Recently bought 86 gpz750f when idling has engine noise (rattle) was told by seller it timing chain not so sure myself noise goes away with a few revs,any ideas?

 

Welcome to KF.

Could be the timing chain. But why didn't the dealer fix that already? Was the adjustment at least checked? What about the valve checks?

 

Thanks,bought couple of days ago private sale over internet did not view first just wondered if this was a commen prob on these and whether its something i could repair myself.cheers

 

of course you can check these yourself and/or fix any issues. I would do your preliminary checks first on a new ride. Basically what your manual gives you as recommendations and go from there.

 

There are two types of chain noise, primary chain and cam chain. You can check the primary chain noise by powerbraking the bike lightly, taking the play out of the chain. That involves putting the bike in gear while running, then holding the brake and lightly easing out the clutch a bit to put tension on the primary. Any primary chain rattle will disappear.

The other rattle, cam chain rattle, is something I'm very familiar with. I had both the cam chain tensioners on my two Kawasakis go bad. The KLX had two turn to junk, one at 5000 and the other around 12,000 wearing out the chains (two on the KLX) with it. Not a cheap fix. The cam chain rattle is more of a buzzing from the cam drive area. If your bike is one of the air cooled ones it would be in the center, all liquid cooled are on one side or the other, I think the left side when seated on the bike.

I had some guys say cam chain noise is normal and not a big deal. That is pure bull, my 450+ bill was proof of that. And the fact that my manual tensioner in the KLX has run 25,000+ miles trouble free with 4 adjustments. My Zephyr buzzed like a hornet's nest, quieting down immediately when I put in the manual tensioner and adjusted it. No problems in several thousand miles so far. There are three options, which I can not speak of at this instant. I am waiting to see if I can tell them. If you want to know them before I get permission to post it, just email me.

The dealers are not likely to deal with the cam chain noise because they'll just replace the old tensioner with another that will possibly fail - at about $80 per unit. The bike runs and everyone thinks its "normal". It may be normal, but so are a lot of bikes with worn out drive chains and sprockets, that doesn't make it right.