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Shaking at idle

I know this is a long shot but it appears that most obvious answers have been suggested already.

A friend of mine has a 06 SG which suddenly developed a shaking problem. It had him totally baffled and the Dealership too for a while.
It turned out to be a chrome decorative cap that had come off from I think one of his head bolts. Anyway, it had apparently dropped down and was lodged between his frame and engine mount. Deep down there in the front somewhere and hardly noticeable. The engine was transferring all the vibration directly to the frame.
After they fished it out everything was back to normal.
Your description of the whole bike shaking sounds exactly like his. I suppose anything could drop in there, like even a rock or something.
It might be worth looking in there with a nice bright light.
 
Engine starts fine no excessive cranking. General running condition is also fine no problem other than shaking at idle. The plugs I pulled the other day were bone white which is probably due to the very lean factory settings. No engine misses above 1500 rpm only the rough idle condition which was not present 300 miles ago. Bike used to be super smooth compared to my last 06 FLHX.

The shaking condition I am speaking about involves the engine shaking excessively on its rubber mounts which in turn transfers to the rest of the bike. At idle the bags shake the antennae is whipping about the bars transfer the shaking to the rider and the horn is vibrating excessively. I wil look into loose mounts and or something stuck in there though. Anything will help.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
murgas1 said:
Engine starts fine no excessive cranking. General running condition is also fine no problem other than shaking at idle. The plugs I pulled the other day were bone white which is probably due to the very lean factory settings. No engine misses above 1500 rpm only the rough idle condition which was not present 300 miles ago. Bike used to be super smooth compared to my last 06 FLHX.

The shaking condition I am speaking about involves the engine shaking excessively on its rubber mounts which in turn transfers to the rest of the bike. At idle the bags shake the antennae is whipping about the bars transfer the shaking to the rider and the horn is vibrating excessively. I wil look into loose mounts and or something stuck in there though. Anything will help.
Click to expand...
My 09 seems to idle a little rougher than my 02 did too, but I believe that's cuz of the longer stroke in the new motor. The new bikes also have a different idle circut they go on if they get hot, you know, when you roll the throttle forward it's suppost to cut the rear cylinder off, it works, and it really does cause a little rougher idle. I've heard that sometimes the computer remembers the setting and returns to it on it's own. Maybe some of the Moderators have heard of this, my Dealer told me about it and told me what to do but I have slept since then and can't remember what he told me. I would kinda think that if you haven't popped a code and got a check engine light the 02 sensors are working. I'd kinda lean to a retain of some of that bad gas you used, unless this condition was presant before ya put that stuff in the tank. Good luck, I would really like to know what you find out.
 
If it's electronic, this is just my 2 cent's, you might want to disconnect the battery overnight and see if that clears anything out of the ECM and reset the system all together. Good Luck Keep us posted Thanks Tom
 
I would suggest taking it back to the dealer and run it side by side with another similar make and model to compare idle quality.

If yours is noticably rougher, then there is a problem and it will be obvious to the dealer as well.
 
Got me worried now!

Just brought a 07 UC home last night and it shakes at idle.
Though I will say that over the last couple of months I have tested a couple of other UC's (07, 08) and they shook at idle as well.
In fact that is one of the things I kind of like. It kind of has that old late sixties early 70 big block chevy cam slappin feel about it.
Anyway I hope that shaking isn't a problem.
Bob
 
I have an 06 FLHT std. and have the shaking from idle to 2000 RPM. I backed off the idle to 850 rpm and it helped at idle till I find out what the problem is. At the recomended 1000 rpm idle holding the clutch & front brake levers, it would shake me so hard my vision would blur. Bought the bike used and it had guted mufflers & stage 1 air cleaner. I put near stock mufflers back on and getting ready to open the carb to see if someone has changed jets. Bike only has 4,000 miles on it,let you know what I find.:wall
 
murgas1 said:
Engine starts fine no excessive cranking. General running condition is also fine no problem other than shaking at idle. The plugs I pulled the other day were bone white which is probably due to the very lean factory settings. No engine misses above 1500 rpm only the rough idle condition which was not present 300 miles ago. Bike used to be super smooth compared to my last 06 FLHX.

The shaking condition I am speaking about involves the engine shaking excessively on its rubber mounts which in turn transfers to the rest of the bike. At idle the bags shake the antennae is whipping about the bars transfer the shaking to the rider and the horn is vibrating excessively. I wil look into loose mounts and or something stuck in there though. Anything will help.
Click to expand...

Plugs "Bone white"? sounds like you are running a bit lean...when you had the dealer look it over, did they give you any details about A/F ratio, had they changed it while it was there the first time, or have you considered adding a "Fueler" to your list of upgrades? :s
 
I agree once a plug is fouled and it might not be visible to the naked eye it is done replace them first its cheap and easy and remember the last thing you did to your bike is probably the problem work backwards and u should solve your problem
 
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