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Hi, Went for a first ride yesterday and a second today on my new (old) bike. Everything went fine until the engine started running on three cylinders and finally stopped. First thought was empty tank, but no. After a while it started again, went slowly on three cylinders and then magically ran normally again. I think I can hear a ticking noise from the top though it is hard to hear if it is worse than before (bike beeing 25 years old). Should I be concerned? (I also noticed that I had a little too much oil in the engine so I removed some.)

Thankful for any hints

Was there too much oil all along, or was this also a recent development?
Too much oil could mean gas in the oil (very destructive if circulated through the engine very long), which could relate to a flooding carb (stuck-open needle and seat) which could make that cylinder stop firing, as well as get into the oil, cause poor lubrication, leading to engine noise.
Just a SWAG, but if I don't think I overfilled the oil and it is now too full, I'm checking the smell and feel of the oil for gasoline contamination. If I have any suspicion of it, that oil is coming out, even if I put it in an hour ago.

Thanks, No there was too much from start, I removed some and the oil looks fine, no smell of gas. I will check compression and valve clearance this weekend and see. Otherwise I am inclined to believe that there was crap in the gas, and that the valve ticking was there all along. It is hard to know how much noise an old bike engine "should" make.

Wilde wrote:

It is hard to know how much noise an old bike engine "should" make.

Yeah I have no idea how loud or what kind of noises my 650 should be making? I mean, what the heck is normal and what's not??

When my bike is in good tune it has a mild ticking sound noticeable at idle. When it is going out of tune or the cam chain needs adjusting the idle is much more noticeably noisy. I think Dan0Z7five0 described it as a coffee can full of bolts (at the extremem end), or some such. So, just a little ticking at idle is my base line. I've stopped worrying about the tick as I've had it for three years now and other guys notice the same sound. I've put 10's of thousands of kilometers on it and reved the living snot out of it on many occasions. Nothing has come apart on me. When my cam chain needs attention I can hear a semi scruffy type noise in the engine at idle. Damn, it's hard to explain this stuff. Pretty much have to hear it. Just tune your bikes up well and over time you will hear/feel it going out of tune with hard starting, lame running, noise, etc. I am no mechanic but I've worked on this old beast enough now that I can tell when it's galloping or hobbled. Apropriate horse analogy huh?,lol.

Post edited by: gas, at: 2006/05/11 19:11

Checked compression today and it was close to uniform on all cylinders at 120 psi. I guess that is ok. Next step is to check valve clearances. The camchain rattles some and it rattles what I would say very badly at low rpm (<1000). Well, the bike is old, I will run it this summer and pull it apart during winter.