In February last year I got a Screamin Eagle® 103 Big Bore Kit fitted to my Harley-Davidson® Road King® , I still love it, particularly now I have had the oil cooler fitted, but.....
In July last year I had to get the compensator replaced after it became loose/noisy. It was replaced with the OEM part under warranty at the local dealership. No problem there, however it's gone again after 5 months. The second time in 12 months after the fitting of the big bore kit, I didn't know if it was related, I unashamedly don't really know my arse from my elbow when it comes to in depth mechanical stuff and need to rely on the honesty of the people that should know. Given this wasn't a matter for the Guru to get involved in since my Harley-Davidson is still under warranty, the dealership was my first point of call.
The service manager confirmed the compensator noise quite quickly and agreed it needed to be replaced again... but what with? I was told that the 2011 Road King came standard with a 103 engine and a more robust compensator mmmm, perhaps there is a link. So, the local dealership Service Manager offered to contact the powers that be in Harley-Davidson world to see if they could get the go ahead to replace the standard part with the 2011 version this time. This made perfect sense to me, two standard ones had failed, it didn't seem to make sense to replace it with the same thing and invite a repeat occurrence. I wouldn't have thought the cost would be significantly different enough for H-D to care in order to resolve the ongoing issue.
The answer from Harley-Davidson passed on to me by the dealership was "no", if I wanted the current OEM'd more robust one it would be something I needed to work out with the dealership, but H-D would cover the standard part replacement. Not a lot of logic there. So I called Todd, the National Service Manager of Harley-Davidson Australia to try to find out what was going on. He offered to look into it and call me back, which he did a few days later.
H-D Official Line: The 2011 Road King compensator is a more robust version that has been available for quite some time and is commonly used in big bore motorcycles as an upgrade. When I got the 103 Big Bore Kit fitted the local dealership should have given me the choice to upgrade the compensator and let me assume the risk of failure if I decided to keep the standard one. If I chose to keep the standard one the resolution of the problem would be up to me for taking the risk by not spending the extra dollars. Because I wasn't given the choice and never got (paid for) the upgraded one they wouldn't come to the party and I should talk to the dealership about getting the upgraded one. To me that firstly seems an admission that the current internal techo H-D thinking is that the standard one is not up to the big bore kit, so the issue is probably related to the upgraded engine.
So essentially H-D are blaming the dealership, who sold me the complete Screamin Eagle Phase II 103 kit, including the stiffer clutch spring, but not, it would seem a compensator that probably should have been required as an upsell. I wonder why if they new about it then that it wasn't in the kit?
The dealer's official line: They were aware of the upgraded compensator that was at the time suggested for 120ci big bore kits. It's apparently mentioned for the 120's in the Screamin Eagle Catalogue (I haven't seen it because I didn't look at that kit), but nowhere at all for the 103 kit. They dispute Todd's implication that it was suggested or practice at the time I got my 103 kit fitted to offer and upgraded compensator. Sorry, Todd, I believe the dealer.
Anyhow I did a good chunk or research before I got the kit, and at the time I got it I certainly wasn't aware that the compensator might be an issue, and either was the dealer. It certainly wasn't documented anywhere I could see, including in the Screamin Eagle catalogue. The dealership knew price sensitivity isn't an issue with me and that if I was given the upgraded option and a good reason to buy it I would have taken it.
The issue isn't resolved yet, I'll let you know how it goes.
