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Posted by davidi
- May 13, 2014, 19:24:53 PMHi,
I am in Sydney Australia and I have owned my 1999 1500 drifter since new. It's a great bike and I love it. It's starting to show some age but there is nothing else I would want to ride. It gets so many comments and looks and it's a fast and powerful bike to ride.
Anyway unfortunately, my motor seems to have an top end issue. It had the usual ticking after about 70,000 km so I replaced the timing chain tensioners with extenders which fixed that. Soon after that it started to make a ticking noise (tappets or chain again ?) but this time along with that the whole valve train was very loud, as if there was no oil getting to it. It also lost power. This came for about a week or two and when away for a similar period. It did this a few times but is now back permanently. Not sure if this has anything to do with it but I noticed that due to the lose timing chain, the spark plug tunnel is worn through and I have oil leaking into it. My local mechanic said he wasn't sure what the problem was but the top end will need rebuilding which will cost at least $2,000. He advised that because the engine has done 83,000 km (about 50K miles), it wasn't worth doing the top end only. He advise to find a lower use second hand motor and swap it out. Unfortunately, they only sold about 6 1500 Drifters in Australia so I've go no chance of finding an exact replacement. Does any one know exactly which motors can be used from other Vulcans and years to swap in without major rework. Maybe even 1600 or other sizes from latest year bikes ?? I will try to find something here in Aus or maybe import a motor from overseas.
Here is a link to the way it sounded when it was running well... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRE0bbkUJZ8
Here is a link now (it actually sounds worse in real life than in this video)... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnQJL_C9kE8
thanks in advance.
Dave