84 GPz 550 - is this a normal amount of ticking, or a concerning amount of tick?

Unfortunately, I found that it sped up wear until the valves get back to being quieter. So it might lengthen the service interval, but not as much as you would expect.

To add, if you have low oil level, there cold be more noise. Over time the low oil level warning might not work. Factory recommends checking oil level on the centerstand, but I do mine with a 2x4 piece of wood under the side stand, and top up to a little above half the sightglass. Not even going to make this an oil reply.

On the ticking, looks like you have some good advice. As long as you are in the range of 0.10mm - 0,20mm intake, and 0.15mm - 0.25mm exhaust, you should be good. Remember this, "A noise valve is a happy valve".

I dont know , Corey. I'm not a big fan of that saying. A noisy valve is one hitting the seat with more impact.

If you go to the far end of the clearance range, and it makes more noise, it must then be wearing faster (valve sinking into the seat). So the service interval will be slightly longer, but the clearance change will be greater. The overall effect is that the life of the seat is shortened from what it would have been if the fsm was followed.

Anyway, the video doesn't strike me as excessive lash noise. Excessive lash noise sounds like a very crisp tapping noise... Like literally tapping on the motor with a metal rod, like a screwdriver. And its more regular than that of the video. When the camera is on the right side of the bike, there might be some of that (regular tapping). So maybe there is a valve on the right side.

To me it does sound more like an irregular idle causing the chains to slap around. (primary and camchain both maybe), especially when the camera moves to the left side.

That is normal if the bike was just started cold. Remember, a bike is synced and pilots are set when the bike is fully warmed up at which will be at its highest idle. That is when the motor should be quiet. It can be quiet during warm up, but with age and wear, the warm up might not be as quiet as after a ride.

Unfortunately, all you can really do is open it up again and check them per the FSM, in the pairs specified in the FSM. Doing it using the FSM method will affect the measurements, and that's how they want you to do it. I always polish the deck surface and valve cover surface so valve cover removal is real easy and I can even use the same gasket for decades. Make sure every crumb of dirt/sealer and oil is out of the bolt holes or it's real easy to strip them out.


Here's an example of when i had the lash set to the large end. The video exxagerates the volume of the valve tick because the camera is hard mounted, so it's really more of a stethoscope recording, but you can hear how prominent the valve noise is. Also note, if it's one valve, the period of the tick is slower than that of the exhaust/engine noise.

OK - thanks again. I've looked at some of the stuff you have on your webpage about the TK carbs - and I am going to resynch them using the tip you have about getting a hollow tube to hold the lock nut. I did find when I was doing it with a wrench that I was having a hell of a time keeping the adjustment where I wanted it when tightening down the lock nut which put things out a tiny bit.

Oh yeah. It's so touchy, I don't think I could do it without the hex tube.
And the locknut really only needs to be snug. The threads are super-fine, so easy to strip.

Oh and I forgot to say, when I polish the valve cover and head deck, I use a thin layer of antiseize on the gasket so it comes off like new.
If there are irregularities around the cam end plugs, then I might use a tiny bit of non-hardening sealer, but I usually try to avoid that in order to re-use the gasket.

Try pulling in the clutch while running, to see if the sound is less.

Exhaust leak could also make noise.

The noisy valve comment was meant to be stated as it is better to have them loose rather than tight. Within spec is where you should aim for.

If you are running the stock TK27 Carbs, carb sync is made much easier with this tool. Motion Pro 08-0022.