Here's what I know so far. When starting, the primary chain turns and I hear a loud clacking sound at the same time. like two gears are not fully meshed. At first I thought it was the starter clutch not engaging the motor but I pulled the inspection cover from the primary and can see the chain looks fine and it's turning. It sounds like a mechanical problem. what could it be?

 

I resolved this issue. I drained and removed the outer primary cover and inspected the chain, starter and clutch basket. I notice toward the front of the primary a large nut had backed off. this nut hold the compensator sprocket tight to the motor shaft. All I had to do was tighten it down to spec. The book calls for 150-165 ft. lbs. of torque so that's what she got. It was a little tricky because the clutch wants to turn once the nut gets tight but after I put her in 5th gear I was able to get enough resistance to get a click out of my torque wrench. Harley sells a special tool to keep the clutch from rotating but I am too cheap and was too anxious to get back on the road. I'm thinking I should have used some blue lock-tite to keep this from happening again but I didn't. Next time I will.

 

You will be back in tightening that compensator nut again. That is common for that to happen there is a service bulletin out on it you take it apart and clean all the threads good then put some red loctite on it tighten to 75 ft lbs then turn another 45 to 50 degrees. You can find the bulletin on this site.