Posted by Ed Denhoff on July 12, 2002 at 19:13:17:
I’ve got a strange sound on my ’02 Savage that I first noticed around 400 miles & wondered if anyone else has experienced it.
It’s a tinkle sound (for lack of a better word) which I first thought was just a pebble thrown from my tire bouncing around under the fender – it’s that tinny tinkling kind of thing.
It only appears when I’m, say, in a level 30mph zone & the bike’s engine is more or less not working much – just sort of slowly cruising along with no load on the engine to speak of. I can make it stop immediately by closing the throttle or by putting a load on it.
It doesn’t occur at idle, nor when cruising at speed (at least I can’t hear it then). Strangely enough I first noticed it around the time I installed saddle bags, but I did get the supports & everything is tied down & clear (nothing rubbing or rattling around in the bags) so that may be a coincidence. Besides, the sound seems to be coming from the engine area and is speed/load specific.
The bike has around 1100 miles on it now, runs like a charm, and has had all scheduled maintenance. Valves are fine & it’s not that kind of a noise anyway. It’s almost like there’s some little thing rattling around in the muffler casing, and the fact that it happens only when the engine (backpressure?) is at a certain point may be a clue. I suspect if I could pick up the bike and shake it around some little piece of something would fall out.
Anyone have any ideas?