockets is why the Mother Load had to put the cush drive on the bigger cruisers on the rear sprocket for protection. Any Harley driven hard with clutch dumps will lock up the compensator and make it clack loudly. However just my opinion. Have no idea how you drove. I have yet to really have ever seen a belleville springs broken and they do not move far enough as designed to over stress them and make them weak. Sure would like to see pictures of your broken one.

 

Well...it certainly isn't "broken", but I would love to be enlightened about what DID happen. I never do clutch dumps, but I do ride aggressively? (I don't drive it like grampa pulling out of a light in a bonneville)

I had been getting the occasional crunch when starting. I got the occasional clack on shutoff. Previous to the clutch spline failure, I was getting increasingly louder "clack-clack-clack-clack" in the primary when starting from a stop or when rolling the throttle during cruise. I thought this was due to the compensator. I figured my continuing to drive like this hammerred the splines.

If anyone can educate me on other possible scenarios, I am all ears.

 

More pics...

 

That pretty much is my definition of "broken"...

Dang man... I wonder why the springs look so rusty looking.

lp

 

Because it's been out of the bike a week?

 

You do indeed have a failure in the shaft extension. These part are not tool type steel. The hardening process is a case hardening process. They are heated in a high carbon induced atmospheric furnace and then quenched which hardens the surface about .01 thick. About the thickness of 5 sheets of paper. When this went thru, then the material was soft and you can see the extreme wear. This was you free slap. Like you say, once like that, it was like a small impact hammer every time you accelerated and let off hard. Your oil also looks extremely dirty. I personally do not do a lot of maintenance since I do not drive as many miles but I change all 3 fluids ever time since the transmission and primary get beat up worst then the engine. However, the oil will not look dark but it is full of metal and there are no filters in the transmission or primary. At 30K mine looked like this. Different design but same principle. However abuse ripped the alternator spline out. (smoking a tire and the abrupt stop when it blew) Could be the difference that the supplier shortcut the time to heat treat the steel and the case hardening was only a few .001 thick. Mine does the start bang quite often. Especially hot and left in the sun. Gets a little excess gas from vapor in the cylinders.

 

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Anyone have feedback on the transmission work?

Well the clutch hub replacement is the easy part. I have the following options (prices are just parts including the clutch hub work + transmisison+special tools)

Replace bad parts - $765
Replace bad parts plus rebuild trans - $1,125

Replace bad parts including new case - $665
(new case already has main drive gear+bearing which means I don't need $220 special tool)
Replace bad parts including new case plus trans rebuild - $1,025

New 2010 model trans with helical 5th gear + clutch hub parts - $1,540

I don't have the money, but have the credit, any of the above will be debt. Still, with 93k miles, the new trans is attractive.

 

There is a quad seal and a oil seal that come out. Both are removable after removing drive pulley. You do not need to remove transmission. If it were me, and the leak was the only problem you had noticed in the transmission and there was not a fuzz ball of chips the size of the plug on the drain plug. I would remove rear tire. Pull drive belt fwd off front drive pulley. With the clutch hub off, spin the input shaft and fill and listen. As you spin small shaft, the front drive pulley spins. Go up thru all gears. All smooth and free? If so, I would replace the two seals. While it's apart, look closely at the inner primary bearing rollers. When you pull the big transmission seal, peer in and look at the bearing behind it.