I'm at 3500 miles and the motor is finally starting to make some racket. And the racket it's making is (I believe) nothing more than valve train chatter that a quick pushrod adjustment would cure in the old days. But lo and behold ... pushrod no adjustee no more. Bummah. [:@]

So ...

Has anyone had adjustable pushrods installed to cure the rockerbox racket on their TC96? If so ... how'd it work out?

Danke Schon.

 

The hydraulic lifters are self-adjusting already. You need to find out what the noise is. A lifter might be failing, although that's rare on a Twin Cam. A new engine shouldn't suddenly start making funny noises. The cam chain adjustors and shoes sometimes go bad quickly.

 

your oil level will do this if its low, also they take a little bit to stop chatterin after start up the lifters bleed down when sitting. a guy on here told me that there big bore motors take up to 10 miles to stop the chatter. also synthetic oils will quite them down a bit. i have adjustable pushes now and havnt notices anymore or less noise and i have 47k on my 05

 

Nope ... not start-up noise ... not low oil ... and sure as hell not a bad lifter. I've had one o' them many years ago on a long cross-country ride from TX and there is NO mistaking that.

It is merely plain old rockerbox chatter that is becoming more annoying than anything. It starts after the engine is good and warm and will 'cycle' off and on when cruising at low RPM and low gear and can be heard when backing off the throttle at lower speeds, as well. Just sloppy valve train noise ... easily cleaned up with pushrod work. I've heard a couple TC96s that are justas noisey, so it's a trait. I'm just **** about it because it was so d#mn quiet the first 3000 miles.

 

make sure your breather assembly is tight... i thought mine was my rockers and it was my breather assembly shaking around

 

Could be. I haven't used the 'monkey stethascope' on the rockerbox yet (a screwdriver held to the ear). I don't discount anything ... I've been made to feel like a dumb-*** way too many times. LOL! Where was yours loose? I.e. at what attach point?

(I'll be pulling mine apart anyway this week for the SE AC install ... I'll take a peek before I pull it off.)

 

Have you added decorative head bolt covers or similiar bolt on? Had the same problem with noisey "clatter" that changed with RPM got really load at times. Tracked it down to the loose chrome caps.

 

mine was loose at the two main contacts... real loose, sounded just like rockers clicking at low rpms and when i down shifted... drove me nuts! i used the same technique... with the screw driver to the push rods, rocker boxes and sounded smooth! now i was pissed...my girl came out to the garage joking around asking if i needed help... i was skimming though the service manual, and heard "hun should i tighen this up" I turned around to see her wiggling my air filter back and forth... at this point i did what any man would do... told her that is how it is supposed to be! then when she went inside i tightend it all up, took her for a spin and it was smooth as glass! ha ha ha... if she ever found out SHE fixed my bike i would never hear the end of it!

 

No air cleaner issues ... popped it off down to the back plate (wanted to see how the breather tubes attached anyway) ...everything wastight as a drum.

I did the grease monkey stethascope thang (plastic-handled screwdriver to the ear, tip on various parts) ... it's just valve train noise, as I suspected. I think I'll ask the local indy guy if he's put any adjustables on for folks, and how it went. Prolly tighten the racket right up.

 

Keep us posted, my motor started doing the same thing at about 3500 miles. At 9500 I changed to a set of ported head andrews 37h cams and big bore pistons but used the stock pushrods. The noise is exactly the same as it was before. I have a set of andrews adjustables but am putting off the install due to laziness. Compared to most of the twin cams I've listened to, it sounds pretty normal.