True Confessions:

I have a confession to make. I have been working in the shop and I have been doing motorcycle repair but it is not on my VFR. It is on a VTR.



I paid $1250 for a 2005 Honda VTR1000 Superhawk with a clear title. It has new tires and a new battery. Baring a few scratches the paint looks really good with zero dents in the tank. It has all the lights and turns signals. I heard it run (just briefly). I am the third owner from new. It has a Two Brothers exhaust system. According to the paper work I am the third owner from new. I have all the service paper work including the new bike sale packet from the dealer.

I heard it run long enough to diagnose what I thought was a sloppy timing chain on the front cylinder. It sounded nasty. The story was the owner rode it a mile and it started making noise. He rode home and at the end of his drive it quit. It has an oil leak on the drive side engine cover. Both rear view mirrors are broken and the drive chain and sprockets are shot (normal). The triple clamp looks like crap. It's cosmetic, I know, but it is faded gray and key scraped. It make the whole bike look shabby.

The Two Brothers exhaust system is a slop fest. I have never seen an exhaust system that is so sloppy. The pipe joints, with tight clamps are not tight at all.

I stripped it down, installed the manual timing chain adjusters, check to see if it had skipped time, check valve clearances, fixed the exhaust system and reassembled everything yesterday. The verdict? It starts and runs great but there is a tapping/knocking going on down in the engine room. It is pretty loud, so loud in fact that I have not had the guts to rev it past 2K. I made a video.

[video=youtube;hJlMCEuX_fg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJlMCEuX_fg&feature=youtu.be[/video]

I'll figure out what's wrong even if I have to strip it to bits. The sound makes me suspect a rode bearing. I have been around Hondas for a long time. I cannot remember ever having come across a big end failure. I used to see them all the time on the old T150 and T160 Triumphs but never on a Honda, especially one that didn't show signs of massive abuse. I think you would have to run it dry of oil and even then the top end would show wear first. The top end looked nice with no sign of scoring on the cam lobes. Also the oil light goes out instantly on start up. In my experience, if you have a big end gone, your oil pressure light will flicker at idle. It's a big puzzle and kind of fun!

 

I remember my old 71 Pontiac making a similar noise until I replaced the lifters, one of which was broken. I assume these things have lifters and push rods of some sort.

 

Had old ford van that developed a bad main bearing, didn't sound anything like that. Sound is too sharp, high pitched for a connecting rod bearing, sound would be coming from lower end and be more muted. Still something going on with valves on the top end.

 

It has bucket style lifters that are directly activated by the cam. It has a timing chain that as my old bike shop boss used to say is "Longer than a Kansas well rope." Yep, I am going back into the top end to see what I can see.

 

Jim, the CB1100 threw big ends if they were revved hard, number 3 bearing if I remember

 

Definitely doesn't sound like anything in the bottom end, it's too high pitched for that. Sounds a lot like an exhaust leak at one of the headers.

 

You are the second one to say this. I can feel it in the engine when I put my hand on it. Do you think an exhaust leak would make that kind of thunking?

 

I to think the tone is a little to high and direct for rod end but I would not run at all until I took it apart and found oot what was the cause of said ruckus was.

 

I would get one of those cheap stethoscopes at AutoZone and try and pin point it to which cylinder. Might be a sticky valve.

 

It does not make the sound when just turning the engine over. It has to be running.

 

Listening to it again, and it may an exhaust leak, maybe gasket wasn't seated correctly, it would be great if that is all it is!

 

Can an exhaust leak be that loud and sound like a tap?

 

Not sure, but I think i am going by intensity. If you have some plastic/vinyl tubing kicking around, try that as stethoscope.

 

I bought a cheap mechanics stethoscope. I started the engine and started poking around. I heard the sound best as a ticking in the rear head. I heard nothing but smooth whirring on the front cam. I moved down but didn't hear anything other than a faint tapping that was coming from the head. I am going to run a compression test (as soon as my tool comes in) and then I am going to pull the rear head. I did pull the cam cover and the valves have clearance and the timing checks out. It is nice and oily and there is no scoring on the cams. I guess I gotta make a pile of parts until I find something.

 

It really sounds like a stuck push rod or broken lifter. Then again, I am not much of a mechanic. I do know how not to strip the oil pan at the plug now though.

 

It might be a broken valve spring? I'm just going to gut it and see what I can find.

 

At least you have narrowed it down to the rear cylinder! Keep us posted.

 

In the past I have purchased many bikes that had problems. I rolled the dice and almost always got lucky and the problem was small or over blown. It seems that my luck has run out. I found the problem. I pulled the head and began nosing around. I found that if you turn the crank one way and then turn it slightly the other you can push the piston down with a resounding thunk. The big end is shot.

I spent too much time picking around the edges hoping it was a timing chain issue (normal for this model) but it wasn't and I was wasting my time hoping for a better outcome. I was even way off in that the problem resides in the rear cylinder when I was focused on the front. Live and learn. I'll tear it down but I am going to have to make some room in the shop. It's going to make a huge pile of parts. The bike is built around the engine and it doesn't come out it IS the bike. It's technically not a hard fix. If the crank is bad I can get a good used one off ebay or any of the other parts for that matter. I just have to find out why. The bike doesn't look like is was dogged around. The foot peg feelers are not ground off. Maybe the PO was drag racing it. Who knows.

 

Paid $1250, would you get that back by parting it out? and get on with your life, sometimes it is the simpler way as you don't have any emotional tie to it, it is just money at this stage

 

Well we all hoped it was in the top end, good luck with your new project!