Loud Tapping/knocking

[ghostbiker955i]

Ok well i seem to have a major problem with my 2004/05 model kitty.

Was on a trip and while sitting at about 80mph i suddenly started hearing what sounded like a loud ticking from the engine. i pulled over stright away to have a listen and check oil. oil level was fine and the ticking was more of a tapping now. being about 20 miles from my destination i decided to carry on. the tapping didnt get any worse and i got a breakdown truck to take me home later.

Since i got back i start her up and she is just as normal for 30-60 seconds then the tapping comes back. if i increase the revs to 3k it seems to go away then comes back with anger at 4kish.

Im kinda pissed that an 05 model tiger less than 3 years old could develop such a problem. has been dealer serviced all its life and had its 24k service just a couple of months and 2k ago.

im not realy much use with motors but if i had to take a wild shot it sounds like the top end and middle pot. no loss of power or smoke. tappits maybe?

anyone got any ideas at all? its outside the 2 year warrenty so i doubt triumph dealer will be much help apart from ripping me off.

[speedjunkie]

It does sound like a bad lifter to me.  When cold, it builds pressure for a moment, then looses it, allowing the valve clearance to become excessively loose, and noisy.  Rev it a little, and it builds pressure for a moment, only to stabilize, and loose it again.  



Outside of tearing it down and checking them, I'm not sure.  I'd be taking it to the dealer, as they are more equiped than I, but maybe your situation is different.  Just in case it is something worse than a lifter, I wouldn't be running it too much, you may cause more damage.  Good luck.









Mike

[2004Tiger]

It does sound like a bad lifter to me...  Mike

Please school me. Is this not a dual overhead cam engine? Where are the lifters? I supposed it had cups with shims or buttons for clearance adjustment. Would the cups have an oil-hydraulic function?

[greg]

If it's terminal there is a good engine for sale on ebay, though I hope it won't come to that.

[ghostbiker955i]

Hoping its not terminal. if its the engine i saw on ebay there was a fair amount missing, but top end looked good.

My triumph dealer cant take it for 2 weeks :( so gunna have to go non triumph to get it sorted. its my only transport so need it back asap.



so booked in on wed's now.

theres no loss of power at all and i would expect some if valves were not shutting or opening on time, so it has me baffeled.

[gsp0702]

I had a similar issue with my 02 Tiger 955, Thought it was valves, they checked out fine and dealer said usually they close up rather than get larger and rattle. With mine turned out to be a worn little end bearing. Hopefully this isnt your problem as it wasnt cheap to fix. :(



Good luck and hope the repairs arent to fierce.

[ghostbiker955i]

Its sounding that it could also be a little end bearing.

Just to update.

Head came off today and checked clearence etc and everything checks out 100% seems to be nothing under the head thats wrong.

So was faced with a choice today of putting back together and ride it till something fails..... easyer to find the problem that way :P...... or drop the engine and explore deeper.

Im on VERY limited funds and if it would have been an older bike i would have ridden till it droped the scraped it. but on 04/05 kitty deserves better.

So tomorrow the engine gets droped out :( the risk i take though is as its only a knocking sound and not a compleat fail, even affter striping it down and checking everything they may still find nothing at all.



i could blow many 100's and still not have it fixed.



gsp, what did yours end up costing?

[greg]

Hoping its not terminal. if its the engine i saw on ebay there was a fair amount missing, but top end looked good.

My triumph dealer cant take it for 2 weeks :( so gunna have to go non triumph to get it sorted. its my only transport so need it back asap.



so booked in on wed's now.

theres no loss of power at all and i would expect some if valves were not shutting or opening on time, so it has me baffeled.

Well, hope things are going to get sorted, if not there are two engines on ebay, the one you mentioned plus another.

[gsp0702]

It wasnt cheap, first of paying for camcovers and valve check, then bottom end of to extract piston and replace was about £850- £900 nostes. Made me wince but i figured in the long run cheaper than a catastrophic failure. Took triumph a little while to supply all the big end shells of varying sizes in order to match the correct one for con rod. It certainly makes me wonder about quality control on castings etc with two engines having same failure at relatively low mileage on not particularly high stressed motors. Be interested to hear if anyone else has had the same problem.

[ghostbiker955i]

Well time for an update.

Motor is compleatly striped apart and at least the problem has been found. my biggest worry was striping it to bits and not finding the problem.



Now my knowlage of internals isnt the best so i may name some parts wrong :) but here goes....



The pin/tube that holds the piston to the rod has worn badly on 1 and noticably on the other 2. theres a slight blue/brown discoloration on the pins to.

the pins are abput £6 each so nice and cheap but by god the full gaskit set aint friggin cheap.

Once the new pins arive we will see if the rods need seeing to as well. if they do there seems to be 2 options. replace at £60ish each or bore them out to make them round, then plate and rebore to fit. now im not sure if this is ok to do, but trying to find out within a few days.



Anyone have anythoughts at what else to change while its all in bits? everything else seems to check out 100% to specs so far.

[Stretch]

Worn-out piston pins?



Geez, you don't hear of that one very often.  I wonder if a batch of pins missed out on heat-treatment...



Like our brake rotors.

[ghostbiker955i]

Update again (sorry but need to bitch :P )



New pins came and our doubts about the rods were confiremd. There also worn, only 1 of them badly but but the other 2 to a lesser degree. the middle pin and rod are by far the worse with the gap big enough to stick a fingernail in.



So now we are looking at new pins, new rods, shells, gaskit set (OWWW thats costly) and oil.



all this on a 2 and a half year old motor? well there go's my confidence in triumph thats for sure. I was thinking about the 1050 but now i wouldnt even entertain the idea.

[geoff]

Very disappointing to hear of such major work at only 24k miles. Have you owned the bike from new? Is it possible that an earlier owner has not looked after the bike? Many engines, cars and bikes, are very fussy about the quality of oil and if someone has put oil into it that was not to spec this could explain the failure.

[ghostbiker955i]

not owned from new, but the guy before me did have all work done at main triumph dealers. even if it was a bulb blown it was main dealers.

Now he COULD have run it low on oil, but i some how doubt it, by the way he kept records he was kind of retentive :)

[JRO]

This is a bad story.  I really hate to hear things like this, but I guess bad luck has to happen to someone.  I've had good luck with my '06, 13k+ miles.  I think I'd feel about the same as you, were this to happen to me.



All I can say is, I haven't heard of many bad stories about failures on new Triumphs.  I can't blame you for thinking of switching brands, and I guess I would be looking to trade that bike off, after repairing it, but I don't think you'd have trouble like this with another Triumph.



My only advice is, that if you do change brands, remember this:

Even the Zhejiang Huatian Industrial Co. builds better bikes than BMW.