High pitched whine when clutch engages

[Anonymous]

I'd check the debris with a magnet to determine if it is a shredded plated fastener. The cam lobes are usually stained this colour but if the sound is coming from the clutch cover it probably isn't them. When my clutch started dumping filings into the oil they all went over to the oil pan side because I use the side stand a fair bit. I think the black crud in the clutch is normal, it works like a centrifuge and cleans the oil a bit.

Steve

[Anonymous]

Yea, the screen is just to keep the bigger pieces from getting to the oil pump. The pump is located before the filter and you don't want chunks of metal getting into it.

Hmmm, let's back up a sec. What kind of debris do you have? Big shavings or little bitty ones?

I'd check the debris with a magnet to determine if it is a shredded plated fastener.

That's a good idea.

I would of expected you to find something by now. The basket, and plates all look good? Bearings. Hmmm. You could pull the oil pump now that you are right there. Check for scoring inside the pump.

There isn't a whole lot of stuff you can inspect unless you crack the cases and I'm not sure you want to do that.

I'm not sure you can feel anything by turning the input shaft to the tranny either. If you want to try that I'd take off the chain (pull the sprocket) and then try feeling what's going on in the tranny. Any bad noises in particular.

You've got me stumped right now.

I just remembered that when I pulled mine apart there were some shavings inside of it also. I looked high and low and couldn't find anything wrong. I did notice that there was a lot of casting flashing on the cases however. I just attributed it to some flashing breaking loose and went on with the rebuild. It was aluminum pieces and I did debur the cases after that.

[ptm]

Thanks for the input. I was hoping to find something really obvious, but it really looks good. Either it was used mainly for longer distances, or the previous owner was really easy on the clutch - or he was hard on it and it was replaced not long before he stopped riding it and put it in storage - Other than the spring length, the parts look almost new.

The cams looked good when I did the valve adjustment. Some slight signs of wear, but nothing major.

As far as the flakes, They're already gone - I recycled the oil so I can't test them with a magnet #-o I should have saved some - must have been suffering from a mild case of dumb-dumb fever at the time. They seemed so obviously bronze colored, I didn't think to check at the time. They were definitely chips rather than a fine dust.

One other thing. I had run it about 150 mi since the initial oil change after I got it all back together. When I drained the oil from the crankcase it looked good. I let the pan sit for a while, drained most of the oil out then looked at what was left with a strong light, and I didn't see any sign of metal. However, I did the same thing when I drained the oil from the filter housing and the filter. When I looked at it under strong light I could see some very fine metalic, bronze colored dust in the oil, so something is going on...

I really don't want to split the case - that's way farther than I wanted to get into it this year. Ah, well. One of the challenges of buying a used bike from a distance. I'm still kicking myself over how much I paid for it - and to ship it here.

I think I'm going to put it all back together, run it a little more and see... I'll let you know what happens.

Thanks, again.

[Scrumper]

I know it's been some years since your last post on this subject but I just wondered if you ever got to the bottom of your engine noise.

My '79 GS750 has just started making a similar sound; high-pitched whine, almost deafening at certain speeds and it started right after getting a new chain and sprocket set fitted. Chain tension seems ok and nothing obviously rubbing, so I'd be interested if your investigations uncovered anything else. Cheers.

[Macmatic]

I know it's been some years since your last post on this subject but I just wondered if you ever got to the bottom of your engine noise.

My '79 GS750 has just started making a similar sound; high-pitched whine, almost deafening at certain speeds and it started right after getting a new chain and sprocket set fitted. Chain tension seems ok and nothing obviously rubbing, so I'd be interested if your investigations uncovered anything else. Cheers.

Must be the season, I'm looking to track down a similar noise on a GS450 I just finished. I've only put 15 miles on it so far but it rides great, I'm concerned about a "supercharger" whine it makes sometimes though, seems to go away once it warms up.

Maybe it's an 8 valve thing? I did rings on a GS1100 about a year ago and it had the same kind of whine, the owner said it was doing that before I worked on it though...right before he stole a brand new pair of gloves off my shelf...

I'll post back to this thread if I find anything, to me the noise sounds like it's coming from the top end so far but I haven't actually been able to have it make the sound while I'm off the bike so its a little hard to track down. One idea I'm going to look into is tach cable noise, both the 1100 and this bike use a mechanical tach.

/\/\ac