I have an '86 with 22000 km's (16000 miles) on it, and as of this week, when I am cruising at around 40 mph in 4th gear there is this rattle that seem to be coming out of the cylinder head. It sounds like tiny rocks hitting your car windshield at speed. And yesterday while I was rolling at 50mph the noise got really loud then it was followed by a knock which I felt in my foot pegs!! Has anyone had this problem??

i started reading other posts about cam chains and I will be checking that this weekend!! Before it all goes boom!!

I run a magnet thru the oil when I drain it. After such a racket, I would recommend you see what that shows. Also, destroy the filter, carefully, & look for metal. Make sure you keep it from pollution with dirty tools. Wouldnt want to "Find" a piece of something in the filter that came from a pair of pliers.

Best of luck. Your description of symptoms is worrisome. If it was mine, the starter would turn again till I had this figured out..

OK, so I cracked her open and WOW, I was really close to having a very bad. The tensioner was completly at it's limit. I am having a piece welded onto the end of the tensioner, I'll install it today.

I just have another question however, when I would start the bike (before tearing her down) there was a really nasty sound, kinda like a chain slipping on sprokets. Could this be because the cam chain was so loose? Also when I replace the clutch cover gasket, do I have to put that liquig gasket stuff on also?

Has anyone who has had a loose Cam chain, experienced a really horrible noise when staring their bike? It sounds like a chain slipping on the sprockets. Could a loose cam chaion cause this noise? What else could cause this noise?

I have seen some posts about starter clutch issues in 86-87 models. I guess I 'll have to take a look at taht as well....

I haven't had that problem, sorry.  However, I am following your progress to learn from it.

Arrow wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:05:

I honestly can't offer any advice on what it might be because I can't hear the sound and I'm not imagining it well enough to have a clue as to its origin.  However, I seriously doubt a bike with only 3K+ miles on it would have a cam chain failure.  This assumes you're confident of the actual mileage of the engine.  The only reason I say that is because a used bike may not have its original speedo/odo or, for that matter, its original engine.  It's also possible that a previous owner could have disconnected the speedo for a year or two and later reconnected it.  There are a number of possibilities.  I am not suggesting this is the case with your bike or trying to make you paranoid; only pointing out that the possibility exists.


The question is not whether I'm paranoid.  Rather, am I paranoid enough?