http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMdsnm58cJo

well i finally got my bike to idle on its own (without the choke), the pilot jets were plugged, I soaked them both in carb cleaner overnight and the one cleaned out with compressed air, the other ... well the compressed air didnt quite cut it, so i dipped it in carb cleaner and lit it on fire with a torch, that got it out haha, anyway, got it to idle on its own, idles a little above a grand, it seems to rev pretty smooth, but its really noisy, almost like a valve knock or something, I took a video of it and posted it on youtube to see if you guys thought this sounded normal or a little fishy, i just adjusted the valve clearance, cleaned the carbs and replaced the air filter , i do still have a ripped diaphram and my floats are out of adjustment or a gasket is leaking because both carbs leak fuel, but i dont think that any of this would cause the noise, take a listen adn let me know if i have something to worry about or not haha
thanks


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMdsnm58cJo[/align]

 

Sorry to beat the already-dead horse to death, but are you certain that you've got the valves set to the METRIC and not the standard clearances? (i.e. fractions of a millimeter and ~not~ fractions of an inch? Inches are more common on this continent, especially among the hotrod types who are missing a few teeth and keep saying "'tsall-good hoss, get-er-dun!")


It's very difficult to diagnose over video like this, but something definitely sounds amiss. If you're certain that you've got ALL of your valves set to the metric measurements (and not the fractions of an inch), the next thing I'd confirm is that all your valves' locknuts are torqued to to 25Nm, per the factory manual spec.
If those are checked out, turn the rotor-bolt and inspect your cam-lobes carefully. I've had one cam (out of 5 bikes so far) that had a badly-pitted cam.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Peace!
-Chris in Carlsbad, CA

 

yep, im positive on using the right gauge reading, my feelers have both metric and standard listed on them, and i used the metric and double checked the standard to the standard reading in the book, i didnt tourque the nuts down with a tourqe meter but they're definately not loose, and i made sure that the adjusting screws didnt turn while i tightened the jam nuts, cam lobes dont look bad, didnt see any pitting or anything, I dont have the right size micrometer to check the wear limits on them, i think im going to get my carb issues worked out, get those synced and run it up to a local shop to see if they say anything about the sound, the videos kind of hard to tell, but i thought it'd give it a shot, i've never heard a ex500 run before so im not really sure what they're suppossed to sound like, but i have heard that they're noisy engines

 

All engines make mechanical noises, but the 500's is slightly more noisy because
a) It doesn't have a full fairing with the sound-absorptive padding to deaden the clattering
b) The rocker-arm & screw/locknut valvegear has more moving parts that a typical cam-follower/shim-under-bucket assembly.
c) It doesn't have any internal noise damping measures like many other engines have.

The only other thing I can think of that would make that kind of noise might be if your clearances are still a little off. The clearance is actually the thickest blade you can fit in the gap with only mild, minor resistance. If the blade binds, then it is too tight. If it slides in there like throwing a hotdog down a hallway, it's too loose.

That, and making sure that each cylinder is at TDC before checking the clearances.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Peace!
-Chris in Carlsbad, CA

 

It's real hard to judge by your vid because I think the audio sounds somewhat "tinny" since you have it in a garage. If you recorded the bike outside, the audio would sound more "true" to the actual sound the engine makes.

When I did the valve adjustment on my 250R, I set the tappets almost to the max allowed clearance listed by Kawasaki. I sort of regretted doing it since it made the valves extremely noisy for a quite a few miles afterwords. But it did sound very similar to the way your bike sounds right now. (The 250R and EX500 engines are nearly identical by design also.)