Quote:feel by the top rear of the oil filter cover for a tapping
Thanks for the advice Verslagen, I did some pretty thorough sifting through the boards last night but must have over looked this as another means to check for a problem.
Quote:As you say, it's pretty hard to diagnose anything from a cell phone recording (lol), but to me it sounds OK, or as OK as I can make out. Even listening directly, you have to remember that you have normal tappet noise in there. I would think that with only 12k on the motor, it should be OK unless there was an initial factory fault somewhere. In any case, don't allow "cam chain paranoia" make things seem worse than they really are. I've done that on bikes I have owned.
...so you saw my paranoia through my veil eh?
I certainly feel reluctant about the need to open her up and check just yet. If you let every negative variable wear on your mind you could never enjoy riding. But I also don't want to take a bike on the road that should be downed for maintenance.
Quote:And keep in mind this bike has been manufactured for nearly 20 years now. Usually, if you build a model for that long, you've worked most of the kinks out with incremental improvements (note, I say "usually" - lol; if you've ever owned a Harley then... well, let's not go there).
I would be taking my HD and set the Savage aside for the inspection had the crank case breather bolt not snapped off when re-installing the air cleaner.