gooday all. 

30 ks out from home at 80 odd kph, get sudden vibration. think mm  tire deflating. pulled over , tires fine.. take off. same rpm in each gear, maybe 1800 or so. same vibration.. pull clutch, touch rear brake to slow down, vibration  real bad.. think ok. loose back wheel or caliper.. stop again, not loose . 20 ks from home. can cruise at 70 , light throttle, not so bad.. hit small bumps. back again. this vibration is now felt through the footboards, seat, handlebars. enough to pull over again and  look for something. still zip.. 10 ks out and down to 50 kph before vibration makes me think the ass end is going to fall out..still no particular sound with this vibration either.  3 ks out from home, down to 20 kph, cant get rid of vibration. clutch in or out, brakes on of off.light mechancal noise hard to describe like rubbing or scraping now present but not loud  appears to be from left side. just waiting for the bike to fall in half.... made it home thank christ.. put up on bike lift. check for wheel bearing looseness front and rear. nothing.. feel for swingarm looseness. nothing. check engine mount front and stabilaser.. tight. havnt checked the one under the tank yet. pulled primary inspection cover off, chain is fine and from what i could feel by hand, no movement in compensator but im thinking it would require a fair amount of pressure to show if it was loose nut.  checked  secondry belt. no marks anywhere. checked rear disk bolts, pulley bolts, axles bolt. all tight.. im buggered.   i know if i take it out  it wouldnt take long to fall apart. but i dont want the rear end  falling off or engine crackin up just to find out what  it is.. any ideas? and given its sometimes the simplest of things i will be open to any suggestions.. the bike has under 20ooo ks. new rear pads, new tyres., done about 2ooo ks. till today all was good in life. LOL

sorry for the long post but the more i can tell you, the better someone can diagnose

 

cheers  cactus.

 For a vibration of this magnitude to start all of a sudden, something reasonably large must have come adrift.

From what you have mentioned, sounds like the next step is to remove the Primary Chaincase Cover and check the primary drive bolt and compensator,

and then the clutch assembly and mainshaft nut.

Clutch assembly bearing wouldn't be out of the question here either.

I reckon you'll find the problem there somewhere, but if not, the transmission sprocket nut & lockplate is the next suspect.

 

 

 

 

gooday rider. after going over most of the suspension components front and rear and finding nothing, your suggestion is on the cards for tomorrow. the only way i can relate the rear brakes setting up the vibration is maybe through pressure via the drive belt back to the clutch or drive ... like you say. to be all of a sudden it is large something.
the only thing i did while riding today was give it a bit of a squirt through 1,2,3rd. in town then an hour later when i hit the highway is when this showed up. im hoping compensator bolt. we shall see and ill post the findings

cheers and thanks for you opinion

gooday bob

ty for the information. ive just come in from the shed after pulling the cover, nothing "appears loose" although the compensator can be rocked back and fourth about half an inch before touching alternate surfaces if you know what i mean. to re,torque the nut would require complete removal of the compensator and clutch assembly so as to clean the nut to thread mating surface for locktite to be effective. well thats what ive just read on another forum. makes sense but an awful lot of work too. ill think about that side of things over night before removing everythng. besides i need to purchase the 2 large sockets required for the job.

front engine mount was just checking the bolt that passes through the rubber mount. visual as much as anyting. the nut or shaft was tight. i cant rock the engine by hand but then i doubt i could anyway. this vibration seems to appear around 1800 rpm at a guess. no tacho but originally about 50 mph in top gear. then got progressivley worse the longer i rode. . at home in the shed, run the motor, no strange noises but seems to vibrate some at above said rpms.. while on bike lift i ran engine with bike in first gear to see if anything was about to fall off. no noises, and minimal vibrations. i wasnt going to try any higher gears with bike balanced on lifter. im still very open to suggestions. im not a mechanic, just a logical bloke with a shed full of tools LOL. who reads as much as i can to save giving my hard earned dollars to mr harley. he has enough of mine .
its 11pm here so i shall sleep on it all and take a fresh look in the morning.

cheers cactus

You may wish to isolate your problem by downloading my DIY page.  This covers where and what.  It is much better to be standing next to the bike, however.  Good Luck LINKY:    and/or

Steering Shakes, What The Manual Doesn’t Tell You

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UPDATE

this is gonna make me sound real stupid or real intelligent. LOL after inspecting inside primary case, going back over all the bolts on front engine mount. everything else mentioned above, i decide bugger it. off to the harley shop after easter, will cancel easter ride and go fishin... while im putting the primary case back on i notice a STONE...bout 3/4 inch round, resting between the inner primary case and the frame near where the rear footrest mounts. theres about 1/2 inch of room there so said stone has rattled around, worn the paint off the frame, left small mark in primary case and reduced its own size a little..

removed stone and placed carefully on bench for later... assemble bike. take for short test ride bout 10 ks. and no vibrations...ill be fucked. could this one little shit of a rock cause all the above problems???/ if its agreed it could have. im going to destroy the little shit with great pleasure after the 7 hours i spent last night and this morning crawlin all over the bike going insane strying to nut this problem out.
mind you i wont be totally satisfied it was the problem till after a 100 k ride. then ill relax.

thankyou to all those that contributed with ideas. i did try 90 % of em

cheers cactus

 Be buggered, sounds like a kidney stone I had recently !   

well 100k test ride confirmed it.. so if ever you have strange vibrations through ya bike.. look for stone jammed in between box/motor and frame. i still cant believe it had the effect it did. anyway, easter road trip is back on.

cheers.

ps rider. hope ya got rid of your stone to mate. LOL