Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Excessive top end noise.

Am I imagining things or is the engine top end supposed to make a whining noise?

If it sounds like a sewing machine, it's probably normal. If it sounds like a tin can with marbles in it - shut it off.

Thanks, My old Bonneville had the ticka-ticka lifter/valve noise, but this is a newbie.

That noise has been described many different ways by different people and I think it has been semi-decided that it is actually the primary making that noise. It worried me when I first got my bike too.

Those old bikes (I have a few) if the top end didn't make that valve noise something was wrong!

The cam drive will make a slight whirring noise. The geared primary tends to whine a bit like the kwackasaky police bikes when under load, but it's nothing that a good set of aftermarket pipes won't fix.

How do you know when the ticking is loud enough to be a problem? I'd really rather not tear into my bike again so soon but it sounds like one valve is particularly loose (although no one mentioned it during the SWTF, while my squeaky belt drive did garner comments). I adjusted my valves a year ago and I've put several thousand miles on the clock since then. It runs fine, I'm just being paranoid.

Ya know John, in my opinion if it is enough to worry you then check it. It isn't that hard to pull the tank and valve cover for piece of mind. You can always slap it back together after the check.

+1

Frank