So... this afternoon while riding home from an all-weekend ride, my buddy's Rune is emitting an odd noise.
I think it's got a little bit of a growling bearing sound... at idle. It's loudest on the left side of the bike, lower part of the engine, closest to the rear cylinder. What I'm beginning to suspect is this. When I've removed a Valkyrie's alternator, there's some fins that marry into some rubber dampers. The alternator is "driven" via an internal drive source (as opposed to an external belt/pulley, like on a car). I'm beginning to suspect a bearing on a shaft inside... used to drive the alternator. (Hope my description is clear). The noise is louder "above" the valve cover than it is "below" it... so I'm not suspecting a cam bearing. It's almost non-existent when the bike's "cold"... things expand when hot, a little more "slop" becomes evident. The noise is forward of the alternator... and lacks the hollow, higher pitched howl I'd expect to hear from a bearing inside the alternator case.
Anyhow... anyone know of a GL1800 'Wing problem similar to this description? Anyone know of a reported problem related to anything like my description?
Bike's running just fine, just an odd sound showing up so far. ONLY "work" done lately to the bike has been oil/filter change (yes... I double checked oil level 4 times), final drive fluid change (yep, double checked it too). Replaced the standard "A" bars for the pull back "B" bars (later released by Honda). That entails a brake bleed exercise since one brake line needs to be replaced with a longer one.
Bike has about 6,000 miles on it... it came from the factory with air in the cooling system and needed to be purged, and a loose ground wire under the dash panel. No other problems to date. It's going to the shop for the service mgr. to eyeball sometime tomorrow.
