Once my bike it warmed up, at Idle there is a tick tick tick tick, but only at Idle, I seen where someone said their SH has 50,000miles on it and hasnt need a valve adjustment. My niose seems to be comming from the front valve cover, it just faint enough to hear. I read some of the other post and it sounds like everyone is saying CCT (is this a chain tensioner) Also is there a Do It Yourself Thread for adjusting the valves, My SH has almost 14k on it

 

Use a real mechanic's stethiscope to find where the sound is coming from. The shadetree mechanic's stethiscope is a screwdriver to the ear (handle, not the pointy end )

Make sure you know what the problem is before attacking it.

 

Check for an exhaust leak first. Check the torque on the flange nuts for the front header. If the bike is new to you and the flange nuts are loose you might want to replace the crush washers between the block and the pipe. They're cheap. If tightening the nuts does not work, I would pull the crush washer and check it for cracks or breaks that are leaking. If you find nothing then I would go for the valves. Your mileage is not high enough for the valve-train to be in question if your bike has had normal use and care.

 

Are they bad for the crush washers to leak? And I will take it down to my buddies shop tommorrow if its nice, he has a Electronic ear

 

If they're leaking they will eventually burn through. Takes a while but not a good thing.

 

when the bike is warm the carbs on these bikes make a clacking sound from the large slides but do listen with a stethiscope to be sure where the sound is coming from!

 

The slides only make that sound at part throttle, not at idle.

 

Ok, I am about to adjust the valves on the SH, the ticking is comming from the front valve cover, what do I line up to make TDC? whats the clearance susposed to be?

 

You really should get a shop manual for the bike, it will be very helpful. I think I saw one on ebay now in fact and you can almost always get the cd version very cheap though not as convenient. But here is an outline.

clearances (cold engine)
Intake: 0.16 +/- 0.03mm
exhaust: 0.31 +/- 0.03mm

Open crankshaft hole (left engine) and timing cap (left engine). Rotate always counterclockwise. Line up FT mark on crank with index mark on left crank cover. Verify that the FI and FE marks on the front cylinder sprockets are line up with cylinder facing outward (both intake and exhaust). If lining up inward just rotate crank another 360 (always counterclockwise) and line up the FT mark. Check and note clearances.

Now rotate 270 degrees the crank and the rear cylinder should similarly line up the sprocket marks and check those.

NOTES: IF they are out of adjustment you have to remove the cams to adjust and that you really shoould get the manual for. With any luck you can move shims around to cover the gaps - honda charges a fortune per shim I think. Do not remove or unwind the cam chain tensioners are the cam chain cover on the head for this.

bill

 

Download the manual HERE

 

now that is cool, and handy

 

Ok I noticed that you and the manual say turn 270 deg.... In my head I thinking WTF?
why not 360... If its a 4 cycle and 2 cylenders, the crank makes 2 revolutions for every full cycle meaning that the cams make one revolution, so 360 for each valve adjustment

But maybe I am just V-twin ignort along with my spelling disability... are all the V-twins this way

 

I know. it makes my head hurt thinking about it. But the crank configuration and TDC of each piston and timing can be oriented any way the designers choose, not confined by cylinder number or engine design (like all those big bang, etc engine firing orders they talk about for GP). Remember too that in the V engine, the intakes sides both face the inside of the engine: so each cylinder/head is rotated 180 degrees relative to a inline engine. And when the crank is rotating counterclockwise then the front cylinder cam chain is traveling from intake to exhaust on the top, but on the rear head its exhaust to intake on top. So its just not a real obvious 1:1 relationship. There is probably a much simpler way of explaining it, or just stare at it when you have both valve covers off and the timing marks there and rotate the engine, that helps a lot.

 

Maybe I am just imagining it all wrong,
This is how I am thinking each cyclender when at its own TDC and its firing stroke the cam lobs / \ meaning the intake just closed and the exhaust its about to open, and for the v-twin the run smoth instead of a missing 3 cylender both pistons would come up at the same time, one on fireing stoke, still suggesting 360
but evidently I am way off