Softail engines

[catken]

Are all softail engines inherently noisy. There are times when my 2004 Fatboy has a sound similar to that of a washing machine. When I bought it, the dealer said it was normal.

[Shaw_2112]

lol, if you search around the forum you'll see this has been a thorn in our sides for years, some say the Baisley spring solved their problems, didn't do a damn thing for me though. Some say changing from synth to dino oil solved it, still didn't do a damn thing for me.. you see a pattern here? The solution? wear some ear plugs or headphones

[dirtybrain]

Originally Posted by catken

Are all softail engines inherently noisy. There are times when my 2004 Fatboy has a sound similar to that of a washing machine. When I bought it, the dealer said it was normal.

I've been trying to accurately describe that belt-slapping, ticking sound for years! Washing machine - you nailed it. Yep, seems pretty common. Mine is noisy but still runs like a mofo so I don't let it bother me. Be safe

[NUG]

get louder pipes

[kzoo]

Mine sounds like an old industrial sewing machine! Earphones solved the problem!

[wfojon]

Mine is loud too, I changed to synthetic oil and the trans got quieter but the motor sounds worse. I put a wind shield and leg shields on and with the super quiet stock pipes I hear every noise in it. I'm looking at some slip ons to make it a little louder to drown out the motor noise.

[cernunos]

Halloo. Shoot, as far back as I can recall, all the good bikes were comparable to a Maytag washer when it came to noise and feel. The thing is to get all that noise and feel to a state that it is "normal" to yer own self.

C.......

[RGRider]

I've had my Road Glide for a couple years. Before that I had a 2003 Softail. I rode a '00 and '03 this summer and I found out I had forgotten how noisy my old bike's engine was. Yeah, it's normal.

[High Torque]

Compaired to what? it's an air cooled engine that was developed many years ago. The technology is ancient by todays standards and yea, they are noisy more so when they get real hot. It's all about the internal engine clearances for these air cooled machines.
If you want a quiet engine, by a metric.

[terryrh]

The quieter ones seem kinda lifeless to me.

[catken]

Thanks for your replies. Put screaming eagles on it a few years back to help drown out the engine noise which helped. I guess I would rather put up with the noise than go back to metric.

[drewhoo990]

I recently rebuilt my 01 fatboy due to those noises. It had 1200 miles on it when I bought it and I put roughly 42,000 ROUGH miles on it in two years. Those noises got really loud. Both of my chains had stretched horribly, primary drive and cam chains. When I put the new chains in, (also changing the primary tensioner to a spring loaded and the cam chain tensioners to hydrolic) I noticed that the sounds got louder and more specific. It was easy to tell where the noise was comming from now. I would say if it doesn't sound like a washing machine then you have a problem. I'm not an expert but to me it sounds like chain rattle. I took my baffles out and it solved the problem lol.

[Blackened]

Same here, been almost 10 years and the laundry still isn't done...

[blitzking]

Originally Posted by terryrh

The quieter ones seem kinda lifeless to me.

Yea kinda like a blow up girl friend .

[nowafatty]

Sounds kinda like two whitetail bucks clankin their antlers