I've got a 2000 Recon I bought new about 15 months ago and it has been making a noise lately that has me a little worried. When I first crank it up and back out of my garage when I let off of the throttle it will make this rattling noise. It doesn't do it when the engine is warm but when it is cold it does it pretty regularly. I've adjusted the valves more than once trying to get this to quit but that hasn't worked. I suspect it is the cam chain tensioner and the noise is the cam chain slapping but I'm not sure enough to break the engine down to investigate. Has anyone else heard of this symptom? I'm running 10w40 Mobil 1 Motorcycle oil in it and I change the oil much more often than specified. Any tips would be appreciated.

 

FLCrutch,
Wait a second the Recon has no cam chain!!!!! It has pushrods. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-confused.gif[/img] I think you might have adjusted too much if you really did adjust or were you just checking the clearance and it was OK.
Chet

 

That's true, it has a pushrod engine but it does still have a cam chain. Regardless of where the cam lives it has to turn somehow and that is usually doen with a chain but direct gear drive or belt drive is also an option. I've got the service manual and it clearly shows a chain and tensioner arrangement.

Thanks for your input though. Have you ever heard of this sort of behavior?

 

Well, you can see where assuming something was wrong for me. I don't have a service Manuel so I assumed that it would have been with gears turning the camshaft so I learned something new today. Mine has made what I would consider rattling noises since new. I always thought it was the pushrods so I never gave it a thought. I remember when I first read about the Recon and thought pushrods was a step backwards. But after having the Recon for almost three years a pushrod Honda motor runs great.
Chet

 

It could be alot of things. The exhaust guard, the pull start housing....just about anything that is loose will make a rattle.

 

I thought the pushrod design was a bit lame too but it performs fine and has tha added advantage of being much easier to re-ring since there's no cam chain running up the to the top of the head to worry about. I ended up deciding that it was worth the asking price regardless of the engine configuration. Besides my Chevy 350 does just fine with a pushrod engine.

 

That's right and there are plenty of things that rattle on this bike but the noise is only when the bike is cold and it's more like a light knock than a true rattle. I guess I should record it and post a .MP3 for realism. I guess I'm going to adjust the valves one more time and see what impact that has.

 

If it's more of a "knock", it could be your C-Clutch Starting to go out. Mine went out after 10 month's of aggressive riding on it. Does it go away when you rev it above idle?

 

I'll have to listen again to make sure. Was there any other symptom you saw? The bike seems to run/ride fine once it gets warmed up. I rode it last night and instead of my usual crank and back out procedure I let it idle for a few minutes before I backed out, no noise at that point. If parts weren't so expensive for these things I wouldn't be so worried about this.

 

Mine started with a light knocking at startup, then progressed to a steady knock at idle. It rode just fine, but i think i did feel a bit of a power loss.