Z500 Engine Rattle...

Attached is a video of my bike running.
I was wondering If anyone would share their opinion on what could be causing for lack of a better word a rattle from my engine.
The "rattle" goes away when the bike warms up.

It has done this since I first acquired the bike.
The carbs are mostly synced, and the bike needs the valves to be adjusted.(I am in the process of doing this)
The "Rattle" seems to emanate from the transmission.

This sound is really loud and I am wondering if their are parts wearing in the engine at an excessive rate.
I would appreciate any opinions or insights and what might be causing this sound.
Lewis

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Out of synch carbs and out of adjustment valves can cause such a noise.

More expensive problems can, too. Do all the routine maintenance first, then if the noise persists, look for other causes.

Sounds like clutch basket rattle, the internal dampers get rock hard with age. Nothing to worry about, most of them do this.

Carb balance and increasing idle speed a touch will reduce this.

The 500 / 550 cranks are bulletproof -unless they run out of oil. The same crank went onto the 600 Ninja water cooled.

Adjust the valves and re sync the carbs.
Steve

Here is how the bike sounds after adjusting the valves and syncing the carbs to the best of my ability.

It sounds like an old bike just warming up.Very normal.If it goes away when you pull the clutch in,then as tyrell corp says,its the clutch and 'they all do that sir'.

What rpm is your idle set at? It should be 1,000 - 1,050 rpm. Ed

When you adjusted the valves, what clearance did you adjust them to? I'm not familiar with this motor, but on an the KZ1000 If you set them all on the wide end, then the cam shafts can rock side to side and make a similar noise. Setting the valves to closer to the middle/low end of the range and/or replacing the cam journal bearings can fix it.

650ed wrote: What rpm is your idle set at? It should be 1,000 - 1,050 rpm. Ed

I think the 500/550 are to be set a little higher, like 1150 at the top. I suppose I could check the manual, but I'm on a very slow computer right now.
EDIT: Well, the spec page does show 1050, but the sync page says 1000 to 1100. (It was the KZ400J, that I must have had in mind, that one is up to 1250.)

jackleberry wrote: When you adjusted the valves, what clearance did you adjust them to? I'm not familiar with this motor, but on an the KZ1000 If you set them all on the wide end, then the cam shafts can rock side to side and make a similar noise. Setting the valves to closer to the middle/low end of the range and/or replacing the cam journal bearings can fix it.

Yes, on the 550 it's very noticeable. I was recently doing some trouble shooting on one 550 and temporarily set them at the max range and they were very noisy. Then I adjusted them to the middle of the range, and they were nice and quiet.

I set the valves to the middle to low range.
As for the idle I think you are right it is a bit low. I haven't been riding the bike because I have been waiting for some front brake components.