Comp nut coming loose is not uncommon in the early models. The MoCo knew it was a problem and offered spacers to address the issue. The DIY fix was to shave .030" off the comp nut to achieve the necessary clamping pressure.

 

It was and wasn't. I heard of it. I still carry breaker bar. But as with what you read on internet,never happened to me.

I believe a knock on starting is supposed to be a sign

 

Although comp nut coming loose didn't happen to you and many others, it was an issue. Which is why the MoCo offered three different shim thiknesses to address the issue and why so many DIYers shaved .030" off the comp nut. Removing .030" was not a surgical operation; could be done carefully done on a bench grinder although if a lathe was available, a better way.

 

03s and some 04 / 05s were the problem years. The stuff prior to that was good. HD actually changed the torque procedure after that. I think it had to do with the change in left crank bearing.

 

Comp nut on my 02 came loose; shaved .030" off. '05 didn't loosen up but I pulled it off and pre-emptively shaved off .030". I forgot about the torque procedure change. '05 is 150-165 ft.lb; when did it change? IIRC, the torque spec changed but a 45* additional turn was added.

 

There was a service bulletin that came out early on. Can't find it.. This is out of the 06 manual.

Engine compensating sprocket nut. 75 ft-lbs, then 45° to 50°

I still torque them to 150.. But I've not owned any 5 speed TC motors with rollers on the left side..

DId your 02 have a washer under the nut? Did you measure for nut bottoming or just cut?

BTW, my 02 RKC didn't have any issues as far as the nut coming loose...

 

All I did was ask if any work was done.

As for the shims, what I am familar with is the different sizes because in that era they had different size rotors, which required different shims.

I have heard of this happening. But again just asking if any work was done. Just curious is all.

 

Interesting point, is this a lack of timken issue, or example of harley making changes and then having to go back and fix it. Like cam bearings.

 

Think it's more of and issue that the bearing is a different width and the stack up tolerances changed enough that the nut bottomed out on the crank. Another thing is that the later cranks use the straight roller bearing on the drive side to control the endplay on the crank. They stole that idea from when they used a roller on the rear cam bearing. Any way part of the torque procedure probably squashed the washers on each end of the roller inner race and cut the end play in the crank..

2003 motors were known to blow the left bearing if the motor was pumped above 100 hp/tq. New TQ procedure seemed to help.. @rigidthumper seemed to find this when he worked at a dealer.

 

2003 first year without Timken bearing. Back in the day, we considered a big deal. my 2007, I have not decided what to do with it. Do I do a conversion, or just re-ring or ..010 over? One of these days I am going to take it apart. Could bore to 103. But I just don't know if I trust it without doing a timken conversion.