I installed the heavier starter and that cured the issue. I have not had a single grinding experience since the install and I have about 4000 miles on the new starter.

Good luck,

 

I went through 4 starters by 18k. All were replaced under warranty. The dealer also did the upgrade from 96 to 103. The last starter the dealer replaced the compensator also but did not put my SE clutch spring back in. had to take it back and reinstall the SE clutch spring. It seems to have done ok for about 5k then I traded it in for a 2010 CVO Ultra. It has the 110SE with ACR.

 

I have a 2007 Road Glide with 103" upgrade, 255 cams, all the SE bells and whistles you'd want in a hot rod motor. My starter was doing the same thing all of you has mentioned. I have the manual compression releases and it still did it. I took it in and had the upgrade 1.6 kw starter, 550. bucks, installed and the problem went away. No further problems.
Hope this helps.
Blessings

 

after reading about occassional starting issues I had the 103 Stage II upgrade and asked the service manager about it. He advised that only a small percentage of bikes do experience the issue but if I was worried about it I should have the Manual compression release added during the build. No problems but only a thousand miles on the upgrade. Not bad on Norhtern NY.

 

My 110 08 CUSE3 is doing the same thing and the dealer said it is the compinsater gear clutch thing. Anyway they are ordering the parts and will do the repairs under warranty.

 

Common with 103's haveing starter issues due to the starter gear and ring gear combo.
66 tooth starter ring gear is what seems to cure it with a smaller tooth starter gear. Starters will last longer also factory 1.4 hp (high torque) is fine-don't fall for advertiser's B.S. on their POWERFULL starters, most are crap.

 

I have a 2001 softtail carburated Nighttrain with engine upgrade and am having the same starting problem, which is the kickback onto the starter gear and makes that terrible grinding sound. In my attempt to correct the problem. I replaced the stock starter ring gear with a Compu-fire 10-84 gear set. An 84 tooth ring gear and a 10 tooth pinion gear. But I an still having the problem. Do you think your process will work with carbrated models?

 

I have a 2007 Road Glide, 103- SE Stage 2 - S&S SPO Ovals, Powercommander, stock heads and dyno tuned after 25,000 km.

The canned map may be close but nothing beats a tune...worth every penny. Reliability and enough smiles to keep me happy for a long time.

Anyway, within days after the tune I had a starter problem ( one helluva sound!)

Read all of the posts for hours, found out that MOCO had a service bulliten for the 07 starters but I was out of warranty so too bad for me.

Heard everything from need compression releases, need compensator sprocket, need the MOCO's HD starter etc.etc. etc.

Dealer would have charged $1,000 to replace starter ( to start with)

So here is what I ultimately found out. Unless there was head work done the compression from this set up should not require compression releases.
It also does not require a Heavy Duty (??) starter

I removed the starter and took it to an industrial starter and alternator repair shop. They had seen and repaired dozens of Harley TC starters.
Problem is the drive gear / clutch assembley wears on the jackshaft over time and the few thou that gets worn from the jackshaft due to turning two paint cans for cyllinders and kickback.
The guy at the shop said the stock starter is totally sufficient but in a couple of years the wear may happen again ...unless the metallurgy improves on the shaft.

Long story short, they replace the assembly ($100) and it works better than new. They did it in a half hour while I waited.

Not a big job 45 min out ...45 min back in but watch out for the dowels that the bolts run through when doing the re and re. ( |If you drop them you will be hunting for awhile...this added 45 min to the job !!!LOL)

$100 repair - $25 beer - and a couple of hours and while HD could of used the money... so can I ...and the balance goes into the Road Trip account!!

Hope this helps someone out and thanks for all of the input on this site ..it is a great research tool.

 

Delete - just noticed the date on the OP. wtf!

 

Everyone listen closely,

I had the same issue with my ultra se 2006. When i first got into it, I also thought is was the starter! I was changing starters cause i thought it was the starter, i got a starter from J&P with the same rating. When i took the primary cover off, low and behold I had some broken teeth on the ring gear. SO, i got a new ring gear from J&P and this new ring gear had less teeth, 66 teeth i think compared to a stock 70 something in the normal hog, anyway it was less teeth for more torque, get my drift.
Get the S.O.B all back togather and sure enough, still same problem! Boy was i pissed, anyway, i got to thinking outside the box and thought hey dumbass, your an electrician, what happens when you cant get enough amps to the starter, hint hint! SO, I checked my starter cable and sure enough it was loose at the battery. Not only did I do that, I also bought bigger cables from J&P and to this day not one single starting problem.

Stock 103's do not make that much compression that they need releases, unless yu get into the radical builds. They make there horsepower with bigger displacement not higher compression. "There is no replacement for displacement". Higher compression takes away longevity on a hog and harley doesnt want that.

J&P has a bigger cable kit somewhere in the arsenal, just do some lookin or call em.

Let me know if this helps any.

Bigsnak