my 02 954 sounds like it needs a valve adj. It has 11,000 and some change miles. I have read a little about cam chain tensioner problems. Will the tensioner cause ticking like valves that need adj? Bucket over shims usually stay in adjustment that is why i am asking about the tensioner. Anybody have any thoughts???? Also how hard of a landing does it take to blow fork seals and how long should they last???

 

Honda doesn't recommend to adjust the valves till around 16 K miles......i got an 03 with 9500 miles making the same noise its common for the 929s and 954s...the tensioner needs to be adjusted or even replaced thats what the dealerships recommend....the chain is just slapping around which is causing the ticking noise...as for fork seals when getting comfortable on keeping the front end up stay on the throttle when bringing it down...it will be less strain on your forks

 

I have an 03 with the same or similar problem....I replaced the stock tensioner with a manual from APE and the noice is still there. I think the noise still has to do with the tensioner mechanisms the chain "slides" on. Nevertheless this is one frustrating noise to deal with.

One thing you can do to figure out if it is the valves or the cam chain tension is to start the bike and put a towel over the exhaust pipe tip completely covering the hole. The slowly rev the bike and the ticking noise should go away between 1500 and 3000 rpm if it is the cam chain tensioner. A vavle issue will keep ticking no matter how high you rev it.

Good luck and don't be too quick to jump on the manual tensioner solution as it didn't work for me!

 

y does covering the exhaust make the chain tensioner stop??...i think i have the same problem...is it easy to replace or adjust?

 

My 02 has 3K and ticks like that. I just bough it, and thought it had an exhaust leak or something?

 

Actually your gonna get a little ticking from your bike, it's a trade-mark of honda.........had me worried the first time I heard the ticking so I took it to the dealer and they told me it is totally normal. The valve adjustment is at 24000 km's .......You can eliminate this ticking if you start your bike and let it warm up to 80 Celsius before you start riding

 

Also just for some info, nothing destroys a Honda tensioner guides faster like reving the bike without a load on the motor. Do not rev it past 6k in neutral, Honda techs love to here people doing it, especially sales guys moving the bikes in and out each day.

 

My 03' has 21,000 miles on it and it too has a lot of noise from the top of the motor.

I have seviced this thing regularly: 500, 5,000, 8,000, 12,000, 15,000 (3 times cause it's a good service) and 18,000 miles. Even when I added the Power Commander, and got it Dyna-Tuned, my concerns were dismissed.

Everytime the service techs told me it's just fine. Performance wise, there is no known or felt effect.

I would say continue to have the tech insure nothing is wrong each time you service your ride.