| Author | Message | ||
     Audiowize |
So this past week, I tackled the bronze oil drive gear replacement on my new to me '03 Buell XB9R. The removal and installation went about as smoothly as I could have hoped for, and I got her all buttoned up and timed this morning. The problem that I'm having is that I have a new and very loud metallic valve tick coming from the front jug that wasn't there before. While I was working on the bike, I did replace the rocker boxes with a newer set that had the deeper groove and taller gasket, which I didn't see as being a problem (the back cylinder is quite happy with its rocker box). I may have inadvertently squished one of the oil lines running under the bike, and replacements are on the way. For those who are more knowledgeable about the oiling systems on these bikes, might I have inadvertently plugged a passage intended to oil the valvetrain up front? | ||
| Phelan |
More likely the cams were improperly timed and the tick is slight valve to piston contact, or if there was significant slack left to right in the rocker arm, it may need to be shimmed. | ||
| Audiowize |
I am not concerned about cam timing, the marks all lined up without much trouble. Additionally I pulled the plugs and turned the engine over with the starter and the noise doesn't seem to be present. Continuing to look for this noise, I pulled the rocker covers and fired the engine. I don't generally do that when working on engines because oil goes flying everywhere, but much to my surprise, there was no oil coming out from anywhere. I'm now a little confused. The oil light isn't on when the bike runs, but surely there should be oil flowing out all over the place in those rocker boxes. | ||
| Phelan |
Rockerboxes get just a moderate mist. But a pinched oil line could be starving the pump. I didn't see that comment previously. | ||
| Audiowize |
Would you recommend pulling the pressure switch and seeing if I can get the arterial gush there? | ||
| Audiowize |
After running for a bit longer with the rocker covers off, some splatter of oil did start drifting up around the push rods. It must take a long, long time for oil to pool up around where the valves are, and I'm thinking that maybe I need to wait for that to happen or I need to add a little of my own oil to speed the process up? | ||
| Phelan |
It does take about 45 seconds or so IIRC for oil to to pump out. S&S has a good video example of that. | ||
| Audiowize |
Yeah, I let it idle for about ten minutes and it's still ticky. It sounds a lot like a lifter that isn't working properly. I just reread the FSM, is there anything special that I needed to do when I put all the cams back in and cranked down the rocker boxes? This just sounds like a super loose exhaust valve clearance. | ||
| Greg_e |
Did you put the pushrods in the correct tubes? They are different lengths between intake and exhaust. Lifter could have had dirt in it and moving them around to pull the cams made it drop into a bad spot. | ||
| Audiowize |
I left the pushrods in while I did the work. I am leaning toward a contaminated lifter. That means a lot more work in my future! Is there an easy way to confirm that this is the actual problem? I'd hate to dig the thing out and replace it, only to have this same issue persist. | ||
| Greg_e |
Try to listen and pinpoint the source of the noise, I know it's next to impossible on these engines. If you need to do one lifter, I'd do all four. And I suggest Feuling brand. | ||
| Brother_in_buells |
How much did you ride it after this? I had the same with a 04 xb 12s after doing the drive gear some oil pump work. Did rode it for a couple times and it went completely quiet again. (well enough for how quiet a aircooled V_twin lump can be!) | ||
| Audiowize |
I've run the bike for about an hour now so far, and I've ridden a couple miles. The noise is most definitely related to the exhaust valve on the front jug, at this point I'm thinking that I'll need to take the bike back apart and inspect all my work. What's involved in pulling the lifters? Can I slide them out with the rockers off? The service manual isn't particularly specific about any of this. | ||
| Greg_e |
Yes, I think they can come out the top, but I don't specifically remember. | ||
| Brother_in_buells |
No the lifters can't past the pushrod covers and holes in the head. For removing the lifters you have to pull the heads. Some put a bit of ATF into the engine oil and run it with that to clean the lifters. (Message edited by Brother in buells on May 14, 2017) | ||
| Audiowize |
Tomorrow I will have the new set of oil hoses. I can't imagine that this is the problem, but I'd like to rule it out so I can move on to other things. I put some Marvel Mystery oil into the swing arm with no change in the tapping. I'll drain some of my oil and replace with ATF to see if that helps at all. If the oil hoses don't restore order, I will have to pull the front rocker box and cam cover to see if anything is obviously damaged. I may also put my brake bleeder on top of the push rod to see if I can suck some oil up and through the lifter. Otherwise, it looks like I'll need to pull the motor and do some pretty serious top end work. | ||
| Brother_in_buells |
Does it sound like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is4yDmQhpiQ | ||
| Brother_in_buells |
or this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qs9idu_f0c | ||
| Phelan |
You don't neex to pull the motor, only rotate it. Use long extensions on the rear cylinder and then you have full 360* rotation with your tools. Or if you don't want to pull the heads, you could always ditch the plastic pushrod covers for some Zippers collapsible tubes with billet bases. Not cost effective (Zippers kit is $160), but pretty. | ||
| Audiowize |
My engine sounded like the second video. So I remembered that last year I created a Youtube account (though I don't remember why I created it), so I went out to shoot a video of my noise to post here. When I fired up the bike, the lifter pumped up and the loud tick wasn't present. Thank you all for keeping my sane on this one. Now I have to drain out what's left of the oil and I can go riding! | ||
| Brother_in_buells |
Great to read it fixed itself Enjoy the riding this season! |
