Hello everyone, my '89 GS 500e has developed a strange new sound at idle. I have just rolled over 40,000kms and after the first ride of the season, there is a strange metallic ringing sound at idle. It seems to occur every 2-3 seconds and sounds louder on the left side when I put my ear to the engine. Also, when the noise occurs, I can feel a vibration in the handle bars.
Is this the famous cam end play noise I've read about or something more ominous?
Cam end float noise on my bike appears usually when the bike is hot after a ride and at idle. It will disappear with a quick blip of the throttle. It sounds more like a knock than a ring and I notice no extra vibes in the bars. Your noise sounds like something different to cam float noise.
The sound is definitely only at idle and after the engine has warmed up. Applying any throttle makes the sound disappear. One more thing to note, the sound appears to have started after I lowered my idle. I turned down the thumb screw under the carbs because my bike would jump into a really high idle before when warmed up.
Cam shaft knock. Turn the idle back up or live with it. I found a different oil made a made a difference too but don't want to make this another oil thread. :icon_lol::
I had a weird sound at idle that disappeared when you open the throttle. It was my chain which had a lot of slack and was in serious need of adjustment. So check that as well.
Quote from: gsJack on May 01, 2013, 06:17:30 AM
Cam shaft knock. Turn the idle back up or live with it. I found a different oil made a made a difference too but don't want to make this another oil thread. :icon_lol::
Oil! Grr, viscosity, yada yada, synthetic, No I'm right, grr, can't mix different, Walmart!, :flipoff:, I been a mechanic for 30 years!, You get what you pay for!, Quoting some scientific test results!, Diesel!There ya go jack. I did the whole oil arg thing in one post. Now its done... :)
This won't help given you putyour ear to the engine. Last night I was on a ride only have about 50 miles on this gs so far.
My 3 keys were bouncing on each other between the bars while going down the road and I thought it was something metallic as well.. then I realized.
Thanks everyone for the responses. I purchased an automotive stethoscope after work today and started probing around. The sound is now definitely NOT coming from the engine despite my original thoughts. I probed everything from the valve cover down to engine base all the way out to the muffler tip. No sign of the ringing. I am thinking Stoich's idea of loose chain might be hitting the money... I will check that next. Well, at least it's not an internal engine issue!
Once I had a metallic ringing sound. Both bolts on an exhaust header clamp came off and the ring was bouncing around on the exhaust pipe - making a pretty ringing sound.
Quote from: rivetc78 on May 01, 2013, 04:47:07 PM
Thanks everyone for the responses. I purchased an automotive stethoscope after work today and started probing around. The sound is now definitely NOT coming from the engine despite my original thoughts. I probed everything from the valve cover down to engine base all the way out to the muffler tip. No sign of the ringing. I am thinking Stoich's idea of loose chain might be hitting the money... I will check that next. Well, at least it's not an internal engine issue!
Put it on the center stand. Start it, put it in first gear and open the throttle for a bit. Now go and look at the chain - you should be able to tell whether it's the chain acting up. That's how I found the problem. Just be careful - it will be bad if it falls from the center stand while it's running.