'04 Deuce, TC88 fuel injected, stock with exception of SE slip-ons
21K and change miles, 11k of those mine and hasn't been near red line thru the gears more than a dozen or so times in those miles

noticed a different sound at start up about 600 miles ago.
Only at idle do I hear it and at 12-1300 + rpm it's gone

local pro Harley indi with long and good reputation checked it out is pretty sure it's the counter balance .
I knew what that meant ...$split the cases labor, find out what exactly is wrong, order parts and wait for them and reassemble.

other than the sound at idle, I haven't noticed different vibrations or clunking on the road.


thoughts on whether I'm a complete idiot to try and baby it til riding season is over?
at my pace and style, that'll be another 3k miles give or take


thanks

..L.T.A.

 

Boy, to think the counter balance system has gone in 20,000 miles is unusual. In fact, in the 10 years I've been in here, I think I have seen 1 thread about it cropping up and know of one other personally and those were both relatively high mileage bikes. I would tend to think if the balancers have jumped teeth or otherwise been compromised, the vibration would be present at all engine speeds. But I suppose anything is possible.

 

I would suggest taking care of it now. I seem to remember reading something about a guy in Arizona maybe that would eliminate the counter balancers all together. Is he still around? I haven’t a clue.

 

thanks QC
there's no vibration other than normal.
Indi is thinking bearing, not slipped time




Thanks IA

if I knew it would be a 2-3 week thing, I might.
But not sure that's possible .
Just waiting on parts could be all summer from what I hear


If I understand that, wouldn't that be equivalent to the TC88 A motor?
Indi says it would vibrate the bike apart being that B model is hard mounted to frame


..L.T.A.

 

I guess your Indy has never seen panheads or shovel heads. They were hard mounted and lasted many many miles, in fact there are still a lot of them being used as daily riders and long distance touring

 

Thanks, Ger

I don't know anything about that, but pretty certain I want to keep it mostly stock

..L.T.A.

 

The only issue I had with mine was a balancer chain noise that went away when I switched oil.
I remember watching the Harley expo in Las Vegas on YouTube. The engineer who designed the M8 was taking about the normal gear whine of the M8 balancer, he said the gear whine is normal like the white noise from the TCb counter weight chain.
In all of my years working in auto repair a "white noise" from a timing chain meant problems..
Any how, I've got close to 60k on my b motor and it runs fine. It's a 2013 103 with cams and a tune.

 

He essentially turned them a 3 piece set so they can be balanced the same as pre twin cam flywheels.

 

My guess is it the fingers on the compensator. They gaul and get rough. Sounds like a rotary tiller in a gravel creek bed. Doesn't hurt anything as long as you know what it is. I have seen a bad bearing on the balance wheel but rare and over 100K. Also had the gear sprocket indexed on the crank. Dark horse said that. Could not see that.

Get you a two ear mechanic's stethoscope from harbor. No screwdriver sillyness. Noises travels all over.

Track noise with it. You want to be as sure as possible. You start splitting block and your going to find stuff the probably hurts nothing , big money and still not fix it.

Mine has 50,000 on it. Runs like new. Primary sounds exactly as above. Been that way since 20,000

 

If he thinks it's a bearing, why did you mention counter balance?
Which bearing does he think it might be?