Hey guys, Recently I've been noticing a very light sounding rattle from the left side of the engine. It's worse when cold and seems to get quieter once up to operating temperature. I've done some google searches and not much popped up. Somehow I recall an issue with the cam chain tensioner or maybe I'm thinking about another bike. I've got about 11k miles on the bike and it runs great. Thoughts?
cam chain tensioner needs some oil pressure to fully function which is why the chain typically is a little noisy for a few seconds after cold start.
When I did my valves clearances at 30,000km I noticed my chain tensioner had some pick up on it (see attached), this can't have helped it slide, but I didn't have any noise. I put it in the lathe and polished it and greased it on install.
Thanks for the feedback guys. The light rattle continues much after initial cold start up and can be heard while riding at slower speeds. It's too light to hear if there's any wind noise etc. After it's up to operating temp it pretty much goes away or at least lessens to where it's not so obvious. I'm not positive it's cam chain related and may be a loose valve shim gap, kinda sounds like that. I haven't split the bike open yet to check the valves and probably should. I rather dread doing it on this bike to be honest. I've done plenty of bucket & shim valves so there's no issue there, it's just getting to them. I will take a look at the cam chain tensioner when I get in there.
Used the "fishing-rod"? One of those extendable magnet-pens to "fish" for screws and bits after they dropped into the engine area somewhere and "disappeared. Sometimes compressed air blown around the engine outers also produces small stones...or that torx 25 socket that's been missing for a year :-)
it may sound stupid but . . . check your heat shield on the exhaust header pipe, it tends to expand when hot and start to rattle and make the noise on the left side as described. worked for me
