Oh god another strange noise!!!!!

[littleteach]

I ride a 22 year old Hugger converted to 1200,been looked after for 20 years(not by me i'm useless at anything mechanical)god have I had her that long!However on Sunday after nice ride to pub and back a strange knocking noise(not constant)seemed to be coming from the front of the engine,left side presume from area of chain drive to clutch(told you im useless with engines)Anybody any ideas?Not sure i can afford it anymore to fix her if its something big,therefore no more hdrcgb which will be a shame,been a member for many years and will not buy a new one,cant afford it and dont like them.
Anybody got an idea what it is?
thanks

[Rubianroaddog]

If your gear change has gone a bit more clunky than normal, sorry, if your gearbox is giving more positive feed back than normal it could be that your primary has gone a little loose, try checking there first.
Cheers
Mick

[MarlboroMan]

seems common, put new oil in primary and adjust the primary chain, only takes 5 min for the whole job,

[The Dude]

You may also find that ur primary chain just needs retensioning, or maybe the tension spring has gone kaput.
Not an expensive repair if that's what it is!

TD
Mines an '89 Hugger LOL

[Limey_Dave]

Engine sprocket lose?

[kiwidave]

Beware difficulty in changing gear......the gearbox going west is a bit of a known issue with the 4spd Evo Sportsters..... but that is not meant to scare you. Could be a simple as the comp sprocket nut coming loose....not a big deal at all. You *WILL* have to take cover off, so get dirty!

[Chris L]

....and if you cant do it, I bet someone near to can...

[Scotty]

Chaincase needs to come of and have a look in case its something thats gonna cause you serious problems.
I doubt very much its just chain adjustment!

[The Dude]

Try the sprocket and primary tensioner first, they are the easiest options!
As has been said, dodgy gearboxes om those 4 speed Sporties. I know! Mine went at 15K. What sort of mileage has yours done, and have you had trouble with gearbox at all?

TD

[ChrisH]

I recently got a 1989 XLH1200.

Tatty but low mileage and apparently sound - but then within a couple of days the four speed box pretty much disintegrated. It started off with some horrible odd noises and rapidly ended up with not being able to shift / stay in gear.

I was able to diagnose the problem as a broken shifter cam - apparently the OEM are made from cream cheese. I found out about this in the fantastic book '101 Evolution HD Performance Projects'. (Well worth the £20 for anyone who wants to do any tinkering).

You can see the relevant article online at:

101 Harley-Davidson Evolution ... - Google Books

I got the replacement part from Hogparts for about £50 - I didn't feel confident about taking the gearbox apart myself so I got someone to do the labour for me - for about £200.

All in all not bad for something that I thought was going to be a disaster.

Hopefully you just have a problem with the primary and you don't have to delve into the gearbox - certainly you should eliminate easier to fix possibilities first - but as people have said the gearbox is notorious. But if it has gone pear-shaped it's not the end of the world.

Good luck
ChrisH