SLR650 Ticking engine

[46robbie46]

Hi everyone,

Me and my dad noticed the other day that my bike was making a loud ticking noise from cold, but since then i have noticed that it is also making the noise when hot.

My dad adjusted the valve clearances when i first get the bike, but he adjusted them wrong, to 0.10 and 0.12mm instead of 0.10 and 0.10, because he thought that they would not be the same. However, that was 3200 miles ago now.

Most of my riding consists of a 360mile round trip each week, using motorways and A roads. The last 2 owners were both police officers who only used it to ride a short distance to work, i am told.

Do you think that by doing the mileage that i have been doing, and keeping at cosistent 70-80mph speeds that i may have 'loosened up' the engine, and thats why it has developed a noise?

I will adjust the valve clearances at the weekend, and i have been sticking religiously to the engine oil changes etc.

Does this happen to anyone elses bike? Mine has only done 21,000 miles, and i am worried that it has started developing engine noises way to early in its life.

Any help would be much apprecciated as its starting to worry me now

Thanks,
Rob

[MadWelshBiker]

Hi Robbie,
Pay particular attention to the LH exhaust tappet. There appears to be a common fault with the NX650 of certain ages whereby the LH exhaust rocker arm wears out prematurely. The symptoms are a loudish tapping coming from the top of the engine. On inspection the gap will be far in excess of the recommended gap. If this is the case then I am afraid it is a strip down and replace the arm. I am at that stage with mine. Unfortunately getting the rocker box cover off can cause you to snap a couple of bolts and this will lead to you taking off the head to extract them and, possibly, heli-coil.
The other possibility is that the RH exhaust has an automatic valve lifter built in. It has been mentioned before that this can tick. I am not sure what the cure is but probably involves a top end strip. I am sure that others will advise.
I am putting in a magnetic drain plug after this rebuild as this can give an early warning of internal engine problems at oil change time.

Have fun

[Mervinh]

Robbie
MWbiker seems to have covered the rocker thing, just make sure the tappet adjuster has not come loose first
Merv

[MadWelshBiker]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that possibility. If the tappet adjuster is still tight and there is a big gap then there must be wear somewhere.
Mike

[juscrooky]

mine does this too

however it goes once hot

I took off the rocker cover and its immaculate inside (will post some pics)

put a high grade oil in, and that helped,

I think mine is related to the automatic decomp

the bike seems to struggle on start, you can see the light dim as it gets to compression stroke and starter strains - bike still starts ok

this is on a 99 dommie with 42k miles on it

[46robbie46]

Thanks for the help everyone,

At the weekend i adjusted the valve clearances properly and this seems to have really helped! It doesnt make the noise as badly any more, i can hear something still tcking when warm, but its very fain, and after asking other people to listen to it, they all cant hear anything.

Oh well, maybe i'm just being paranoid about it but if it gets any worse, i'll let you all know.

Just out of interest, which oils do you all use? I have been using Motul 5100 10w 40. Can you get any better than this? i'm not really worried about cost, as long as i dont have to refine it myself!

[SILVALP]

When you heard the Tickin there wasnt a bloke walkin past wiv a rucksack on his back was there

Dont see mention of cam chain tensioner - thats another area to consider - chain slap can eminate like a ticking noise if not severe but if re-setting valve clearances has helped i may be barkin up the wrong tree.

Have you checked compression ? Valves can stick and if so will make clearance tween the rocker arm/ valve top increase (but power wld be down so you might notice this anyway) & the buggers wont necc be stuck open when you take a peek to check clearances !!

[46robbie46]

Well i havent checked the compression, but it doesnt seem to be making any less power than usual.

I may look into checking the cam chain, as i'm pretty sure that there is something still there. It may have been a combination of camchain slap and valve clearances before, and now just camchain.

[cyganmarek]

Hi 46Robbie46!
I was reading your post. I'm Honda SLR 650 owner aswell. And i thing i've got this same problem with my motorcycle. I mean, on each gear when the revs are about 1,5k to 2,0k maybe more, i'm able to hear ticking from engine , but on higher revs everything looks fine also under the above limit to.
While engine running on neutral, there is nothing suspicion to(no noises, suspended sounds)

I know you had similar problem with your moto. Could you tell me please how did you resolve it.
Or any advice about it?

I'll be very thankfull

Mileage is 25700 just about yours to.

[46robbie46]

Hi 46Robbie46!
I was reading your post. I'm Honda SLR 650 owner aswell. And i thing i've got this same problem with my motorcycle. I mean, on each gear when the revs are about 1,5k to 2,0k maybe more, i'm able to hear ticking from engine , but on higher revs everything looks fine also under the above limit to.
While engine running on neutral, there is nothing suspicion to(no noises, suspended sounds)

I know you had similar problem with your moto. Could you tell me please how did you resolve it.
Or any advice about it?

I'll be very thankfull

Mileage is 25700 just about yours to.

Hi Cyganmarek,

I posted this thread up a while ago now, and in the end i did nothing about the noise. It is there still on startup until the engine is warm (about 5 minutes from starting), and then as soon as its warm it quietens right down.

What you say about from 1.5 to 2k revs in each gear, i have the same problem. It seems to make a noticeable ticking at low revs, and has done this from when i bought it. I think it might just be because i am 'labouring' the engine, and its on the verge of stalling. To be honest i've learned to live with it, and i've now done 10,000 miles on my bike with no problem.

I'll adjust the valve clearances again at the weekend, as it was 5,000 miles ago since i last did it. I'll keep you updated and tell you if the noise goes when the engine is cold.

By the way, the bike is now on 27,600 miles, not 21k like it was when i posted this thread.

Hope this helps,
Rob