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Well I just replaced the left muffler on my bike as my left muffler had some damage from rocks.
If you are getting a ticking noise after a compete exhaust install I would suspect one or more exhaust leaks.
It is also very likely that the heat shields and their retaining clamps are moving during heating and cooling. Mine does that, but it doesn't bother me much since I know what is causing this noise on mine.
It's normal so they won't have to wrench on it for free, right?
There are only two times when a dealer will wrench on a bike, any bike.
Either the owner of the bike pays the going rate for labor or the MOCO pays the negotiated rate for warranty labor. If you take a bike in and complain about a noise, they might tear into it but only after they tell you that if they don't find anything wrong, they you pay the labor bill. For many repairs the dealer must get prior authorization from the MOCO or the area rep before they tear into it and make repairs. Given the fact that these old tractor motors can make more noise than a Baldwin locomotive, mechanics use the term "they all do that" quite frequently.
Remember a few months ago when virtually every new Harley touring bike had a stator failure? I wonder how many people were told "Oh, they all do that"? In that case it was the truth because most of them did fail.
I had valve train noise on my 12. After I put on a cat free exhaust and added VXIED's the pipes were louder, and I could no longer hear the valve train noise.
Bike runs better, cooler and quieter.
I know the noise is still there, but cannot hear it anymore : >)
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