BBSHD grinding resistance

[HunterBranding]

I recently ordered a new BBSHD and buggered up the retention spring that holds the pawls in place when installing the Lekkie Motor Cover. I removed the pawls altogether and continued mocking the bike up. Once complete (and without a working clutch) I took it for a test run on throttle power only. Worked awesome. I hit 31-32MPH on flats and 18MPH-24MPH up hills.

I went ahead and ordered another BBSHD and asked if they would go ahead and throw the Lekkie Motor Cover on it for me. They did. I just took out the first motor and installed the second motor. The problem is, I get massive resistance - even a grinding noise - when manually cranking by hand (the bike is in the air on a bike stand). The thing just does not want to spin freely. There is no way this is okay. Kind of bummed that I dropped an extra $1000 on a second motor and it showed up like this.

Wondering what the heck went wrong here? The Lekkie Motor Plate appears to be seated well. Guess I need to crack this one apart too?

Any suggestions? With the Pawls in on the clutch, should the cranks freewheel backwards with gravity? Meaning, if I hold up the cranks and drop them, should they fall back on their own?

[AZguy]

If the cranks are balanced they shouldn't turn on their own at all from gravity

OTOH I have an extender on one side that makes it heavier enough that it will readily freewheel backwards due to the extra weight

[73Eldo]

We have read some reports here of BBSHD's being kinda stiff to start with but after a couple miles seem to loosen up. On a forum its hard to judge how stiff these things are. When all is well there is more resistance going forward than there would be on a normal crank set but its not so massive that you think its gonna be a problem. I remember kinda wondering but then thought oh well there is likely a lot more drag from all the extra weight than this little extra in the pedals. Mine I can easily pedal it in the stand with one finger assuming the wheel is already turning or not in a high gear.

I have not installed or messed with the Lekkie cover on a HD so I don't know if there are easy places to make mistakes. I assume you have to press the bearing and gear out of the old cover and into the new one? Maybe its not pressed in all the way? I did a lube job on a 02 with one but that is a different setup. The 02 one appeared to be a high quality piece. Same opinion on my 42t blink ring. I got a lot of miles on mine and its still working great.

You can buy that pawl hub assembly as a replacement part if you damaged or lost the parts. It seems to usually be called a clutch assembly. At the moment Luna appears to have stock $25.