Life is good in Savage Land, but I am concerned about a new noise in the head. It's not there when she first starts, but gets louder as she get hotter.

Last "work" done on her was just swapping out the old paper air filter for a new K&N drop in.

Noticed a difference right away in how she felt.

That was 13 days ago.

Had my valves adjust by my mechanic and new spark plug (stock replacement), new front and rear tires about 2000 miles ago.
New petcock (stock) replaced about 1500 miles ago
Oil Change and filter about 800 miles ago

3 days ago she took a extra crank rotation to start up...later that day she needed a jump to get started ???
Once I got home (10 miles, but had ridden 30 miles that day already) I really noticed that Tapping Clicking coming from the head.
Thought it might be speedo or headlight at first, but no.
That noise is loudest on the left (shifter) side near the top.

My buddy pointed out that there was a little black smoke coming out of exhaust on hard throttle 4000-5000 rpms in neutral . We swapped the paper filter into it to test if that may be the oil off the K&N....
Seems that was the causing the black smoke. I did put the K&N back in.

Next day I added some seafoam (first time) to the oil and gas and let her run for bit. No clicking until she got hot.

This morning. Took her out for a spin on the freeway 14 mile loop. When I got back no abnormal clicking. Thought I would take her back out...but not 3 blocks from home and that sound was back. So home I came and that tapping Clicking was loud as first time I notice it. Guess 14 miles on the freeway wasn't long enough to get it hot enough.

So I'm not sure what would cause this...loose value adjustment?

Increased valve noise when hot, is normal on an air-cooled bike... Valves are adjusted good...
If you can't hear them when it's hot,... they are too tight...
Black smoke, is fuel,... you are a little rich at full throttle... or, there may be a bit too much oil on your k/n filter?...
EDIT... not saying the oil on the k/n is burning, but that too much oil on the filter can restrict air and make you rich... causing blacck smoke...
Oil burns gray/blue.... fuel burns black...

Thanks for your input so far

Sounds like It's nothing really then, just normal wear?

I forgot to mention that when I got home I noticed at idle the rpm were around 1600-1700... that was high for what I normally see..

so I turned my fuel adjustment screw CW about 3/4 turn to get it down around 1400-1500 (normal)

Tonight I go to test her out again.
Key in and on choke out one click and put her in neutral.
Fires up and I got get gear on while she warms up.
a few minutes later I'm on and ready, but when I pushed the choke it she died.

I messed with the screw a few more times to put back, but lost track of how far I was out.

buy my 4th try on the starter button, throttle and the other  hand on the mixture screw the battery went dead.

So off comes the battery....which now fully charged again.

How do you properly adjust the screw again?

Sorry about that, I meant the brass screw next to the choke.

Gonna head out and put the battery back on.

Then I will screw the screw all the way in and then turn it out 2.
Will adjust from there to find my bikes sweet spot.

Thanks

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 06/26/10 at 08:03:53:


me too, just in my post above  didn't make a difference I had the screw all the way out.

haven't made it outside yet...

You may have added a little much seafoam. When I did it the first time i put a 1/4 of the can in the tank. Result was loud tapping at times. Apparently the bunch of seafoam cleaned the valves and seats squeaky clean and so it was louder with more metal hitting metal sound. After a couple of weeks it went away. Then I did it again and it returned the same way as before. It went away again after a couple weeks. I have no better explanation than this as it occured every time I added seafoam and got carried away a little. Ever since I either use none or just an ounce per tank and it never happened again. You tell me.

PS: And YES, I had it shortly after startup and letting it idle. Driving for a while made it go away too, until the next cold start.

... an air cooled engine, needs air...  10 minutes at idle is too long... valves will clack, even in cool weather, ...

cursal wrote on 06/29/10 at 12:20:58:


Yep, Verslavy is the way to go with that.  Also, Lancer did have some super duper cam chains at one time, some coating that made them last longer or something.  I think they came on a slow boat from China It seemed like it while everyone was waiting for one  Anyway, check with him about that.