Mechanical ive got a small whiring sound from engine.

[little bill]

well anyone out there can help me locate,a whiring sound on my 1994 fatboy,i thought cam bearing,but spoke to urral,s this morning early and they recon my year did not have the crap bearings,its a whiring that sounds like it should almost be there but it wasnt there about 2 weeks ago,and with gentle riding it dosent seem to be getting worse, but you here such stories,can any one give advise or have had the same noise before,hard to work out what side of engine its comeing from,but sounds like cam,ish area,the motor has about 26,ooo miles to its name.

[wizhard]

can't help with what it might be , but put a screwdriver to your ear and put the tip of it on the engine, should help with area sound is coming from.
Mike

[Tony G]

i've got the same sound from mine too, i just put a second hand cam in so i checked the bearing and it felt good !! it's had this noise since i've had the bike and hasnt got any worse ? it's a 1991 evo by the way.

[Chris L]

I think we need to clarify what year bikes had this 'dodgy' cam bearing,as I spoke to Big Al today who reckons a 94 could well be a duffen'....also spoke to guy in Foundry who says if it does go...its a megabuck job..Always better to get various opinions...and prevention is better than cure...(cheaper too).

[dpb-RK]

Megabucks ? The bearing is just a few squids.........the tool to get out the old one and push in the new one is a virtual free borrow from the club and is a pleasure to use. With help if needed from the techies on here and blow by blow routine here NIGHTRIDER.com - Motorcycle Performance Information dare I say it's a doddle......well, mine was, I have only moderate mechanical skills. The bearing you need is a Torrington B138.

All the best..........

By the way the indication I had was a 'quite loud' whirring that increased and decreased along with the engine revs.

[Limey_Dave]

Originally Posted by dpb-RK

Megabucks ? The bearing is just a few squids.........the tool to get out the old one and push in the new one is a virtual free borrow from the club and is a pleasure to use. With help if needed from the techies on here and blow by blow routine here NIGHTRIDER.com - Motorcycle Performance Information dare I say it's a doddle......well, mine was, I have only moderate mechanical skills. The bearing you need is a Torrington B138.

All the best..........

By the way the indication I had was a 'quite loud' whirring that increased and decreased along with the engine revs.

It can be megbucks if the bearing breaks up and the bits go walkabout.
Nosey buggers,bearing parts,they have a look in everywhere.

[dpb-RK]

Indeed, it is potentially, a total f£$% up....

[kiwidave]

Not sure who ''Urrals'' is Bill, but you might want to update them on Evo- era known issues!

The MoCo swapped out the Torrington bearing for an INA in around 1992. So your bike may well have the poorer bearing. Apparently its fewer needle rollers made it more forgiving if misaligned. But on the downside, the INA offers less support. And if you shove an aftermarket cam alongside that INA, it is especially exposed to the likelihood of bearing failure, and possible engine damage.

Does it still have the stock cam?

Have a look at any camshaft manufacturer website. There is a very good reason why they state ''must fit Torrington bearing with this cam if bike is INA equipped''. Some camshafts actually came with a Torrington in the packaging.

Some Shovels had the weaker INA bearing fitted too in what I can only guess was an earlier experiment ? In January I was a victim of previous owner dumb-ass stupidity. He had fitted a Crane cam but had failed to spot an INA bearing....and it grenaded on ME.

Cam bearing failure is really costly. It freaking well HURTS!!

So you can see its a Torrington B138 in there? Then another thing to look for is potential failure of the tappet roller bearings. Pull the tappet assemblies out. The rollers can play side-to-side a bit, that is fine, but if you detect any up-and-down play or roughness as with any bearing, it is VERY wise to replace.

You can actually buy top-quality Jims rollers by themselves and swap them out, no need to shell out for the whole tappet assembly.

At times like this i am thankful for adjustable pushrods which means I can check all this without having to remove (potentially) gas tanks, rocker boxes, etc.... just another thought.

If the noise gets worse....you really should stop riding until it is sorted.

Before your next ride, i.e. today, might be a good idea to pull the tappet oil screen and check there is no debris in it. Easy job for temporary peace of mind.

By the way, ''whirring'' is common occurrence if camshaft and pinion gear are a little too tight. But this is the kind of noise that, far as I know, would start from a new-set-up, it's not a ''wear'' issue. You would hear that whirr from the moment a new pinion gear was fitted. I had a too-tight pinion gear on my shovel as a result of previous owner/maintenance....I alerted my bottom-end rebuilder to this during his repair work to my breather housing...and he very carefully pissed about with different sizings and now my Shovel just growls without a whirr.

Good luck.

[little bill]

well thanks for all the good advice,tools on order from andy in the tool section,bearing,on order,i,ll let you know how i get on

[little bill]

the storey so far,with the aid of 2 mates,we removed,old cam,cam end worn in about 1/2 a mill on bearing end and bearing badley fucked and warn but still complete cam bearing,
the cam that we had spare looks more severe,in its eggs, where as on the cam removed from the bike,the eggs look like a fat oval egg,there are no markings on the spare cam,but my cam out of the bike have this stamped into it.
on cog face #0em0400g

on cam band behind cog is stamped 66 0406 SEH-1 if someone knows what these marks mean,and can a standard cam replace this unit.

thanks for listening,gutted from westgate.