The problem: I was cruising along at 60 mph (about 5K RPM) and this really bad slapping/rattling/knocking noise started. I turned right around and rode 3 miles home and it didn't seem like the power was reduced, it just took on this horrible noise (only when the engine is totally hot). Cold, the bike sounds fine, and as it warms up the loud click starts out inconsistent, then increases in consistency, getting louder and more frequent. Revving the motor up to about 3K RPM makes the sound go away and then it comes back above that, but it sounds so bad I couldn't bring myself to rev it above 4.5K.
Troubleshooting So Far: I have now checked the valves (intakes were a hair loose but not too bad), replaced the spark plugs, checked that the oil level is good and oil condition looks good still. I haven't drained the oil yet to see if there is debris in it, probably partially because I'm afraid to (and I don't have the replacement oil around and everybody is closed for Thanksgiving). I loosened and re-tightened the cam chain tensioner nut (this is supposed to auto-adjust the cam chain) and it did seem to me that it changed the sound, but might actually have made it worse. Any Help? I'm guessing that I've got a cam chain problem (please, please don't let it be rod knock or something equally horrible), either the chain or the tensioner, but I'm hoping somebody that's been through it before could listen to a quick recording <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1F6JMphidx0>and tell me what they think (I talk too much at the video start, so you can hear the bike start and run at about 50 seconds). This is the motor totally warmed up from a brief ride around the neighborhood. The microphone on my phone is pretty overloaded in the recording, so that new noise doesn't sound that much louder than the normal valve ticking, but it's about 5 times as loud and sounds like a sort of "pop" when it happens in the video and overloads the mic but it's very much a really loud tick/knock/clack type of sound. Any help or input would be greatly appreciated: Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to you all! :-) -- Kevin Green - Orlando, FL --------------------------------- 1982 Honda Nighthawk 450 - CB450SC -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
