Strange sound on 3rd gen

I noticed a new sound in my 1991 vfr recently. It's coming from the left hand side somewhere in the front sprocket region. It sounds like an oval object was rotating and rubbing against something at a certain point of its travel. The faster I go the more frequent the sound is. At 60 kph it occurs maybe twice or thrice a second. When the speed goes below 15-20 kph it disappears.

Possibly related, there's been a distinct increase in vibrations in the left foot peg. Furthermore, both the sound and the vibes escalate when turning. The sharper the turn the bigger the effect. It seems to be worse when turning right.

Not many recent changes have taken place. Oil changed to semi-synth for a bit but I went back to fully synthetic castrol power1 soon after. Oil drain hole's threads were nearly destroyed, some bits of aluminum may have ended up in the oil.

Ideas?
And uhh .. Mileage is about 115000 km.

 

Sorry if this is a double post.

Get the bike up to the speed where you notice the noise/vibe, and pull the clutch to coast. If the noise continues, think wheel/brake issues. If the noise goes away or severely diminished, you may well be looking at engine/transmission issues. Report back!

Ed

 

The noise is unaffected by clutch engagement, it's just easier to locate when engine's quiet.

I should mention that my daily commute is 35 km of some really rough old paved road with more bumps than smoothness. I'm definitively giving the bike's suspension a good workout every day.
So if the swingarm or linkage bearings have suffered and slackened, wouldn't it manifest itself as vibes and sound when turning? Pulling the chain out of its way, perhaps even scraping the frame?

 

I was getting a bad noise from that area last year & it turned out one of the "dog bone" retainers from the chain cover had fallen off & become lodged in the front sprocket area.

 

Well I'd better investigate.

 

Nah..Nothing there. A lot of greasy dirt though.

 

I would suspect a stretched chain and worn sprockets. Been there done that.

Put your bike on the center stand and turn the rear wheel by hand while checking the slack in your chain. I'm thinking that at one point or another you will notice that it is tighter which means that she is due to be replaced.

 

I came to the same conclusion riding earlier today. It's gotta be the chain making the noise. Unfortunately my centrestand rotted and broke so I had to remove it. I'll check it out in the coming week.

 

My brother had a similar problem caused by jammed chain lock. It was because the riveted lock wad tightened too much. Check that as well...

 

I had a similar issue with my old 1st gen. It was one of the bolts/nuts that held on the rear sprocket rubbing agains the swing arm.

if you haven't already Joh, clear up all the gunk around the front sprocket and see if there's anything in there.

 

Bolts are fine and front sprocket area is thoroughly cleaned.

I couldn't find the master link in the chain if that's what you mean make56. The chain's about 19000-20000 kms old, changed by a previous owner. And if it's OEM it doesn't even have a master link.

 

Make56 is talking about the riveted master link, have to look hard to find it

 

I finally got the bike's rear wheel off the ground.
The difference in chain slack is tremendous when rotating! At tightest there's no slack at all :dread: At best there's over 2 inches of slack.
Ordered new chain and sprockets already.

On a sidenote, R/R unit failed me for a second time (After the OEM failed I got a finned aftermarket unit) and fried my battery last weekend.
Left me stranded at a gas station on account of poor ignition timing.
Could anything have gone bad along with the R/R and battery? I did about 200 kms nearly nonstop with the last 40 at a steady 6000 rpm.
The smell of burnt battery was like a toxic cloud surrounding the bike.
I'm switching over to Yamaha's R/R and a gel battery...