Hi all,
First I want to say thank you to everyone that replied to this thread with advice and help. My wife and I returned from our bike trip a few days ago and work has been crazy and this is my first chance to post. So here is an update on cam chain rattle.
Just before we left I put in the spacer for the tensioner spring. Unfortunately it didn't make any difference when I started the bike. That night I also installed the TORS mufflers and had the TORS tune downloaded at the dealer the next morning, But that is not relevant to the topic of this thread. We left on the trip thinking that with some road time and a few hundred miles the tensioner might adjust but that didn't happen. Now, Once the engine is warmed up it's quiet but I think the problem has gotten a little worse. Before the trip, when the engine was cold, the cam chain was quiet at idle and I would have to rev it to 1200 - 1300 rpms to get it rattle. But as we got into our trip (and I first started it in the mornings) I began to notice a slight random "tink" "tink" "tink" at idle, and the of course as I reved it to 1200 rpms it would go to the full rattle.
The history on this noise started back at about 8500 miles on the clock. It was very slight and would go away within 30 seconds after starting it cold ( just the slightest engine warmth and it was gone).By the time it got to 10'000 miles the noise was more pronounced and would last longer. At the 10'000 mile service I told the service manager about it and asked if he could have the mechanic take a look down in the chain chest to see if all looked well since he had the top off to check the valves. When I picked the bike up he told me that the valves were OK and the mechanic took the tensioner out and blew out the oil passages, cleaned it up, and made sure it was good (RED FLAG). We debated the fact that the Rocket didn't have a hydrolic tensioner, that is was spring loaded ratchet, he assured me I was wrong and that was a hydrolic tensioner(whatever, I knew better). I could tell that they did indeed remove the tensioner because there was new fluf around the new gasket. Anyway, the chain noise was gone, engine sounded beautiful at cold start up. This lasted about 1200 miles and it was back, now worse than it ever was when cold. But, as I said before, once it warms up engine sounds great. Bike now has 14,500 mile on it. 10,000 mile service was completed at 10,500 miles on the odometer in late Febuary
Sorry for the long winded post but i thought all the history might help.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this, Ridefree
