XJ550 Front end noise

I have an 82 Seca 550 and whenever I go over a bump a noise comes from the front end, sound likes somewhere around the headlight assembly. It's a loud, kind of a pinging sound. Has anyone else experienced this or does anyone have an idea of what it might be?

Also, when the bike is in 2nd or 3rd gear at around 5000rpm this is a loud winding noise coming from the headlight area/ speedo tach area. I thought it was just vibration, but it's pretty high pitched and loud. Any idea what this might be?

 

Is the front fender hitting your tach cable? Is a relay loose, hanging down and bouncing off the top of the motor when you go over bumps? (Happened to me.)

The loud winding noise could very well be the tach or speedo. I've had three tachometers pack up on me, and they all made horrible screaming noises in the process.

The instruments can be cleaned and lubed; on the 550 Seca it's easy.

Instrument cluster removal and disassembly, specific to the 550 Seca: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14948.html

Instrument cleaning and lubrication: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=15303.html

 

On my last bike, 83 550 Maxim, I had a pinging sound over bumps and it was in fact a cable that was popping against the fender. It didn't look as though it would when the bike was still, but over bumps, when the forks would compress, enough slack would end up in the cables to cause a whip action against the fender when they extended again.

I later had a similar problem yet again but it turned out that the noise on the front end was determined to be a young wife screaming "You're going to get killed on that thing!" This noise resulted in my wrong decission, I got rid of the bike and kept the wife...

Now I'm on to an 81 550Maxim, and scrapped the wife!

 

Those wire connectors make noises inside headlight, at least mine do, when riding bumpy road... Any good advices how to eliminate that?

 

Sticky velcro and velcro ties come to mind... it'd be inside the headlight, so it wouldn't be noticable, but should be able to hold everything in place nicely. Lowes has them!

Just out of curiosity, what fusebox di you change to, and what did you have to change out to install? My bike has none at the moment - due to previous owners ideas that if there are no fuses - nothing to blow - no problems... LOL

 

Gets bit off topic, but I followed pretty much these instructions: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=6350/highlight=fuse+block.html