Dodged a bullet..............

[The Beekeeper]

Recently I had noticed some noise comming from the engine on startup, it started out like a tick but went away after a few seconds, then I noticed it was getting louder and turned into a sharp metallic rap, my riding buddies said it didn't sound good, I run a handlebar oil pressure guage and found the pressure staying normal, the Max has 37K on the clock, I have put 30K of the hardest miles you can on the old girl, I figured my time had come and I had a wrist pin or rod bearing going south, I decided to drop the oil and filter and take a look, oil looked good and no metallic particles present, I cut open the spin on filter and it was clean also, I got to thinking of somthing I read on the site about the inner tube on the head pipes cracking and rattling, I happend to have a clean system off an 07 I had bought off a local member a few years ago, had my buddy Patrick "Scuff" over and we dropped the head pipes, sure enough the inner tube on the R/H side had broken away, we installed both pipes and cranked it up, I breathed a sigh of relief as the engine roared to life and a throaty rumble was all to be heard!................unk:..............Tom.

 

[Traumahawk]

Glad that it was an "easy" fix.

 

[sdt354]

I'm glad to hear it wasn't serious Tom. Ride um hard and change the oil. There tough machines. My own owes me nothing. 53k and running better than ever. I know it's day will come. And I'm ready with a 1300 when it does. But, that might be a while, I hope

 

[vanbry]

Great to hear!:clapping:

 

[Biker Dash]

For a second, I thought you was gonna say it was the starter clutch you found going bad. Good thing you caught the issue quickly enough to fix!

 

[Fire-medic]

Are you gonna see if you can spot weld/braze the pipe to stop it? I've heard of people putting a sheet metal screw into the pipe for a down & dirty quick fix. Maybe try that, and then drill a hole and weld/braze a nut there, and run a stubby machine screw in to stop the pipe from vibrating. "That hex head? It's for tuning." Tuning the sound out!

 

[marsmax85]

Glad to hear easy fix for you Tom !!

 

[leecifer]

Good catch Tom. I wonder why the sound went away after a few minutes. Maybe the engine warm up and had a different vibration.

 

[mzbk2l]

I had a similar metallic rattle when cold at idle; I traced mine to the exhaust at the right rear cylinder head. When I removed it, I found that the gaskets had been compressed enough from the back-and-forth of the slightly loose pipe that they were junk. I got new ones from bikebandit and reassembled it and all has been good.

It is a worrisome sound when you first hear it, before you track it down, though.

 

[Bill Seward]

I gave the head pipe on my '85 a good whack with a ball peen hammer to quiet the rattle when mine came loose at around 50,000 miles. Replaced it shortly thereafter and all is still quiet. I think the rattle quieted down because the inner pipe expanded when it got hot.

 

[Dragmaxster]

I gave the head pipe on my '85 a good whack with a ball peen hammer to quiet the rattle when mine came loose at around 50,000 miles. Replaced it shortly thereafter and all is still quiet. I think the rattle quieted down because the inner pipe expanded when it got hot.

American ingnuity--:clapping: