Dropped by my dealer last Friday evening and asked the service manager to have a listen to my bike. He said something sounded odd, so pulled it into the service center and had a wrench take a listen. Wrench said he's heard similar noises before, but nowhere as loud as the one mine was making.

The sound itself is hard to describe, but I'll try....

It's almost like how old speedo/tach cables sounded when they needed to be lubed (usually a little graphite helped stop it). Similar to valve chatter, but it's coming from low on the motor and not up where normal valve chatter would be heard.

I'm not sure what all they've done so far, but I do know they've been on the phone with moco service support and they've done practically everything but crack the case. He's pulled the primary, couldn't find the noise. Checked the rocker boxes. No go. Today they were instructed to replace the "rocker plate" (I'm no wrench, so going off memory here) and if that doesn't work then they'll have to crack the case and see if it's something deeper in the motor. They even said if it turns out to be something that was machined wrong from the factory they may replace the entire motor. YOIKS!

Yeh, I know...."prime opportunity to consider a 103 or 110 upgrade". I knew telling someone else that would come back to haunt me. =)

So anyway...was wondering if anyone here has heard similar chattering/clattering noise from the front lower areas of their motor, and if so what did you find was the cause and how did you fix it?

I have faith my dealer will find it eventually, but if someone here has already been through it...thought I might help expedite that process a bit.

 

Has he checked the crankshaft position sensor?
It has a magnetic tip inside the engine....Might have picked up a small peice of metal floating around and it now grinding/tapping on the the flywheel cogs..or worse yet coming apart and doing the same thing.

Also..you said he checked the primary. Did he actually pull the rotor to check the magnets and stator of the charging system?

 

I TOO HAVE THIS "WHIRRING" NOISE.... ON MY 07 RG 96 INCHER.
SORTA SOUNDED LIKE A SMALL HELICOPTER WAS STUCK INSIDE MY MOTOR. IN NEUTERAL REV THE MOTOR WHIRRING SOUND SPEEDS UP TOO..
TURNS OUT IT IS THE AUTO PRIMARY CHAIN TENSIONER
"THEY ALL DO THAT" IS WHAT I WAS TOLD.. MY OLD EVO'S NEVER DID.. NOR DID THE 88 INCH.. BUT THAT WAS EARLIER TECHNOLOGY.. SO IM LIVING WITH THAT "NOISE" BUT NOT BAD.

 

Next time I talk with them I'll get a list of everything they've done so far. I'll run these things by them as well, but hopefully he's sharp enough to have already considered them and checked.

Thanks for the tips.

Nick...yeh...small helicopter whirring sound. That's the sound they said they've heard before, but never on the scale (loudness) they'd heard coming from mine.

 

They installed the wrong size rubberband.Sorry I couldn't resist

 

Update:

Today they're telling me they gotta replace the fly wheel and bearings, meaing they gotta crack the case and gut it.

Not real happy about this.

 

Which shop is doing this? Hopefully AE or NTx...

You should see what it would take ($$$) to go back with the GOOD (Jim's S/E) 4.375" crank, NOT the POS stock unit that is prone to this type of failure.

Even if it costs you a couple hundred bucks, it sure would be worth it!

In fact, it might the PERFECT opportunity to throw a HQ 113" kit in it.... not the HD, but HQ.

 

NTX shop. I trust Jeff and his crew.

I posted an update in another thread. I opted for the 103 build while a lot of the expendable/replacable parts and all of the labor were being covered by the warranty repair. Felt it was too good of a deal to pass up.

Thanks for the tip on the crank. If (when?) the newly replaced unit fails I'll be sure to look into the upgrade.

 

There are couple of threads on this problem over in the driveline section of the forum. So far it has been that bearing that is supposed to last 15k miles. Some of them are crapping out between 5 and 10k miles.

 

Heh...mine failed at just shy of 3k miles. New record?