Squeeking Noise

[jpoirier]

Worst fears appear to be coming true. Squeeking noise won't go away, and there is very very small flui drip under my bike now. Appears to be coming from the fron't pulley area. My first guess would be the seal and probably the bearing are bad. Looks like it's going into the shop.....DAMN IT!!!!!!!!

 

[BadBrad]

Are you sure it's motor oil and not primary fluid? Just for the heck of it, try the soap trick again and see if the squeak goes away. If so, at least you've determined the root cause of that problem. If the squeak goes away, I would still think that proper alignment will solve that. Oil can drip from a lot of places from the drive pully side. Well, before I go any further, what bike do you have and year model? Right or left side drive?

 

[jpoirier]

I have an 04 Chopper...left side drive. I'm hoping that it's not the bearing...either way though...I need to get it resolved. I'm headed down to Florida on the 27th for 3 wks and was planning on bringing my bike with me. I should also say that the leaking underneath has only started since the squeeking started...

 

[BadBrad]

Just another thought...my brother has a Pitbull that had a horrible squeeking noise when we were down in Daytona...the seal ended up going bad and he had to replace his tranny....to the tune of $2100.

Just a note: if the seal on the tranny goes out, then tranny oil flows into the primary, not on the ground. Still, if that happens, your tranny runs out of fluid and that's why his tranny got trashed.

Did you ever verify if you're leaking oil or primary fluid? Leaking primary fluid is just a matter of getting new gaskets/O'rings, pulling the primary and/or the inner primary and replacing all new gaskets/O'rings. For both inner and outer primary, about $90 if you do the labor.

If you're leaking oil, you need to determine exactly where the oil is coming from. It could be from either end of the pushrod tubes, rocker box, head or cylinder base and when you put the bike on the kickstand, it makes it's way to the left side of the bike. Have you been able to pinpoint exactly what the fluid is and where it's coming from?

 

[C.A. Jones]

Before you waste any more money, try something real quick...Sit on the bike and bounce up and down on it...(without it running)....Listen to see if the coil cover/motor mount is squeaking...jsub is absolutely correct in pointing you in that direction. It's very common for that thing to squeak...I've heard of people spending shit-tons of money for this, that and the other thing at other shops, and sometimes it all boils down to the coil cover/motor mount being in a bind...It's worth a shot,(it's free) and I hope that's all it is...Good luck!

 

[Oldhvymetal]

The infamous belt squeel... for me, it was bad engine alignment from the factory. Re-aligning all, engine (thus primary) and rear tire alignment (thus pulley) did the trick. It wasn't easy but just in case this might be your issue, one test that really helped me was to look carefully at the position of the belt on the rear pulley- is it running close to the inner or outer flange? OK then, now on a level surface while in neutral roll the bike backwards 10 feet or so (enough to let the belt travel a few full rotations) and watch to see if the belt moves from one side of the rear pulley to the middle or closer to the other side. If it does that, that the rear drive needs better alignment, and it might include getting the engine and primary better aligned. Mine was not forgiving at all... I had to get it perfect to get the belt squeel to stop.

Now at one point I raced a .25 mile against a big mouth dood with a porshe. It was nice to win, but I ended up pulling the rear pulley just slightly out of true- yes, most of us (even old dogs like mine) have that kind of torque. So depending upon how hard you beat on your bike that may be a possibility too, your pulley may not be straight anymore.

Just food for thought to add to the rest of the good advice being offered. Good luck!