Consider my case is a bit different here, but the same thing applies. I have a very early JIMS 6-speed built under copyright from Baker. In other words...a Baker made by JIMS. 6th. gear was noisy from the get-go and I called JIMS....naturally...they said it was normal and to run it. I have run the he!! out of it for almost 34,000 miles and the noise never got any better. Never caused any problems, shifted smooth, pulled good....just raised holy he!! in 6th. The noise has gotten so bad that I am getting afraid of it, so it's coming out. It sounds like it is going to explode at any moment and the very last thing I want to do is have a tranny lock-up tooling down the autobahn at 80 mph. I have tried all the fluids known to mankind, except banana peelings, to no avail...just keeps getting worse. It's true that on a new tranny, it may take it a while to run-in, but I figure mine had plenty of time to run-in....never did and now is running-out....of the case I mean.

I say that if you have a lot of noise in there now....it is not likely to go away and it would really bother me if it were a 2010. MAKE SURE you have the extended warranty. Meantime, I wish you luck and hope it fixes itself. From what you are describing....it's a lot more than just break-in noise and the dealer will gladly try and make you run it until it does fail, which will be in the middle of Montana 400-miles from any dealer.

 

09 electra glide ultra,engin or tranny make a noise like marbles knocking together they rebuilt the trans and it is still there at idle and in gear driving. Some times it makes chirp sound. Dealership says it is normal but it didn't do when it was new and I think there full of $##^$

 

You can always be assured they are full of $##T. I wonder what they call a rebuild. If they did not replace every bearing in there they did not get the potential marbles. When I pulled the guts out of mine it looked perfect to the eye, but the trap door bearings were badly worn. Wonder if you even have a transmission problem...could be something else.

 

PANASYNO...Same here and it just amazies me that of all the threads I have read on this noise, not one explanation on what is causing it. Dealers say it is normal, but can`t say what is causing it.

 

Let me share something with you guys that may point to why it is so difficult to fix a tranny noise and why they may not want to. I am going to step out on a limb and say that I don't think any builder of these things would allow you to be out there on something that may lock-up and cause a serious injury. Based on what I know about all these people, I will have to s t r e t c h that idea a bit, but for the sake of discussion, lets assume they won't.

I was an early 6-speed owner. It was a JIMS built on the Baker design (I suppose some sort of patent or copyright privilege). From the moment it was installed, 6th. gear was so noisy you could hardly hear yourself think. The noise never did abate and only got worse. Finally, I had to make the decision to yank it out and really expected to find something wrong...but the only thing I could point to was what I considered to be worn trap-door bearings. Every thing in this gear set looked like it was installed yesterday after 34,000 miles. I truly think it is something in the way the gears are machined, or the alignment of the main and countershafts. If you cannot "see" anything wrong, it just about has to be a gear, case, bearing, or shaft problems and a "rebuild" will not fix any of that.

The point I am trying to make is that a noisy tranny may never fly apart and will continue to function just fine...only noisy. I think the reason for the noise could be just an accidental mix of components off the shelf that just make gear engagement noisy. Maybe that is why some are quite and some are noisy. Unless you replaced every gear, bearing, shaft and maybe even the case...it may stay noisy and the MOCO, as well as other aftermarket suppliers know this. They know it may take an entire new case-n-all to correct your problem, or they have a crappy design. In my case, the JIMS was a crappy design and all of them were noisy. In Harley's case, some of them are noisy and some aren't, so I think the design is solid. They just don't want to start changing gear sets or complete transmissions to make you happy.

The chirping could be a belt, but that also points to a possible loose comp nut. If they truly rebuilt your transmission, they would have had to remove the entire primary assembly and put it all back together. I imagine the chirping mentioned above is not tranny related.

 

I know this thread hasn't been posted to in awhile but i'm hoping some folks are still watching it. I have an 07 Dyna with the same trans noise. Has had it for the last 9000 miles that I have put on it (currently has 14,000) I'm not sure if the noise is getting louder or if I am just paying more attention to it. I've been doing a lot of research on this and still havn't had anyone that has come up with a reasonable fix for it. However I did find that Baker makes the F6F kit which is to fix the 5th gear whine by replacing the factory straight cut gears and replacing them with helical cut gears and replacing trap door bearings with wider ones. It didn't say anything about fixing the rattle noise that we all seem to be experiencing, so I called Baker and the guy that I talked to said that the F6F kit would "probably help" but he couldn't say that it would cure the noise. Then he went on to say that the DD7 kit would definately fix the problem. And I'm sure it would but it is WAY more than what I want to spend on a bike that I eventually want to sell for a touring bike. I'm still searching for someone that has had the rattle and put on the F6F kit to see if it fixed the rattle or find ANYONE that found ANY fix. Anybody got anything on this?

I see others can just live with the noise, but my OCD won't let me! I ride the bike to relax and with this noise it is getting very hard to do that!

 

pewter....all I can do is point to to my last post above. I am not clear on which gear you have rattling, but in my case it was 6th. Bear in mind that I had an early JIMS 6-speed built under copyright from Baker....so I had a Baker design machined by JIMS. I once saw a notice from Baker somewhere stating that they no longer had anything to do with JIMS and nothing JIMS was producing had anything to do with Baker. Sounds to me like Baker was making sure they put all the distance they could between them and JIMS, but mine had "Baker Design" laser-cut right on top of the trap door.

Anyway...I talked to JIMS and Baker. JIMS offered to take my boat-anchor back and recondition it for $360 plus parts and WOULD NOT guarantee it would be any quieter. JIMS says all 6-speeds are noisy due to 6th. being out there inside (or against) the trap door, which it is. Baker told me their 6-speed was very quite. I came to the conclusion to not believe either of them and sure as he!! did not, nor plan to purchase one from either Baker or JIMS. I know they are cutting helical gears for some locations, but you can't have helical gears all through the transmission. Helical-cut gears tend to "push" things toward the trap door and stress the bearings. I did not make this up and it comes from people that should know what they are talking about....as well as making mechanical sense to me as well.

I fixed my problem by putting my 5-speed back in and selling the sick JIMS to some guy in Iowa that refused to pay me for it after he saw what he had been sold. I tried to explain to him what he was getting, but it was worse-off than he had anticipated. He never paid and I suppose it's in a land-fill up there in Iowa someplace.

I can almost promise you that the noise is going to get worse. It is not going to fix itself. An option.....may be to get an Ultima gear-set. I have read some posts concerning the Ultima 6-speed and it retails for around $800-or-so. Less than half the price of a new Baker kit.

You are on your own and will have to have yours fixed or spring for another gear-set. I tried to run every fluid known to mankind short of banana peels.....nothing worked.

My little 5-speed runs like he!!, shifts as smooth as silk and really purrs with the Redline shockproof in there. I could not be any happier.

 

I'm in the same boat. Rattle sounded like a paint can with marbles. Compensator sproket wore out, then another noise was discovered as soon as the slapping noise was gone. Found the carrier bearing on the main drive shaft had more the 0.04 play, supposed to be 0.0. That led into a further look, found the inter-shaft was scored where the pin bearings were supposed to be and shattered. Looking further the two carrier bearings on the outside of the case were shot too. Used nothing but the suggested oils as directed and remember harley did say using another manufacture oil like belray may help. (I did) everything showed well lubricated, the bearings just failed. The transmission gearing just chewed up everything that fell into it. Now waiting on HD to send the new tranny to the dealer. First I'm glad my dealer cares, second, I'm hoping someone on the QC desk wakes up and compiles these problems into a quick recall. Oh, sorry, the bike is a FLHT 09 with 34k on it. I'll post end results when the job is done. This bike is babied, believe it or not. Go figure, a friend of mine ram rods his all the time and no problem.... Screaming eagle... is there a difference in parts?
Good Question

 

Mine was a JIMS/Baker as I mentioned above, but it looks like around 35K is all you can expect out of some of these things. I carried mine 31K, before I finally pulled it for fear of catastrophic failure.

I have asked before if anyone knew who actually built the MOCO units. I have heard both JIMS and Baker....so I don't know. I suppose it really doesn't matter. You do see more-and-more post about these 6-speeds failing across the various forums at around 30-40K and even sooner. I know both JIMS and Baker are reputable companies....maybe they are trying to do something with these transmissions that just can't be done.

All I know is there are thousands of old 5-speeds still running around out there with over 100,000 miles on them. I fully realize the desire for that other gear and I enjoyed my 6-speed for as long as I had it. I just was not prepared to try another one of anybody's brand and I was lucky enough to have the choice to reinstall my 5-speed. Guys that have the factory 6-speeds are just stuck with having to replace it with another 6-speed gear set, which may go out again in another 30K.

Maybe some mad scientist will come up with a 5-speed gear set for a 6-speed case. That would be one less shift-fork, a pair of gears and a hand-full of bearings to not worry about. They could even make the gears and bearings larger for added durability.

Okay Baker and JIMS....here is another chance at a new product line for you to consider!

 

yeah ditto here with the "rocks". I have a 91 FXSTC and out or nowhere I hear banging-like sounds in the tranny which stop when I pull in the clutch. On the stand it runs great until its put in any gear - then the banging starts.
HD dealer mech said "sounds like marbles in there". Something I knew before they wacked me with the bill- solving nothing. Their solution, without further investigation was to try to sell me on a $2800 5 spd gear set replacement. Thanks but I'll do that myself if need be.