Strange Whirring sound??
 

Hi all,

I haven't posted here before but I've been around reading quite a lot.

I have a strange whirring or whining sound coming from the engine of my 04 model. As far as I can tell it seems to be coming from the bottom end. It seems to be matched directly to engine revs, right from idle to redline. It has done it for the 10, 000 thousand km (sorry, I'm from Australia) I have owned the bike. It's a little difficult to tell but I think the noise might be getting loader. It is quite load and I'm a little worried I'm going to be a long way from home when something major gives up and leaves me stranded.

Any wise old sage have any insights on what could be the problem and potential fixes??

Does it make the sound when revving at idle? Or only when moving at speed?

Miguel

It makes the sound both moving and just idling away in neutral. Doesn't make any difference with clutch in or out either.

I think the bike has been dropped at some stage if this helps?

stick your ear on the clutch cover......youll find the source.
quite normal for this bike.

I kinda like it.:rolleyes:

It's the beautiful sound of straight-cut primary drive gears. It is the gear on the crankhaft, that drives the transmission countershaft.

This is all quite reassuring. The owner of my local honda dealer pointed it out to me and said that it was different to other VTR's he had heard. It is a very small shop so I wouldn't exactly call him an expert.

It's sounding to me like this is a fairly normal sound for the bike to make only mine seems to be a little louder that others. It's not an unpleasnt sound, particuarly with the meaty exhaust.

My next problem is to sort out some missalignment issues with the front forks. When I ride along in a staight line the top clamp seems to be a little to the right. This is confirmed when I turn the bar all the way to the right and the bar is alot closer to the tank than on the other side.

I'm really hoping that this is a fork issue and not a frame one. It could be a good reason to do a usd fork swap.

Has anyone had similar missalignment issues? Any tips on tracking down the source of the problem?

Are you sure it's not just your clip-on? ;)

And if you're concerned just re-align the whole front end; it only entails getting the front fairing off and then kinda jiggering everything around and double checking with a straight guide.

However, if you've got the means, go for a USD and make me jealous.

btw, welcome!

unfortunatly I think I have rulled out the clipon as the LH side touches the fairing at full right look telling me that the whole top clamp is off to the right.

Re-align the front end you say. I guess I could give that a go.

I'll have a look at this tonight. I'll take the fairing off and the front wheel then undo the top and bottom clamp bolts. I'll then line the axle up with a straight edge across the top of the forks and tighten everything again.

That should get things a little closer perhaps.

Does anyone have a method of doing this that they have had any success with?

I'll take some photos of the problem and report on how I will have managed to make them worse... ;)

To reset the forks,
First loosen the center bolt on the upper triple clamp and also loosen the pinch bolts for the forks and clip-ons.

Wiggle everything around a bit and then tighten the fork pinch bolts.

Torque the center bolt on the triple. then loosen and re-torque the pinch bolts on the clamp.

Set the clip-ons and you should be good.

Now if this doesn't fix the issue the next step is to re-torque the engine.

If the bike has ever been crashed, the engine could have shifted and as it is a stressed member of the frame on this bike, it could cause the problem you describe.

It does take "special" tools to do the job so you can either see if someone local has some you might borrow or some have made their own.

Either way, you would loosen the engine mounting bolts. Usually you will hear a loud "pop" went frame moves back into proper position as you loosen the front bolt if this is the problem....;)

And then just follow the sets in the service manual for mounting the engine and you should be good.

I really love the amount of knowledge and good advice available on here.

Thanks everyone for being so helpful. I'm only a spring chicken so I've never attempted alot of this kind of stuff before. It is very helpful to be given some good direction.

As it stands at the moment I have my bike setup in the shed without any fairings or instruments etc. I have a long strait edge across the fork tubes above the top clamp and another low down near the wheel. These seem to be not quite parallel so I think I will start to find the missalignment there.

If this doesn't recifiy things I will have a look at the engine bolts as I know from the marks where the frame sliders would attach that the bike has been dropped at some stage. I'm pretty sure a have a PDF or the manual somewhere so I will search this for the right proceedure and torque settings. I might have to make a tool myself though as I'm from country NSW in Australia and I doubt there would be any friendly superhawk members with one out my way.

VTR1000F Honda Service Manual OCR.pdf

Removed restrictions and OCR'd the Honda VTR service manual so the PDF is text searchable. (Acrobat Reader 7.00+ required)

Regarding the sound, the primary gears have a quietening gear, where the crankshaft primary (driver) gear has two gears which mesh with the larger gear behind the clutch (driven).
They are sprung together, with the thinner outer one pushed with three springs so that it essentially grips the teeth of the driven gear between the two meshed gears.
If I haven't lost you so far, it is easy to misalign the outer, thinner meshing gear when replacing the ignition sprocket, especially when fitting an ignition advancer, or removing the clutch basket . .

The little springs jump out of their seats, and then the quietening gear doesn't quieten.

Thanks VTaRse. From your description I'd be betting that is what has happened to mine. It doesnt sound half as bad now that I know what it is and don't have the thought of something catastrophically failing 1500km from home in the back of my mind...

Oh and thanks for the manual Wicky.

Just thinking about doing those motor bolts a little bit and doing some more reading. It has been suggested that playing around with the motor bolts could cause more missalignment problems than it would solve as some who have done this before and had their bikes lasered have measured some missalignment even after doing it to the manual.

Has anyone had any experience with this?

I've had no personal measurements, but had to set the bolts a few times, so here's my 2c:

1) If the bolts weren't installed correctly (someone just bolted the frame in b/c there's only 4 of them and how hard could it be, right?), then re-setting the bolts will fix the alignment. In this case it was torqued out of spec and twisted, causing misalignment.

2) If the frame is bent, torquing the bolts in the correct order MAY fix it. I think I read one or two instance where a wreck messed up the alignment, but re-setting the bolts correctly actually fixed this problem.

If your frame is bent (and not just set incorrectly) it is likely that re-setting the bolts won't fix the problem. But if you do it properly, it won't hurt anything either. You'll just have a frame that's still bent. If you can get ahold of the correct tool, the whole process should only take you 30 min, and I'm accounting for reading the manual and torque specs and it being your first time with the process.

I know this thread is pretty old but I've just gotten around to checking out the quietening gear as disscussed by VTaRse is his post.
I pulled the clutch cover off and had a quick look and all the springs apear to be in place although I didn't take the bolt in the end of the shaft off and remove the quietening gear to see in great detail for fear that I might create a problem where none exists.

Does anyone have any experience as to what iI'm up against? Do I have to take off the quietening gear to see if the springs are in correctly?

If the quieting gear was malfunctioning then most likely you'd have a rattle, not a whir.

Also, if you have aftermarket manual chain tensioners and they are adjusted too tightly, that could cause a sound like that.

Thanks Greg, I checked the little quietening gear last night and it is not the cause of the problem.

I have the automatic CCTs which are only a few months old so I don't think it is those either.

Could it be a worn gear on the lay shaft somewhere or maybe the trust bearing in the clutch?

Just curious, how many miles have you put on the bike since this thread started? Also, have you heard other VTRs run (real not video)?

Sewing machine? I don't think so.

It's the "Supercharger whir"

jonny, can you upload any video? Here is mine:
clicky

I think that's what mine sounded like when the new cct's were a bit tight. I readjusted while idling.

That's what mine has sounded like since the day I bought it (even w/oe cct's).

Thanks for all the feedback. I'll upload a video when I put some oil back in it. It has the honda auto cct's so I don't think it's not overtight manual cct's.

Does anyone have any tips on bleading the cooling system after a coolant change?

bringing up an old thread.

i hate the whirring sound. it really irritates me. i have had other hondas do the same thing. friends have had other hondas do it too.

is there a way to get rid of it?

No.

This is the noise ^^^