Ok, So Ive owned my superhawk for about 3 years now and its always made a weird valve train noise but I was told that it was probably just a small amount of noise in the valves and I shouldnt worry about it. Well heres the thing.. When the engine is cold and i take her above 3K rpms the noise comes into play and doesnt go away untill it sits at idle for a while and warms up. Well i really havent been riding her much lately because of the move to florida and school but yesterday i took her out on the highway for a well overdue drive (longest ride in year and half) and I heard a lot of ticking/clacking type noise that gets louder with RPM. So I pulled over, and started again and it went away when the engine got hot. So basically I find myself with this question? Is it the CCT or is it excessive valve clearance? Should i be worried for my ride home tomorrow?

Thanks guys!

 

A valve or valves needing adjustment usually have the ticking sound. At idle when the engine is warm is when the noise is more pronounced. I'm only guessing, but I would think a CCT going bad would make more of a grinding sound. If the engine is that noisy you should have it checked out.


Karl

 

Mine was doing exactly the same thing a couple of weeks ago, the night before a track day of all times... but it only started doing it that day, and it was really loud, so I was pretty sure it was the front cct. If you have a listen while it's parked you should be able to pinpoint the noise, it's pretty unique.Mine would also go away as the engine heated up, so obviously you need to listen with the engine cold. As far as riding it goes, there's no way of telling when it will let go completely, so there's always a chance you'll be sitting on the side of the road with bent valves and regrets. That said, if it hasn't gotten any worse and it does go away completely when warm then you could probably nurse it home. IMO. Probably.Nervously.But definitely change your cct's ASAP, not very hard to do and way easier than a rebuild. Good luck.

 

Alright, Well thats the plan then. I have the service manual at home but I dont have it with me. Is the procedure on how to replace them in the manual? Also are there any other tools that I will need to replace the CCTs. I priced them out at the local honda shop and they wanted $85 a piece for them. Any other good places I should look at picking up a set?

Thanks guys!

 

99
With the engine running take a Long screw driver (or metal rod) and put it up against the base of the front CCT and your ear - then do the same on the valve cover ... You should tell easily if the "ticking/clacking type noise" is from the top end only or the chain.
In any case replace those CCts with some APEs anyway - worth the peace of mind.

edit:
You can get APEs for $52ea here: http://cbrzone.com/sprockets.html
$45 Here ..Maybe less elsewhere?? If you use Honda CCTs you'll spend more $$ and still have the CCT black cloud hanging over you.

 

Just don't bother with Honda's rubbish, they don't deserve another cent spent in that direction... The only conclusion I can draw when I look at the design of their CCTs is that it was done deliberately to make money on engine rebuilds.

Definately go with APE tensioners... I ended up {being in Australia and unable to source the APEs quickly...} buying cuphead bolts and tapping the body of the CCTs and making my own. They have worked great. As soon as I hear a noise I know they need adjustment and I simply wind in the bolt. I've only had to do this twice on each CCT in the last 12 months.

Do it as quickly as possible as there is NO WARNING when yours will go. If you absolutely have to ride the bike in the very short term be smooth with the throttle and don't blip it and alter the revs abruptly.

I don't know why people blip the throttle anyway. When I sit at the lights I don't crawl forward or touch the throttle until the light goes green.

 

Alright. Well I am starting to get worried now but on my ride home tomorrow I will ease the throttle and take the back roads back to Orlando. I bought new oil and filter and will be buying the new CCTs on monday. Now is the part that I try and figure out which set is the best. OEM or APE? Are the auto tensioned units better than OEM? And if so do they have the steps to tension on installation?

Thanks!

 

The OEM units ARE auto-tensioning. The APE units are manual.

There's lots of CCT related posts you can refer back to. People have different techniques to set the tension on the manual APEs. If you look back at this previous post you can see what method I use.

 

Don't forget to buy new gaskets from Honda - about $1 apiece.

 

Cool! Well I will be ordering the APE tensioners tomorrow and hopefully have the bike up and running again in no time! The ride back home was a little long because of the rain but everything went well.

Also, so the tensioners are basically the only thing that goes bad right? What about the actual timing chain slider? Do those go bad often?

Thanks Guys!

And I wont forget about the gaskets either :-)

 

I sell springs so you can recon your old ones, you prob seen my posts

later

dave

 

Generally, a noise that only happens on a cold engine (and goes away when it warms up) is not a problem.

 

Any noise at any teperature should be addressed and reserched.