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I havent riden my bike properly for about a month but ive been starting it up and keeping it turned over twice a week. i went to it today and i started it up and it made a reali loud rattle as if there was a piece of metal hittin againt a case or something. its never done it before though just all of a sudden today. The revs seemed alot lower aswel and everytime i tried to pull of it felt as if it needed choke when usually it doesnt????

Any ideas???

something's broken .. in a nasty kinda way .. i wouldn't be riding it till i knew what, for fear of causing further damage

camchain guide ?
rocker arm ?
camchain tensioner ?

thats not what i wanted to hear!! im gna book it into the kawasaki dealer over here (isle of man) and hope that its not gna cost loads and can be fixed easly enough nd it will b out on the roads soon enuf!!

sounds like cam chain / tensioner is the miles round the 18k mark

How do you check/replace the cam chain tensioner? is it a big job?

mine is over 18,000 miles just now, although its an import and has km clock but got the convertor to mph. so its anybodys guess what the right mileage is.

Cheers, Graham

i got quoted a good 500 pound for the cam chain and tensioner doing from a kwak dealer.

you can tell if its the cam chain get the bike warm to make sure you can rev it abit with out damaging the engine. now rev it high and shut the throttle off straight away if you hear it like whipping type of sounds then the cam chain or tensioner is the problem. I had a bike with a tappy engine and it turned out to be the rocker arm the cam had worn it away a bit get the engine going and try and listen where the noise is coming from. my rocker was the top left of the engine.

Just had a similar problem with mine. it was the guide that had gone. cost £200 to fix at local shop. that was for new tensioner guide and all that malarky. worked fine for a week but now i have all new fuel problems. oh well....

if it happens only up to abour 3000 revs then check the starter clutch in the left engine casing, though loctotoed the bolts in these sometimes come loose, you can either tighten them up and put some fresh treadlock on or just junk it and make her push start only. worth checking as if this is the problem it is a very cheap fix.

more than likely either clutch rattle or camchain/tensioner

camchain/headgasket/tensioner is a really easy job to do, cost me 45-50quid to do myself

if you need any help just ask

wow. i did my own camchain and tensioner. ( and mostly everything else ) cos im too tight to pay lol. in all seriousness its not that hard a job. there are manuals on this site to assist you. a mechanical knowledge is needed tho.