It's alive!!!! But I have questions

[puv]

Well, I finally got her going. I've taken her around the block a few times and all seems well with the tranny. There seems to be an upper end noise like valve rattle especially when cold. It seems to tone down a little after warm but still there none the less. I checked the valve clearance a while ago and it looked OK but that was before the oil pump broke. I wonder it lack of oil even if it was short could have done something to the valves? Are there other things I can check that might cause noise in the upper end? I've adjusted the cam chain and cleaned and regapped the sparks but I'm still scratching my head. Thanks,

PUV

[TopCatGr58]

Hey PUV,

Valve Rattle?? They tap, but I don't think they rattle usually! Might be piston slap?? I don't think the valves would have suffered as much as the cams and bearing journals. You might need to pull the valve cover off and pull a cam journal off one at a time to inspect for scoring? But hopefully, like those fancy oil tests where they run and engine without oil, that the short time it ran wasn't enough to cause any damage!?
T.C.

[BauersXS11SF]

is it more of a clicking than a rattling, it might be the cam chain tensioner. the guy that owned my bike before me parked it for the winter and then restarted it this spring and it started doing it. theres a few posts around the forum about it, or check page 41 of your Clymers manual.

[puv]

Click or rattle, I'm not sure. I played around with a stethescope and the noise seems to be coming front right hand exhaust valve. I'll check the cam and the cam chain. Thanks for the advise.

puv

[randy]

PUV,

Could be an exhaust leak at the pipe / head joint, they can sound like a tapping / rapping / clicking sometimes.

[DiverRay]

I had one exhaust pipe with a bad joint. The PO had reused the old gaskets, and #2 started to make noise, then sound like a broken pipe. I installed a new gasket, and it sounds normal once again.

[puv]

I did just put new gaskets in recently. I will have to check to make sure I installed them correctly.