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Yesterday i rode from crawley to hastings which is about an 1hour 30mins to get there, everything was fine until the trip returning back to crawley.
My bike startled to rattle and it just got worse and worse until i finnaly though Sh** im pulling over, the bike was rattlling from the right hand side ( if your sitting on the bike) and there was a fair bit of smoke that was coming out of the breather pipe near my rear brake rearset, it also smelled of oil/ petrol

any ideas? :/

Also the noise sounded like a loose chain hitting something, that kind of rattle noise, ive tried holding in the clutch to see if it goes away but it still stays there

You say it sounds like a chain rattling and its right hand side sounds to me like your camchain

+1 for cam chain.

get it sorted, dont ride it until it is done.

CaNsA wrote:+1 for cam chain.

get it sorted, dont ride it until it is done.

What parts will i need just the camchain?

Cam chain and a gasket/gaskets

dont get a chain with a split link/soft link.
get an endless one.

CaNsA wrote:Cam chain and a gasket/gaskets

dont get a chain with a split link/soft link.
get an endless one.

can you send me a link to these from ebay or a suppliers many thanks mate!

The ONLY camchain worth buying is a genuine Kawasaki one available from any Kawasaki dealer..............or better still phone Cradley Kawasaki they will have one and it will arrive next day along with any other parts you may need.

Give the noise you describe I'd imagine there might just be some considerable damage in there........................

I wouldnt even start it, it might be worth getting a garage to do the work

Buggar the garage.. if your even semi-confident with a spanner changing the cam-chain is straight-forward.

Many people often do the head-gasket at the same time. It isn't a must though.

However, if the cam-chain guide has snapped, which can happen and will cause the cam-chain to rattle around then youll need to get the head off to change it, which will require a new gasket.

first things first though... bike on the side-stand, take the right hand lower fairing panel off and remove the pulsar cover... small little cover with 6 ish 8mm head M6 bolts in there.

You will see the cam-chain and the cam-chain tensioner, pictures posted here will help but try moving the chain and see how much slack is in it.

assuming it is the cam-chain you have 3 possible failure points.

- cam-chain tensioner.. this bolts in under the pulsar cover and keeps tension on the cam-chain guide that tensions the cam-chain, can fail.
- cam-chain guide.. this can snap and loose the slack off the cam-chain
- cam-chain.. this can stretch over time and become loose... not as likely as the others as slack is taken up by chain tesnioner.

Since it was sudden id say somethign has broke suddenly.

Checking the cam-chain is first job, see what it looks like and if theres oodles of slack and go from there.. plenty of people to help on here.

for the sake of removing the fairing panel and 6 bolts id start there before considering a garage

Ho Hum here we go again.

You do NOT need to remove the cylinder head to change or replace cam chain tensioner blades or guides.

I think im going to do a whole re vamp of the engine including shims, head gasket, cam chain , tensioner, re balance my carbs and check valve clearances... hopefully she will be running sweet after that... well it better! lol

just started down that road myself, due to blown hg (doing cam chain whilst i'm in there). Total came to £55 or so from Cradely (with club discount for paid up members) for hg and ca, chain. Decided to drop the engine, since it's filthy, and am glad i did, there's plenty of issues I wasn't aware of. Missing bolt off oil cooler pipe, oil cooler itself flaking apart, exhaust down pipes similrly flaky. All in all i'm wondering if it's even worth putting it all back together! But glad i've seen al the problems now.

And depending on what damage you find when you open it all up you might want to consider flushing the engine. If there's been some broken bits etc you might have a bit of swarf circulating round in your oil.

Definitely worth saying for future reference that if a 'wrong' mechanical rattle suddenly starts in an engine rather than keep going and keep an eye on it, stop and turn it off. Get recovered (presuming you have recovery cover). You don't want to be doing more damage than what's already happened.

Tirpitz wrote:And depending on what damage you find when you open it all up you might want to consider flushing the engine. If there's been some broken bits etc you might have a bit of swarf circulating round in your oil.

Definitely worth saying for future reference that if a 'wrong' mechanical rattle suddenly starts in an engine rather than keep going and keep an eye on it, stop and turn it off. Get recovered (presuming you have recovery cover). You don't want to be doing more damage than what's already happened.

Exactly what i did mate, had to wait 5 hours for recovery as a bank holiday... how shitte is that lol...