I noticed a high pitch whine coming off the right side of the engine last night every time I pulled in the clutch while in neutral. At first I thought it was just the tank venting but this is a higher pitch sound than that. Anyone else had this? I'm betting it's the pushrod needle bearing in the clutch pressure plate.

92046 is the needle bearing, what else could it be?

* Last updated by: Kruz on 4/1/2010 @ 7:09 AM *

92046A?

13095: Right where they draw that line for the part number, you want to pull the oil cap, run a scribe with the "L" hook under the clutch outer. DO NOT PULL A TAB!! You want to pull the ring of the basket up. Pull the clutch lever as you lift that basket, and think, 92046A would be the failure needle rollers, not 92046. If you pull the clutch in, the noise should go away as, 92046 now floats without load, you with the clutch lever pulled in.

The 92046A should be a failed part and this would make noise and chatter no matter if the clutch was pulled in or not, you would know the [clutch outer] would still roll with the crank off the outer gear around the basket causing lots of noise ~ moving in and out of that gear meshing gap.

Pull the clutch in and the noise goes away is more a throttle body sync. But you are saying you have noise both at idle, running at load speeds, and idle with clutch in. I did not move the basket left or right, but see the backing plate to hold the gear on the clutch outer, with cushion springs, being, those little blocks at the back of the outer clutch basket. Now, those 3 flat looking pins can elongate at these 3=rivets. But, there are way too many people drag racing for that basket to come up in conversation about how bulletproof the clutch holds up. There is racing abuse like, every clutch leave imaginable, she holds together.

Again, you might have a gear-pulse-knock out of sync. I would first check that before I tear down unnecessary bolts and clutch nuts. Gotta remember, you want to keep that clutch gear tooth to crank tooth, meshed back in place on assembly or you risk a new noise on top of the one you are trying to solve.

Hubster, I can remember no noise at all with clutch engaged and the bike moving under a load. Pop it into neutral, clutch out and it's also dead quiet. Clutch in while in neutral = whine. High pitched whine is often a gear tooth vibration, improper back lash or mesh. These clutches ar supposed to be bullet proof under nitrous and turbocharging at the strip and it's puzzling cause I never abuse my clutch. This is the first I've heard of this particular issue...Rotella maybe?

* Last updated by: Kruz on 4/1/2010 @ 9:50 AM *

Yep, could be the oil is about due for a change. Not only that, you can cut open the filter, see if the needle bearing showed up there or it is just a straight cut wind and now the second gen has the conical angle like a rear end of say a ring and pinion pitch.

The cone type gear runs quieter. That is why they cut the ring and pinion that way. Same went for the noise reduction by running the steeper angle cuts of the updated basket. So, you would have to swap out the crank and basket as a set if you want to swap out Gen1 and a Gen2 combination.

The straight cut has a better power transfer like you see in the parts blowout of the gear in the back of the basket. The conical has a quieter mesh going for it and is quiet. But I can lug the engine and still hear that Z1 crank to basket grind if I am in the wrong gear. It has that unique Kawi clutch to basket drone you might be hearing.

To calm the nerves down, something is about to wad internally is to rip that filter pleat open, find debris and go from there.

OK thanks for the input Hub, I'll check the pleats next oil change. I'm not too worried right now though.

Anytime there, Kruz. I'm not worried either. Just for grins, when I looked at the gap from the pressure plate to the friction, I could not push the "L" part of the probe's head in between those 2 points. I would guess about 1/8" gap is the width, if I push the disc away from the pressure plate.

With the lever out, I now have the outer edge of the pressure plate even with the tang's outer edge. But after 10 plus thousand miles, she would stick out a little farther, when it was new that is. Try this next. I just took the probe's pointed end this time, dug into the pressure plate and she moves effortlessly... sans the oil drag between plates.

This tells me I have zero plate warp > Dragging the steels, as the frictions remain stationary. Then I placed the bike in 1st gear [rear wheel off the ground] and jacked the back wheel, until I could move either the gap between the clutch tangs, or the outer ring gear to the cranks mating gear. Again, this tells me, we are chasing rivet elongation, where the whole friction and steel assembly would move back and forth, the basket kind of lagging behind and not the tight, zero gap... sans now, the tang of the frictions butting up against the clutch outer's two tangs or that channel for each friction tang.

With a tight clutch outer, the friction's tangs can never move the outer basket. If we are chasing a noisy clutch system, then we can move the outer basket, because the riveted gear is going nowhere with the crank not moving. So, the probe is more a friction to steel drag issue. The static 1st gear, rock it back and forth to watch the elongation of the basket moving, or the frictions just moving in their channels, without hearing the crank move.

What is cool about the oil fill cap being off is the echo chamber noise added to the wheel movement running the chain slack up. That is one sound you have to block out, because the crank is the next sound. The crackling of the basket is another sound. You have a lot of noise to filter out and then filter in to pinpoint a certain noise at certain areas.

So, if you watch the action just with the cap off, eliminate the basket, plus the gear noise, that clutch outer is going to be so flimsy and floppy looking, you found the problem watching the basket buck back and forth on it's own. If you feed the clutch with one hand and move the back wheel with the other hand, she should look as tight as a drum and no movement; you keep collapsing clutch plates onto each other slowly and move the back wheel, [back and forth] to watch every little tolerance stay in place. Then, it is not the needle bearing. If the rear wheel's drive chain moves the basket so as not to move the crank, you'll hear the noises once you hear the moves made> Pinpointing which one? I went back to check, so this might be your guide matching moves/noises made on my end. Try it on your end, then you can forget about that noise for now.

Interesting, I did a Google search on this subject and found not one similar case. There were many where letting out the clutch would give a whining sound but absolutely none where pulling in the clutch caused the sound...weird. I'm just going to ride it, maybe it'll go away on it's own or get worse and then I can identify where it's coming from. I still think it's the clutch pushrod needle bearing Hub, just a hunch.

* Last updated by: Kruz on 4/1/2010 @ 1:58 PM *

....Rotella maybe?

Hi Steven!(he's ya another start for an "oil thread") Hope yer doin well and doing some New Year's carvin!

Hi Blue07. All well to you also. And no, I do not want to start another oil thread. We all have our own preferences and opinions. Let's respect them.

Well I've been usin Royal Purple(10/40 full syn)(It's NOT the Motorcycle Specific) now for 3000 miles on this oil go-round.She's ready for another change . This oil is performing very good-no deterioration in shifting feel as the miles have added up...and my engine is running very smooth and quiet.I do like the shifting feel from this oil.Quite smooth and noiseless.First gear shifts(from neutral)are smooth as well.Ride safe Bro-how bout some more pics of San Diego riding from ya?Enjoyed yer last ones!

* Last updated by: blue07 on 4/5/2010 @ 3:31 PM *