Well, I always wondered why "New" bikes had issues. Never before have I had one until now. 2016, FLHTK (limited). Just bought it this year and did the first 1000 mile service. I had the dealership investigate a rattle in the right side clutch throw-out bearing area. When in neutral, the hydraulic clutch would rattle a bit, but when you pulled in the clutch (slightly), it would go away. It sounded like a Ducati Dry Clutch but not as loud.

So, the dealer validated the sound, replaced the throw-out bearing and to no avail, it did not fix the problem.

When they opened the right side cover, they found "Sintered Bronze" as they say. Not sure about that, but to me, it sounds like something rubbing causing flakes to show up.

Anyway, the dealership called Harley Tech, and now they have to open up the transmission and report back to Harley Tech with their findings.

Thoughts as to the problem??

 

Sintered bronze sounds like a bushing.

 

Hmmm, sounds logical. Wednesday, when the mechanic returns to work, hopefully he will have an answer. I'll post what they say. I despise going to the "stealerships" but its warranty work.

 

At least they didn't say "they all sound like that". Good thing they are looking into it!!

 

Interesting you say that. When I took it in, the service advisor came out to listen ( I made him) and said he could hear it and said it was a previous issue some years ago. I explained it only happened in neutral and when warm. When I picked up the bike after service, the tech said they could not hear anything and all was normal. LOLOL, I said UNACCEPTABLE ANSWER BOYS. Long story longer, I rode it about 3 miles on it, brought it right back and the tech finally said he could hear it. He said, "yeah, we need to look into that. Freaking losers!!!!! I despise stealerships. Why are they so eager to say " all is normal".

 

Well it's back now and the bike now has 1700 miles on it and a new transmission. It does shift smoother and quieter; however, The issue is still not corrected. They showed me the tranny gears which had some scarring on the gears and in one location a "nub". He said this was a dealer defect. Wow Harley, what a great quality program you have...NOT. Since it does not affect the bike, I am going to ride it a bit then will deal with it later.

 

It's called neutral rattle if you pull in the clutch lever and the noise disappears. Harley put out a service bulletin about it a couple of years ago and says it's normal gear lash. The 2017s have a scissor gear the quiets it down.

 

Drain out the crap that the MOCO passes off as tranny lube and install Redline V-Twin tranny oil - problem solved.

At least that was my experience.

 

I've Had a couple of bikes with the exact noise, it's called stacking. the gears are manufacture to plus and minus specs. If a few of the gears come undersized they have a tendency to make a rattling noise, of course when you pull in the clutch as previous brought up, the gears stop rotating and thus the noise stops. I use Bel-Ray 85-140 Gear Saver, and this helped alot. If you search For Harley Davidson Service Bulletin M-1304 It will explain it a lot better than me.
Jonnierock

 

Bingo. I use Belray also. It still rattles especially when it's hot. Runs fine, shifts fine, shifts into neutral slick as a whistle. I just ride the thing.