My brother in law traded his 750 Handa for a 03 1500 vulcan nomad and it sounds like the motor is knocking, but they told him in was the valves and that they all sound like that. If you know anything about them please let me know thanks

 

I cant remember which yr of 1500's it was BUT they had a prob with the gear driven oil pump. It was a plastic gear and we all know what happens with plastic gears meshed with a metal one. The gear would fail, causing loss of oil pressure and if not caught in time, will blow her up. Kawi was still replacing the oil pump under warranty but i think they quite doin it last yr sad to say. If the previous owner wasnt watchin the oil light, might have been too late. The valves would be a clattering noise usually. I belive those are hydraulic valves so no adjusting.

 

wow bng, did not know of the plastic gear. But good to know.

Check the oil pressure and record it. There are guides that support the oil pump chain as well that may cause you some noise as well as bad CCT (camshaft chain tensioner) adjustment.

 

We've done a few of those gears under warranty and these were old bikes well out of the warranty dates. BUT kawi stood by this prob. Some would do it, others wouldnt. Prob depends on the condition of the oil and if you overheat it or somethin. Other than that, the Vulcans are great bikes. I would love to own one. We just got in a deep purple custom 900 and the new 900 classic is sweet with the two tone paint AND whitewalls! Very hot. I would rather have a 900 LT which is the fully dressed model with windshield, saddle bags and sissy bar. I think I would look dumb on a 1700 haha. Im too skinny haha.

 

hey the URL is not opening to me.

 

Two possibilities other than the oil gear.

The early 1500s had a sort of knocking caused by the pistons rocking when going over TDC. Back then Kawasaki did some goodwill warranties to put in Nomad pistons if the customers really complained a lot. The difference was the Nomad piston had the wrist pins slightly offset, minimizing the clicking. Kawasaki did a similar trick on the old Z1s back in the 70s. The noise is no big deal though. I will say I got my big bore piston for my KLX courtesy of a warranty set of pistons taken out of a Vulcan. It's done over 30,000 miles in my KLX, punching out the displacement to 678cc. If it's piston rocking, don't be too concerned.

The other issue, if the noise is coming from the cam drive sides of the cylinders is the cam chain tensioners. They run out of adjustment and possibly have failed mechanisms. I've sold a set of manual tensioners for Vulcan 1500s before, they're the same as the one in my Zephyr. The manual tensioner set up will be the last set of tensioners you will ever need. They are pretty much bullet proof as long as the locking nut is tight. The adjustments are far between when cam chains are seated in. I have that same 30,000 miles running the manual cam chain tensioner in the KLX with only 4 adjustments in that time aftger starting with new cam chains (as well as over 10,000 miles on the Zephyr with no adjustment so far). The manual units are pretty much the hot ticket for certainty of adjustment. PM or email me if you find you would need a set.

By the way, here is what a failed ratchet tensioner will look like, the caption says it all:



Here's the replacement:



It takes one for each cylinder.

If you have any questions about the part, just do a search in this forum. Another member, TNC, and I developed a tensioner for the KLX250 and a bunch of riders here are running Krieger Cam Chain tensioners.