Hey folks, I'm riding a 2000 bagger with a fuel injected TC88.

Last night on a city street while on my way to a dinner date, a loud noise started just as I rev'd the motor a bit to pull away from a stop. My first instinct was that I hadn't fully shifted into first and my trans gears weren't fully engaged and were thus emitting a grinding sound. Well that wasn't it.

The oil pressure was fine, the noise was alarming and clearly indicative of a real problem, but it was stable and the bike was other wise running fine. Since I was close to the restaurant I chose to carefully ride the 2 blocks and deal with it after my dinner date with my wife (an early Valentine's Day thing so I didn't want to bail on her).

After dinner I started up the bike prepared to call a tow truck, but the noise was gone. I rode the 2.3 miles home gently, and just as I pulled into the driveway it started again, so I shut it off and returned to it today to see what gives.

I fired it up and no noise, which I rather suspected would happen since it was cold. I had a stethoscope on and listened to the engine in various spots and could hear nothing but a slight lifter tick that's been there a while.

After idling for about 5 minutes, I gave a flew blips of the throttle and the noise started again. Even with the stethoscope I could not tell where it was coming from. It's loud and it's everywhere. I'm thinking it's cam chain related but I can't say for sure, and am hoping that one of you folks will recognize the noise and tell me what it meant on your bike.

I recorded the sound with an app on my phone, the microphone of which was being held about six inches from the right side of the engine.

The engine is mostly stock and has about 58k miles on the clock.

The previous owner said he had a Screamin' Eagle hydraulic cam chain tensioner installed at 25,800 miles, and at the same had the cam bearings and lifters replaced.

Any thoughts???

 

Try recording from the other side to see what it sound like in the recording. Holding the mic that close can really help isolate it. Some times I video the bike and work around close to the engine and its amazing how that helps to pin point it

 

Thanks for the suggestion - I understand where you're coming from.

I could do that, but I suspect it won't help and possibly could hurt. I recorded from the business side of the engine, which is the side the noise seems to be coming from.

It's a distinctive enough noise that I suspect more than one person is going to come back with "been there, done that, here's what you gotta do." Barring that, I'll risk firing it up to grab a sound bite from the other sids.

 

Not a great recording but when is the last time the primary chain tension was checked? It sounds worse than that but it's hard to tell from the recording. Checking the tension on that bike is about a 10 minute job compared to the other things you might wind up checking. Also compensators knock and so do loose stator rotors.

 

I get that and had a similar noise i thought was cam chest, as i did the video thing going over the engine I isolated it to the primary side and it was a loose compensator.

 

This happens both when the bike is in gear and in neutral, so it isn't the chain. Good thought though.

 

That's reason enough to fire it up again and give a listen over there. Maybe I'll pull the lower fairings too, to keep them from tunnelling noise all over the place

 

That doesn't rule out compensator, rotor, or loose comp nut.

 

That would be a good idea.

 

OP I'd follow this one ^

A loose comp nut can make noises as small as a rattle all the way to knocking like a connecting rod.