bill67 wrote on 04/23/10 at 09:50:40:Bryan wrote on 04/23/10 at 08:29:31:Yeah, it does it at idling, so I'm guessing not the belt. I could change the oil, but I've changed the oil and filter less than 500 miles ago. I'm using the synthetic Rotella diesel oil as well, although I seem to recall it being 5w40, but I don't really remember.
Could I have caused damage by leaving fuel in the oil? I'm not 100% sure there was fuel in the oil, but I was having petcock problems for a while, and around that time it seemed that the oil level went up a little, so that was my guess. For some reason I never actually took the time to see if it smelled like gas. It was enough to raise the oil level a little, but it didn't seem like very much, so I just figured it'd burn off.
I'll check the speedo, although it does sound like it's coming from the muffler, so I was thinking something in the engine was causing it.
I would change the oil and put in motorcycle oil and at least 10+40 oil I use 15+50 and I live in Wisconsin.
Really? it seems I read somewhere that synthetic oils usually come in smaller numbers (i.e. 5W 40 instead of 15W 40) and that a 5W 40 synthetic isn't the same as 15W 40 dino because it performs better. But I don't know.
Anyway, I've found all kinds of things wrong with the bike. The heat shield on the muffler was missing two bolts, and there was a nut missing from the brace the muffler bolts on to in the back. The nut that was there was so loose I could turn it with my fingers.
The bolts where the exhaust bolts to the engine were both loose. When I took the gas tank off, the speedo cable fell completely off, so it must not've been on there tight. I went ahead and invested in some of that blue goo you put on bolts to keep em from vibrating loose. I can tell I'm gonna need it. One of the painted metal covers on the side fell off the other day cause the screw had worked its way out. wish i'd known beforehand, now it's all scratched up. maybe some good wisdom to pass onto newbies like myself.
I adjusted the valve clearance since I've never done that before, and I had trouble finding TDC on the compression stroke because the Clymer says you'll find it when "both rocker arms have free play." The exhaust rocker arms were the only ones that had any free play at all, and both sets had way less than minimum clearance. Could that have caused my noise? I still haven't started it yet cause I also tightened the bolts on the cylinder head so I'm waiting for the gasket goo to dry.
I'm also running the "hot" spark plug. I was told that it didn't matter, but according to the Clymer, the hot plug is only for "low speeds, low engine loads and low temperatures," so I'm wondering if the spark plug could be an issue as well...
Sorry for these long posts, it just seems like one thing after another.
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