THe most God-forsaken noise on my new bike!

[CA]

So I will get to the point as fast as I can. I bought another 79 Special, the same exact thing I have. It has 36k miles.Thought it would be cool for my brother to ride. Guy had done many of the mods on this forum, including tranny fix, and fuse fix, new clutch springs and now the clutch is hard as hell and feels like crap....another deal

Put my carbs on it as they need rebuilt and re-jetted. His bike actually ran a lot better on my carbs than mine does, so that will be another post, but carbs i can do in my sleep. Actually this new bike will probably create many new threads. It is amazing how many issues arise when you have the same bikes next to each other comparing 30 years or wear and mis-repair, that's actually why I bought the same exact thing. Wanted to tune both just right.

Drove it home from my brothers for the first ride out of the neighborhood, ran great (we were worried about initial smoking but it seems to have cleared up). Ran smooth. Has clutch issues, but o well. Pull it in, called my brother to tell him how great it ran. Went back out for some reason saw my carb was leaking (leaking petcock and sticky floats.) Floats are easy to unstick but i turned it on just to clean out the excess gas, cranked it on and heard the most horrendous noise. It almost sounded like a bolt broke off inside the engine and began crashing around in the engine. Turned it off, said a little prayer turned it back on, didn't hear it at idle so i revved it a bit and it crashed around and crunched which made me hit the kill switch immediately. I feel sick.

I will be needing help with this bike as we bought it to take a week trip to Charleston, SC around June 12th.

Help.

Thanks

[mro]

Hope it's not catastrophic.

Mro
BTW, you can see a small portion of the clutch basket/plates thru the oil filler hole.
If there sorta lose might point to the clutch nut having come off or loose.
If so, may not have done much damage, then agin

[DGXSER]

Hate to say it, but the items you listed and that noise as you describe it do not seem related. However, the clutch issue might be. I'd probably check if the clutch still has feel of tension and maybe put it on side stand and pull the clutch cover off to see what you see.

[XSokieSPECIAL]

Check the cam chain tensioner, a loose cam chain can sound like the end of life as we know it.

[bikerphil]

Might be that 14MM countershaft bolt behind the clutch cover that seems to work itself loose sometimes. JAT

[CA]

one thing...

i noticed was the CCT's center rubber plug was not rubber. It was a metal center. Didn't exactly look professional.

I realize the issues I listed earlier weren't related. I was rambling, I apologize. I just ahve no idea what this noise is. I check to see if it was something rattling on the outside of the engine and concluded that it ws in fact coming from the heart of the machine.

Geez, I forgot how stressful it was to get a new bike and not know what has been going on with it. Ehh i guess its a big boy puzzle.

[DGXSER]

Good news is, you have a better idea what to look for and you have this site full of folks who know more about these machines than most of the engineers designing the new bikes.

You just got a new elephant is all, so one bite at a time, you'll get it.

[CatatonicBug]

i noticed was the CCT's center rubber plug was not rubber. It was a metal center. Didn't exactly look professional.

That plug is supposed to be metal. It's a metal plug with a thin rubber coating over it to seal around the edges.

[Bulldog9]

My guess is one of the bolts/spring/washer from the clutch came loose. Would also account for your clutch issues.

A common noise on these bike is the primary chain slap sound (a deep chuck chuck chuck) that you hear at idle and just off idle, but doesnt seem that is your issue.

Pull off your clutch cover.

[CA]

OK. That's what I thought I had remembered reading. SO maybe its not the CCT. I did a hard deceleration on the ride home, I never really adjusted my CCT before I put my new one on my bike. But I would be shocked if this was a loose Cam Chain. It really sounded like a bolt was banging around somewhere in the engine.

So here is what I have gathered so far.

1. Drop the oil pan, maybe something will fall out.
2. Pull the crankcase check that bolt, maybe I will see something.
3. Pull Valve cover check clearances and cam chain.
4. (I will probably go ahead and change to auto CCT.)

5. Should I put a magnet down in the cylinders to check for foreign objects?

Any other thoughts/help?

DGSXER your right, that is actually why I decided on another 79sf. I looked at some other bikes and the forum support for them was bunk. While it takes a bit to get the kinks worked out of these bikes, once you get them going they are actually pretty reliable and fun to toy with!

Thanks

[dbeardslee]

How long had it been leaking gas out of the carb? The gas goes both ways - into the airbox, and the other way into the cylinder, past the rings, and into the gas. Gas thinned oil has been responsible for a number of spun bearings. I hope that's not it. Might take a sniff in the oil fill hole and see if it smells like gas.

[CA]

Gas

The PO made it a point for us to change the gas because he said the carbs had overflowed. The oil in it was brand new, so we tried to light it and there was no trace of gas in the oil.

The guy had only put a couple of hundred miles on the bike while he owned it for a year and a half....

I guess I will look into the symptoms of spun bearings, I pray its not that.

[dbeardslee]

That's good news. Maybe bulldog's onto something with the clutch. It's easy enough to check, and if you do it on the side stand you don't even have to drain the oil. I wire the kickstand so it can't move back as that center bolt takes a fair amount of torque, and you don't want it falling over.

[CA]

Yes...

Actually I hope and feel like its what Bulldog alludes to, mainly because the clutch perplexes me. It is stiff but spongy. It engages very far from handle, and you can basically let it go and wait for it to engage...it takes a split second for it to reach the point to engage. I oiled the cable a bit just to make sure, I will check it a little more, but he may not have known what he was doing with the clutch. Well neither do I but...I know what my clutch feels like and its completely different.

[dbeardslee]

If you want to try adjusting it first, loosen the cable adjustment at the handlebar all the way, take the side cover off, bend the soft metal tab that holds the cable in place and remove it at the clutch. Loosen the lock nut with a 12mm socket, put a screwdriver on the phillips head in the center, back it out about 1/2 - 1 turn, then turn it back in until you just start to feel tension. Back it off 1/4 turn, and hold the screwdriver on the center to keep it from turning while you tighten the lock nut with a box wrench. Reattach the cable, and retighten the handlebar adjuster until you have 1-2mm of play at the lever. I always adjust mine on a cold motor.

When these motors sit for a long time the cork on the friction plates pretty much turns to kitty litter, so chances are you'll be learning more than you ever wanted to about clutches .