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Valve Train Chatter & Pinging

franka

Active Member
It's driving me NUTS! 07 Road King with 19,000 miles that I've serviced personally changing oil every 2500, tranny and primary every 5000. Using HD 20/50 or Castrol 20/50, HD Primary, and Spectro 75/140 in the tranny.
At RPM 2200 - 2900 sounds like a washing machine, 3000 and above tends to quite down considerably?
 
Do you have a windshield on your RK...if so try driving the bike without it...the windshield deflects engine noise directly at the driver...without the shield a tach would be in order so you'll know when to shift gears because the engine is so quiet!
 
Try this. It worked great for me.

Automatic Chain Tensioner Adjustment
Published by glider (Community Liaison)
Published date: May 20th, 2008

Here's a trick to reduce the constant engine noise that sounds like valve train noises on the newer 96 Cu In. bikes that have the auto adjusting primary chain tensioners and no inspection port.
I tried this on my RKC and can notice a definite improvement. The problem seems to be coming from the primary chain and not really the valve train at all.

Here's what you do. Accelerate from a stop in first gear rather hard to about 30 MPH and then brake rather hard using only the rear brake without locking up the wheel and don't pull in the clutch until the bike slows enough.
Do this 2-3 times in succession and you'll notice that the noise that you thought was the valve train is almost completely gone now. Low speed riding is a bit smoother also due to less play in the chain.

By doing this, the automatic primary chain will ratchet up a bit tighter if it was loose before this. The acceleration and braking causes slack in the lower strand of the chain and will ratchet it up tighter if it needed an adjustment.

If it wasn't loose there will be no noted difference.
That is most likely the noise that was heard and not the valve train at all.

Sounds strange but try it!
 
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