1980 kz550c cam chain noise?

pretty sure my button is bad.
it looks like the left control's drain hole got clogged at some point.
some of the only rust on the bike is inside there.

Can you clean it up?
Steve

Valves typically get too tight, and don't make noise. Most common thing is rattling inside motor caused by carbs out of synch, or some other condition causing uneven running of the 4 cylinders (intake vacuum leak, bad wire/plug/coil, dirty jet, incorrect float level, sticky advance unit, etc). The rattle/clunking comes from uneven power pulses causing the crank speed to fluctuate at low rpm/idle.

I'm with MG and Smokey on this. Camchain rattle is a 'bunch of keys' sort of jangle and quite distinct. The 'auto' tensioners stick and a camchain is good for 50k miles plus.

These 550 mills are all quite clanky when cold, I've had about 10 over the years and some high milers 50k plus. Once it is fully hot stuff a rag over the exhaust pipe(s) and i t should whirr like an electric motor. All aircooled motors have piston slap before they expand as the motor heats up - just the 550's seem worse for this. (another reason not to thrash them when cold)

Primary chain and clutch basket rattle can be minimised by balancing the carbs and not having the tickover too low. Later water cooled designs had a primary chain tensioner.

Nice looking bike. Please read the valvetrain warning page before opening the valve cover. Link in my signature.

Was hoping you'd chime in.
Steve

The cam chains on the 550's always rattled, mine did with only 20k on the clock, did a soft link change on all was much better, but the main drive chain still rattles, all goes much better over 2000 revs