Evening all,
I’m after a little sanity check.
My new to me bike has developed a bit of a knock, but it doesn’t seem to be directly engine related. It occurs under throttle openings but also occasional knocks on the overrun too (about in time with the exhaust pops)
I've tested for potential pinking by running on the choke (just about manageable) and I know the clutch makes noise until disengaged.
I decided to get a new header gasket and orings to try the cheap obvious fix first before tearing into the engine. And as I stripped away the mud deflector noticed the header looked like this.
Removed the exhaust and cleaned the header (clamp straightened in the vice) and decided against changing the gasket as the current one is not compressed to nothing as I expected.
Refitting the header, the same thing happened - the header is definitely sitting square and central but I assume the header isn’t dropping into the gasket.
tried to pop out the old gasket and it was having none of it… how difficult should they be to come out? I didn’t try too hard for fear of damaging something but my plan is to try and collapse the gasket inwards to shrink the diameter.
The good news is refitted clean and with new orings in the slip joint, the knock has gone, but I’d like to know whether I need to sort the cylinder joint or not…