So I have noticed some noise from the front cylinder area, when I fire her up for the first few minutes there is a clack clack clack noise around 1000-1500 rpm’s. After she warms up the noise subsides. I change the oil religiously at 3500 miles and am on the second oil change cycle using Shell Rotella synthetic ….. Any thoughts…

 

Hard to tell by just a description but it could be somethings as simple as the carb slides bouncing around.

Take a stethoscope or the screwdriver to the ear trick and see if you can pin point where it is coming from.

 

Do you have manual cct's,if so,might need to be adjusted a little bit.

 

aaahh, fantastic, as for the CCT's.. they are auto that came with the bike. she has 33500K on her. not too many issues over the past few years, I recently moved to Arizona from Seattle and went to a "better" oil.. I talked to a clown at the steelership in regards to the noise, he was yapping about shimming and the commitment of $650 for the job.. I also herd that the oil needs to "warm" up and get into the engine.. sooo?? I donno

 

I just checked the bottle of Shell Rotella T6 its 15-40 Synthetic- maybe thinkin that might be too heavy for the bike at the cold start.. higher viscosity at colder temp's stress out the top end of the bike.... ugh?

 

It shouldn't be that big of an issue, I have run it before and didn't have any problems.

 

Better check that front CCT before "clack clack" become slap slap.

 

Very true as you have passed the "recommended" change interval of 32K miles...

 

Sounds like a loose cam chain from what you describe but it's hard to say. If you were still in Seattle I'd say we should get together and I'd throw an ear on it. If you're to that mileage I'd recomend changing that CCT anyway, don't want it to come apart on you and have to pull the head and replace valves/guides.

 

COOL... yeah, this has $$$ written all over it..... Thanks guys..

 

Once I have this thing open and exposed replacing the CCT'S what else should I be looking for "or" what else should be replaced at that point??? any suggestions

 

Check the valve clearance while you are in there.

As for $$ this should be considered "normal" maintenance and is a lot cheaper to do now than later.