Knocking when cold?

[Joe Nardy]

Piston slap with make the noise you describe Joe. A little slap when cold is not overly serious although it's not a good sign either.

Thanks Ed,

My concern right now is that I'm leaving tomorrow for the SE Rally, probably a 2200-2500 mile trip. I'm going to go through some things today and if I can't get rid of the noise I'll probably take another bike and tear into this more deeply after the rally.

Thanks,
Joe

[Joe Nardy]

I would suspect the clutch first. When I bought my 1100ED with 49K it had sort of a deep knock at times, and it even seemed to be coming from the left hand side like Dan suggested. At the time I even had a gorilla hub.
Not sure now, but we did pull the clutch, swapped out some plates and used the HD clutch nut. After carb balancing I have had no more problems. It went away and I have had no bottom end problems even after doing the top end once (unsuccesfully)and 1166 kit the next.

Jim

Jim,

While I'm going to investigate clutch/starter clutch, etc. I'm reasonably convinced the noise is coming from the cylinders or head. I'm going to get one of those Harbor Freight stethoscopes and see if I can isolate the source of the problem better.

Thanks,
Joe

[rustybronco]

A length of garden/heater hose held to the ear works to identify suspect areas also.

[TheCafeKid]

Jim,

While I'm going to investigate clutch/starter clutch, etc. I'm reasonably convinced the noise is coming from the cylinders or head. I'm going to get one of those Harbor Freight stethoscopes and see if I can isolate the source of the problem better.

Thanks,
Joe

Believe it or not, those are AWESOME!! BTW, just for fun, listen to your header pipes while the bike is running...its the sound of raw power...lol

[Zooks]

Joe, why not check the compression with the motor cold and then do it again with the motor hot just to see if there is any noticable difference?

[Joe Nardy]

Today's activity:

- Checked/adjusted valves. All were in spec but I like them to be 004", right in the middle. A couple were a bit tight and a couple were a bit loose but still within the .003"-.005" spec.

- Did a carb sync. Sync wasn't too bad but spent some time getting it as close to perfect as I could.

- Added Sea Foam to crankcase.

When I started the bike this morning the noise was still there but definitely not as loud as yesterday. After the valve adjust, carb sync, and Sea Foam I can still hear the noise at around 2200 rpm but it is very slight. Of course, the bike wasn't fully cool either. When I was doing the sync and got it out of adjustment the engine made a similar noise so maybe I'm just hearing things tyhat have always been there. I'll have to see how it sounds after cooling off.

Thanks for all the help!
Joe