81 XJ550 maxim Chirping sound

I have chirping noise coming from front of the engine while idling and when i pull throttle. but cant hear the chirp when pulling throttle. i thought maybe from where ive removed the tach cable from motor since i dont use nor need a tach. (i sqirted oil into the little hole for tach cable. didnt even seem to effect the chirp.) this just started the other day. it didnt gradually start quiet and get louder. it just started and is driving me friggin nuts. i did check for exhaust leaks from my headers there isnt a leak. so im baffled as to why this just suddenly started doing this. and wondered if anyone has any ideas. it seems to be coming more from the left then the right side. but that doesnt mean to much since im half friggin deaf from just trying to hear it now lol. any help would greatly be appreciated.

 

Did you plug the tachometer drive hole with a blanking plate?
One cause of a chirp could be loose motor mount bolts. Check those.

 

check bolts(good) oil is almost new(around 600miles) Clutch was replaced last year(and this happens in nuetral as well as in gear)
no blanking plate, its just the cable pulled out. but i did squirt oil in it to see if it would have any effect and there was no can. i used way to much oil so not using enough wasnt an issue.

 

The chirp could very well be air whistiling through the tach cable oil seal. Get a blanking plate from user Chacal. Without it you will have oil all over your engine in a short while, and it may very well cure the chirping.

 

just curious, i read somewhere about a spark chirp. well after a a went for a 60 mile round trip i was having issues with my ignitor. cause my bike to misfire and die. couple taps and wiggling wires. it would start again. happened twice. then it started to rain about the last 5 miles. and about a block away if i could get it to start it would bog bad when id give it throttle. could this of not been firing right and causing a chirp?

 

I once had something similar with a leaking head gasket

 

my ignitor had to much water in it. wasnt letting it fire. but to previous question. Bikes still friggin chirping. i had a blank made for tach cable connection on motor. noise didnt change. i only hear the chirp on the left side of the bike. i checked for vacuum leaks using starting fluid befor carbs. and inbetween carbs and motor. my motor isnt leaking oil anywhere from any seams. I held lighter around heads to check for leaks. nothing. still chirping away though

 

Vac hose from the petcock/intake manifold?

 

just pulled hose off while running. no change in chirp or how my bike ran.

it honestly doesnt sound like a vacuum leak. it sounds more like my piston is ringing a bell on the upswing?
hard to explain the sound. i tried to do an audio recording but it doesnt do the chirp any justice

 

Does the sound go away as rpm's increase above idle (like maybe to 1500-2000 rpms)?

 

yes. not sure if it goes away or if you just cant hear it anymore. but very noticible when just idling. and seems to go away is i give it gas.

 

Could be the tensioner for the primary chain, it uses oil pressure to create the tension and at low rpm's it may not build enough pressure to fully actuate the tensioner, and the chain flops about a bit, however this tends to be a rhythmic, metallic "clap" rather than a chirp.

Whistling or chirping noises are some of the hardest to identify as to their source. Here's a couple of tricks:

Quick verification: take the spark plugs out. If the noise goes away then it's compression. If the noise remains, it's something else. "Something else" can be a number of things, but large vacuum leaks tend to give off whistling and/or chirping sounds...........

 

Use a length of vacuum hose as a stethoscope. Maybe you can isolate the noise that way.