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[danner55]

Have a friend with a 2017 RK that after 25K miles, now it takes 5 minutes to pump up the lifters. Thought maybe bad lifters so we changed out lifters with SE lifters & pushrods. Same problem . Planning on putting an external oil pressure gauge on it today to check oil pressure on start up. Local HD service manager said he thought there was some bulletins on upgrades for this problem. Problem started on trip to Alaska on day 3 & continued the whole trip all the way back home with 10K miles round trip. Anyone know of any thing out there on this problem?

Thanks, Ride Safe

Dan

[mark]

Have a friend with a 2017 RK that after 25K miles, now it takes 5 minutes to pump up the lifters. Thought maybe bad lifters so we changed out lifters with SE lifters & pushrods. Same problem . Planning on putting an external oil pressure gauge on it today to check oil pressure on start up. Local HD service manager said he thought there was some bulletins on upgrades for this problem. Problem started on trip to Alaska on day 3 & continued the whole trip all the way back home with 10K miles round trip. Anyone know of any thing out there on this problem?

Thanks, Ride Safe

Dan

In reading your post, it seems to indicate the Service Mgr doesn't know if there are any bulletin or upgrades.  Am I reading this correctly.  If I am, wouldn't he know?

[Para Bellum]

In reading your post, it seems to indicate the Service Mgr doesn't know if there are any bulletin or upgrades.  Am I reading this correctly.  If I am, wouldn't he know?

You expect an awful lot from a dealer employee!   

[danner55]

My friends RK is 1000 miles away & I was just picking my service mgr. brain.  I didn't expect him to do any digging for any bullentins for me. He has no luck with his local dealer.  He did put a gauge on it yesterday & at start up had 50 psi,as it warms up & the noise stops it runs 25 psi at idle. He did talk to another mechanic at the KC dealer where he bought it & he is stumped. Nobody seams to know what is causing the tappet  or something else noise while it is warming up. He told me it would take as many as 5 miles of riding when on his Alaska run before it warms up & goes away.

 He doesn't know what to do next except ride it!

[grc]

I would think the first step should be isolating the noise with a stethoscope to make sure it really is a lifter.  Assuming things often puts us on the wrong path.

Does this happen after every start-up, or just when the engine is allowed to fully cool down like overnight?  Does your friend know what piston slap sounds like?  That's another item that is temperature dependent, the noise diminishes as the piston heats up and expands.  If the lifters have been changed without affecting the noise, odds are it isn't a lifter unless he is star-crossed and happened to get another set of bad lifters.  See the first sentence above. 

Jerry

[danner55]

Thanks grc! Sounds like this could be the problem. Yes it only does it when it's cold & then it quiets down like the motor has no problem. Like I said this bike started doing on day 3 of a 30 day Alaska run, 10K miles.  So what can be done for piston slap? He knows it will be hard to trade it off with this problem popping up on every cold start!

[grc]

Piston slap is just one possibility I threw out as an example.  It occurs when there is too much piston to cylinder wall clearance, and the fix is to replace worn parts or bore the cylinders oversize and fit proper oversized pistons.  It's not usually something that just starts overnight however, so I think he may have something else going on.  That's why it's important to try to pin down the location of the noise.  And don't blow off the simple stuff in the rush to find something major.  You might be surprised by how many people have been fooled into thinking they had a serious internal engine problem when the noise they were hearing was due to loose exhaust parts, grounded mounts, etc.

It appears he has more than enough oil pressure so I doubt it's a pump related problem.

Jerry