[mblackmon]

I have a 1998 sportster 883. It has developed a rumbling type noise that is quite load. The noise is present in any gear but will slowly stop when the clutch is engeged. Any suggestions?
I have change the lubricant in the transmission but no luck.

[CD]

What do you mean by rumbling noise? Grinding? Clunking? We need more info!

Mileage? Regular service? Dropped? Does it shift okay?

[mblackmon]

My bike has 15,ooo miles. It has had (according to previous owner) regular scheduled maintinance. Has never been dropped to my knowledge and looks like new. The noise is a grinding type noise which is very noticeable in the lower gears. As stated, the noise goes away when the clutch is engaged. You can hear the noise slowly slow down and then stop alltogather when the clutch is engaged. I removed the drain plug and there was no metal on the magnet.The noise is not nearly as noticeable in the higher gears. The transmission changes gears effortlesly. There is no grinding of gears when changing gears. I have been told that the problem has something to do with the main shaft. I plan to remove the primary case this week-end and inspect the bearings on that side. If ok, I plan to remove the transmission.
I called the Harley shop and was told that sportsters had no history of transmission type noises. I sure was looking forward to riding a lot in the comming weeks but that has all come to a halt for now. Any comments/suggestions will be appreciated. Mike

[Fossilhog]

Primary chain adjusted properly?

[deano]

Have a friend that rides a 1200 custom that had the same problem. The shop finally tracked it to the compensator nut that was not tightened. The nut was torqued to factory specs and the noise went away. We were not there when the work was done so all we have to go by is what we were told.
Hope this helps!!
deano

[mblackmon]

Well we decided to tear down the bike this week. We began by removing the
primary cover and do a little looking. We found nothing wrong. There was no metal on the drain plug, so we then removed the right rear cover and checked the output shaft gear and retaining nut..all ok. But,when the rear tire was turned, you could see the belt walking very hard to the outside. No...that couldn't be it! So we adjusted the rear tire alignment and spun the tire again. The belt ran staright and so we decided to put it all back togather and try it one more time before we removed the trasnsmission. To make a long story short, the noise did go away! I have driven it almost 50 miles and all is well. I would like to thank all who replied to my post. Mike