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Every time I trailer my bike, when I take it off and fire it up it sounds like it will explode. Knocks and rattles like hell. It goes away in time but it is scary to hear. It has to be an oil issue, but why? Here is the set up - looks pretty level to me.
The shaking and vibrations from riding on the trailer draining the oil out of the lifters? vs when sitting still sitting in the garage. at least thats my theory.
Do you leave your bike in gear? The rocking back & forth will move the pistons/push rods and lifters collapsing them by working the oil out. Does not help the drive train either.
Block the wheels and leave it out of gear. Or when you are ready to fire it up, remove the spark plugs and spin it over a few time to get the lifters pumped up, then put the plugs back in and fire it up.
"When you trailer your bike make sure the transmission is in neutral. If the bike is in gear it will gently rock back and forth just enough to rotate the motor back and forth. This will eventually cause the hydraulic lifters to cavitate and suck air because there is no oil pressure/flow. Then when the bike is started it has an extremely loud lifter noise until they bleed themselves free of air. They said some could take as long as 20-25 minutes."
Last edited by CoolBreeze3646; Mar 26, 2022 at 09:20 PM.
I do leave it in gear - never occured to me that it could cause a problem. Next time out I will leave in neutral. If it's rocking it's very little, I have it strapped pretty tight. Thx...
The shaking and vibrations from riding on the trailer draining the oil out of the lifters? vs when sitting still sitting in the garage. at least thats my theory.
If the bike is strapped tight. It's not rocking. And it's not rotating the motor. If you bike is doing that. It's not strapped down correctly.
It never happens any other time? I'm thinking lifter also. But not if it's only when you trailer it. Strange. One thing is possible but the coincidence is highly unlikely. When a lifter is going back depending on what stroke the motor is when shut down. If there's pressure on the failing lifter it will start up and make a **** ton of noise. If there's no pressure on it when shut down it can maintain its pressure and make zero noise on start up.
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