Light rattle in gearbox when pushing my bike.

[Walterg]

Hi all,
Yesterday I noticed that when I have the bike in gear without the engine running and hold in the clutch lever and push the bike back and forth a bit, a slight rattling noise can be heard coming from the gearbox. It's very hard to hear where exactly it the sound is actually coming from. 
Any ideas or suggestions? 
It's a V11 Le Mans from 2003.

[Weegie]

Clutch plates rattling?

If so absolutely nothing to worry about.

Ducatis clutches are pretty noisy, but they use many more plates

 

[docc]

We are all accustomed to the clutch plate rattle changing with the lever in versus out, but I've never held in my clutch lever and rolled the bike listening for noise.

This would have me inspecting the driveshaft yokes and U-joints . . .

[Walterg]

Yeah. I noticed the sound when I pushed the bike into the garage. I had left it in gear when I came home so I grabbed the clutch en thus noticed the sound. The drive shaft is fine. I can hear the sound coming from inside the gearbox.

[Walterg]

In the mean time I started taking the bike apart and the next step is to inbolt tje rear part of the gearbox. Do you wise men have any tips or links on how to do this?

[docc]

6 minutes ago, Walterg said:

In the mean time I started taking the bike apart and the next step is to inbolt tje rear part of the gearbox. Do you wise men have any tips or links on how to do this?

@Scud posted a tutorial of this, IIRC . . .

Maybe start your inspection by peering in through with the shift plate removed from the left side of the gearbox?

[docc]

I found this thread by @Bjorn from several years ago. Sadly, many of the image links have gone dead:

 

[docc]

And here is the Scud thread I was thinking of:

 

[Walterg]

Thanks Docc.
A good tip and great links!
I replaced the spring in the gearbox a couple of years ago and that's a good place to start the search.

 

[po18guy]

Before doing something drastic, why not roll it back and forth clutch out. Same noise? Potential problem. No noise? No problem.

Consider the racket that the clutch makes running, disengaged, in either neutral or in gear. Have a friend de-clutch the running bike while you listen from beside the transmission. A side effect of the design is that the clutch is noisy.  If shifting and power transmission are otherwise fine, I do not immediately see any need to dismantle things. But, I am not there. 

[docc]

12 minutes ago, po18guy said:

Before doing something drastic, why not roll it back and forth clutch out. Same noise? Potential problem. No noise? No problem.

Consider the racket that the clutch makes running, disengaged, in either neutral or in gear. Have a friend de-clutch the running bike while you listen from beside the transmission. A side effect of the design is that the clutch is noisy.  If shifting and power transmission are otherwise fine, I do not immediately see any need to dismantle things. But, I am not there. 

It is notable that when the clutch is disengaged on the common V11, there are two friction plates and a steel intermediate plate free to rattle around.

[Lucky Phil]

9 hours ago, Walterg said:

Hi all,
Yesterday I noticed that when I have the bike in gear without the engine running and hold in the clutch lever and push the bike back and forth a bit, a slight rattling noise can be heard coming from the gearbox. It's very hard to hear where exactly it the sound is actually coming from. 
Any ideas or suggestions? 
It's a V11 Le Mans from 2003.

I'd be more amazed if there wasn't a "slight rattling noise" I suggest you fit and oil pressure and oil temperature gauge to the bike before you do anything else.

 

Phil

[docc]

I suppose I always roll my V11 in neutral. Rolled in gear with the clutch disengaged (lever in), the gearbox input hub will be jangling the two friction discs plus the intermediate.

As @po18guy suggested, why not roll it in neutral without pulling the clutch lever, @Walterg ?

"No noise? No problem."

[Weegie]

10 hours ago, Lucky Phil said:

I'd be more amazed if there wasn't a "slight rattling noise" I suggest you fit and oil pressure and oil temperature gauge to the bike before you do anything else.

 

Phil

Ouch!!

 

Oh and just to shadow @docc reply, the Magni Sporti is a little different in it's drive shaft set up, but ocassionally if I've buggered up there I sometimes get a noise from it, more of click than a rattle but I hear it irrespective of clutch engagement.

Apologies if you know all this and these answers are blindingly obvious, but I don't know how well you know the bike. I don't know the 6 speed box as all my bikes have the ancient 5 speed.

If it was me I'd try to eliminate the obvious prior to tearing it apart, especially as it's the "summer" (although up here in Jockland you'd never know it)

[Walterg]

Thanks guys.

I finally had some time to dig into this issue and I started taking parts off and now I'm quit convinced it indeed has to do with the clutch.
I never roll the bike with any of the gears engaged and the clutchlever pulled in simply because it's heavier and less easy to do. This time it just
happened to be so and I heard the noice for the first time.
The driveshaft looks fine. No play in any direction. It's also not making any noise.
Took the side panel of the transmission off and everything looks and feels as it should. Also no play on any bearings.
At this point I could cleary hear the sound coming from the rear side of the engine but as the crankshaft is not turning it has to be the clutch!

Reading some of your comments about the noisy clutch I'm starting to think I am being worried about a problem that does not exist. So now i'm thinking that
I just assemble my bike again, put in new transmission oil, do something about rainwater getting into the gearbox ventilation and go riding.

On a side note: I must have moved my bike this way before in the past but I don't recall hearing any of this noise. It's allways the brakepads that
make most of the noise. Could it be that the clutch is wearing out and that that's the reason it's making more of that metallic sound?