Well took the bike for a 200 or so mile ride on Sunday when on the way home I noticed a whine coming from the primary side. Got the bike home with no issues, but the noise persisted. I just turned 21000 miles on it and it was due for an oil change and the 20k check up. Got out the manual and went in deep on it. I even took the cam cover off and looked at the tensioners. Got the 20k and oil change done then turned my attention to the primary. Pulled the cover off expecting to see major carnage (just my luck). There is nothing that looks out of the ordinary. no metal, nothing loose. Clutch was within spec, as well as the primary chain.

I wanted to go deeper and pull the clutch and compensator sprocket, but couldn't break the nuts loose by myself without air tools or the locking tool. So i put it back together and added the oil. Started it up with the hopes the noise would magically disappear....no such luck still have whining noise on clutch end of primary. The noise occurs at idle with the transmission in neutral and clutch out. The noise stops immediately when you pull clutch and put in gear. There is some bad decel whine as well when coming to a stop under 35mph or so. Sound like a clutch bearing or inner primary bearing? Based on other threads I'm guessing the IPB? Pissed at myself now that I have to go buy another $30 primary cover gasket and take it apart again. Oh well...

 

I re-use my primary gasket about 3 times before I put a new one on, never had the primary leak.

 

Thats what they sound like, and how they behave when they are failing.

When I traded my 07 with 60K on it (2 mos ago) the dealer deducted $400 off trade in value claiming it could be an $800 job for them.

 

Yep...can you "limp" 'er along until winter & then do your break-down/re-build...??

 

That's the symptom I was waiting for. Primary Shaft Bearing. We were out riding around West Virginia and Virginia in July and my friend's 08 Ultra started the exact same symptom. We were a mile from the HD dealer in Stanton, VA. They got him right in, and we were on the road in 2 hours headed for NY.

 

Thats good to know. I'm gonna pull this one off today and just try reusing it when it goes back together. If it leaks then I'll buy another.

Haha prob took one of their techs an hr or 2 for total cost of less than $100. Its not rocket science in there....

Probably could but I'd rather stop now and just have to replace a bearing not a ton of other crap. There are no real rideability issues to speak off...

Good deal...looks like its not too bad of a job once you get the clutch, chain, and compensator off.

 

fyi..You really don't want to break the comp nut loose with an impact wrench for fear of possible damage to the stator. You don't need special tools either. A socket and long bar or breaker bar will do it, with a block of wood. I used the setup shown here when I did my compensator last winter.

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...it-w-pics.html

Good luck, post some pics on what you find.

Hope this helps,

Dave

 

Although a socket and a breaker bar will work just fine, I've used an air impact on my bikes a number of times and I've never had a problem with it. It makes the job much easier taking of he compensating sprocket nut.

 

When i bought my 2008 FLHRC last year ,with 27,000 miles i thought there was a lot of noise comming from the primary .was awful in nuetral.
The Tech at HD said it was normal . i asked three diffrent Techs at three HD dealers all said thats normal.
Yesterday i Road 100 miles to Dillion Brothers to have them mount a e3 tire i bought from JakeWilson and replace my rear brake switch .
When the service manager rode my bike in to the shop he came straight to me and said he was conserned with the noise in primary and asked if i had time to wait for them to check it after they did the tire and brake switch.
I said sure i got all day.
About an hour later he asks me to come back and show me the iside of my primary .
The oil left in after they took cover off was very dark brown and there were lots small chunks of metal . he said the primary bearing was failing and the ends of the clutch splines were disintagrating was weird damage .
Service manager said it was lucky i got there before it came all apart .
about 5 hours later they had it all back togther no more whining growl no more Bang when i start the bike .
this would have cost almost $900 but i have an exstended service so it cost mr $50 for the deducrable.
My bike has about 38,000 on it now.

 

Not sure what to think at this point. here are some pics of the IPB/mainshaft bearing....looks real good and moves freely with minimal noise. When i turn the main shaft, i get some noise but it just sounds like turning a gear set and does move with ease (i can spin with my finger tips). bike is in neutral and i can also spin the drive belt pulley nicely with no noise. only thing is, i can see where the drive belt pulley has made contact with the trans housing along the top side (see pic) next step is to drain tranny and see if there is metal in it. if the IPB looks good what else is there? tranny? compensator? could the clutch be bad? i cannot move the bearings in the clutch but i dont know if you should be able to or not with it out.