Hey there,

New to these forums and needed a bit of help, ive got a ZX9R, have been riding it a fair bit over the winter except on cold and wet days. Fully serviced it and had the valve clearances done two months ago, but noticed tonight that there is loud knocking noise from the engine at tick over?? Oil level is good and bike seems to run ok. Any ideas?

 

Welcome the the forums, Knighty.

As your engine runs and puts on miles, the valve seats start to compress, causing the valve and cam's clearances to get smaller. Every engine has it's own specs on what the clearances of the valves need to be. When they are adjusted to widen the gap again, the extra gap causes more mechanical noise due to the cam "slapping" (for lack of better words) against the valve bucket. There is nothing abnormal about it, and eventually the noise will go away as the clearances start reducing again.

Hope this helps,

Mark.

 

I am thinking retry the cam chain tensioner adjustment. It may have not ratcheted back if you had to remove the cams for bucket shim replacement.

edit: The tensioner is not known to be the strongest and best out there.

 

[align=left]Thanks thought it might be another big bill coming my way! I didnt do the valve clearances myself as thats a bit out of my league. So is it quite easy to check the tensioner??[/align]

 

Hmm, knowing now that you took it in for the valve check, you may want to hit them back up to warranty their work or find the situation.

Your manual will tell you how to do it, but it is not a tough one to check, at least on the zx7 that is.