Im glad to find this.I replaced my comp. with a SE one.and have my primary apart now with 8000 miles on the new SE comp.and it looks like the rusty burned up one in this thread.I will be doing the cuts in mine for sure.

 

Oh jeez, now when I upgrade to the SE comp I have to mod the upgrade? Where will it all end?

 

No groove in the shaft orifice, it's a shadow. I thought the same thing and had to confirm with the owner of the pic.

 

I took the SE compensator that i had on my 96 since summer and measured it all up today. The spring pack pushes the sliding cam and compensator sprocket tight against the fiber thrust washer. There is .034 between the face of the shaft extension and the face of the compensator sprocket which i see that they are grinding the grooves in. It is not tight against the face of the bearing journal on the shaft extension. The grooves would not be of any benifit on this SE compensator. It has been on ther since the summer and has about 1000 miles on it. The fiber washer still has the oil grooves and looks like new. I had the rusty looking sht on the bearing journal when i took it apart and was all set to grind the grooves today till i saw that there is plenty of room for oil to get into the bearing journal on the shaft extension and the inner bearing surface of the compensator sprocket Where this rusty looking fretting was happening. Anyone check this clearance out that i am talking about? The grooves would not help on the one that i have here now there is plenty of room for oil to get in this bearing area. Put the compensator sprocket on the shaft extension then put the fiber washer and sprocket retainer on and measure your clearance they are not tight against the side to require those grooves from what i can see. Help me out with this, am i missing something here? I went to school for tool and die and make a lot of my own tools so i am pretty good with machining and engine assembly. The only way that i could see oiling being helped in this area is a spiral oil groove in the inner bearing surface of the compensator sprocket. I was all set to take my primary off the new engine today till i saw the clearance that is in the area that they say is tight and requires the grooves from what i can see this is not an area that requires the grooves to let the oil in.

 

Dawg,
Thanks pic sure kind of looked that way.

 

yeah I just put mine back together today after replacing my ipb and mainshaft bearing ,was thinking about doing this mod while it was apart but once I got looking at it I could see no real reason because when ever their is load on the motor which is most of the time when riding the sprocket will slide up the sliding cam exposing the bearing surface on the shaft extension to all the oil it can handle,just my take.

 

The spring pack pushs against the sliding cam which is always pushing the compensator sprocket against the thrust washer and sprocket retainer even when it is not running. There is 1/32 of an inch gap between the face of the compensator and the face of the shaft extension, this is the area that they are saying is metal to metal and needs grooves. Not on the one i have. Do the grooves help? They would if those two faces where tight against each other but they are not on the one i have.

 

yes I see what you are saying,I wasn't looking at the whole picture,but I did look to see if there was a gap in mine after I had it installed and it did look as if there was,so this was also a deciding factor in not doing this mod,the mod is free to do so I guess it can't hurt and may very well help but I don't think I would tear it apart just to do this ,if you have to go in for something else it might be a good idea.

 

Thanks for the detailed info "hydrolock43". I was thinking about doing the mod but having read what your investigation revealed I will leave it alone. I haven't heard of any problems with this compensator and with the tolerances you are talking about I can't see an oiling problem.

 

The grooves could very well let some more lube in that area but to say that the compensator sprocket clamps the side play/clearance shut is totally not good info. Go tighten your whole assembly on the crankshaft without the springs and tell me that your compensator sprocket is tight with no side play. I got all excited when i found this repair but once i investigated i found that it is not letting oil in where it can't get by any means. If i did any mod at all in this area it would be a spiral groove of some sort inside the compensator sprocket bore to allow some more lubricant to remain in the surface area where this fretting problem is appearing.