Ticking noise from sportster

[Guest]

Picked up an 2001 883 a few weeks ago. Bike was sitting for a year or 2 before i got it. Runs fine, put a fair amount of miles on it but noticed a ticking noise from the cam side, not sure if its normal or not. Help would be appreciated. Here is a video clip of the noise: https://youtu.be/G14wuM5XaNE.

[Tattooo]

That's not normal........... What does it sound like when you rev it up a little????

[Guest]

Same noise, ticking increases with rpm. Check around with a stethoscope and seems like you could hear it out of the front exhaust. Would it be the lifters ya think?

[Tattooo]

Same noise, ticking increases with rpm. Check around with a stethoscope and seems like you could hear it out of the front exhaust. Would it be the lifters ya think?

That's very possible.............

[JBinNC]

Same noise, ticking increases with rpm. Check around with a stethoscope and seems like you could hear it out of the front exhaust. Would it be the lifters ya think?

Tappet rollers are the most failure prone part of these motors. They have about a 40,000 mile life, and after that, can and do fail at any time. Do you know the actual mileage on this mill?
To check on an XL, remove the rocker boxes so you can take pressure off the pushrods and then, if you have the one piece pushrod covers, pull the cam cover and inspect the tappets from below.
If yer lucky and you have collapsible pushrod covers and adjustable pushrods, check first that one of the pushrod adjusters has not backed off. If they are all tight, pull the pushrods and covers. Then pull the tappet pins and lift the tappets out and inspect.

Good luck,
Jim

[brooklynbomber]

How common is cam wear?

[JBinNC]

How common is cam wear?

On any HD motor, a bad tappet roller will usually wipe the cam lobe. If the gears are fitted too tight, you get tooth wear. The bearing journals are subject to the usual wear, like any machine. Other than that, the cams can last for decades.

Jim

[Down]

To revive this thread:
Mine (1988 4-speed 1200 with rebuilt top end) makes the exact same noise from the front head. I've torn the whole thing down to bits, inspected everything and everything looked good. I don't have adjustable pushrods, mine are the fixed length ones. And when I say everything looked good, it really did look good. Had a friend who builds racecar engines for a living take a look and he guesstimated that the engine has around 15-20k miles on it. Summer is short this far north, so it's plausible.
I put everything back together and it still makes that sound! What am I not seeing here? Valves don't hit the piston. Valves are fine, rockers are fine, pushrods are fine and don't hit the tubes, lifters are fine, cams are fine. What the hell is going on with my engine?

[JBinNC]

The pushrods are select fit for each position, so when doing the top end, if any of the pushrod locations was changed, you may have a tappet not correctly preloaded. The same applies if you used head, base, or lower rocker box gaskets that are different thicknesses than the originals, or if you decked the heads or cylinder surfaces.

Needless to say, a tappet that is collapsing can make noise, and visual inspection will not uncover that.

Last but not least, $$$, the big end bearing on the front rod usually fails first in an XL motor.

Jim

[Down]

The pushrods are select fit for each position, so when doing the top end, if any of the pushrod locations was changed, you may have a tappet not correctly preloaded. The same applies if you used head, base, or lower rocker box gaskets that are different thicknesses than the originals, or if you decked the heads or cylinder surfaces.

Needless to say, a tappet that is collapsing can make noise, and visual inspection will not uncover that.

Last but not least, $$$, the big end bearing on the front rod usually fails first in an XL motor.

Jim

Gaskets are OEM spec, so shouldn't be that. Pushrods are in the correct places.
Guess I'll give it one more shot and buy new tappets then.
Thanks for the tip, man!

[Dragstews]

Wonder what the oil pressure is ... ???

[Down]

Wonder what the oil pressure is ... ???

Around 11-12 PSI idle, 16 PSI with a bit of throttle (don't have a tach, can't tell you exactly what RPM)