Oh hell no, there are many here with more knowledge than I. This is my first EFI motorcycle and I have yet to hook one to a computer for the first time. Nuts and bolts I know. Bits and bytes are black art.

I appreciate the confidence! But I think Rook is much more qualified... his tutorials are comprehensive. And comprehendable.

;)

still tickin???

I love it...'here's my problem"....and.....then......uhmm...okay....what happened?.....LOL!!!

LOL, been busy ridin, workin and dealin with the kid and house. Swapped out the spark plugs for a new set but its still ticking, apparently I don't have a compression tester with a small enough adapter and the crappy auto parts stores in town don't seem to carry them (wtf?). But for now I figured I'll ride her and enjoy her and take it apart some more in the winter.

She's parked off site right now (gotta take the lil guy into daycare so I need to take the car to daycare then hop on the bike to ride it into work) but after checking around the internet I wanna try re-torquing the exahust header nuts/studs/bolts as a bunch of other people have reported that a ticking noise was caused by an exhaust leak if not slightly warped/bent valve would be my guess but that should show from a compression test...

Well, loosened and retourqued the nuts holding on the exhaust flanges and the noise is still present

What needs to be removed from the bike to get in and tighten the header nuts?

"LOL, been busy ridin, workin and dealin with the kid and house"...it's all good...no offense intended.Hope everything is doing okay with ya...sounds like it anyway!"ticking'...ya...pretty common with the 14 engine.So many possibilities.My 07 used to have times while riding where she made some ticking sounds...then it would disappear.Depending on the ambient temps....how hard I was riding....stuff like that...seemed to affect the motor.Never had any issues though.Ran fine all the time.I did use synthetic 10/40 exclusively.Ran her agressively,then rode some 'cool down' mileages....seemed to work very well.These motors do make a bit of noise at times.Haven't had any 'noise' from my 14R yet....except when the cooling fan came on the first couple of times...and I didn't know what it was...kind of a 'rumble' while idling.I thought..."WTF?It wasn't doing that before".Then I realized what it was....no prob.I'll tell ya...it definitely was a load off .

I didn't check my valves on my 07 until around 24K...they were all in spec.Two plug changes.Consistent oil changes...yup.She ran very well.Hoping I get the same performance from my 14R...so far...so good.Sweet running motor.Solid.....strong.Quiet.She's right at 9K.

A couple of things that I like about this bike...small things...but nice...the speedo isn't affected by gearing changes...and dumb as it sounds..the hose/cable 'keepers' are a snap type...they open up and allow ya to remove hoses without replacing em.Corny,I know...but nice.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 8/30/2012 @ 12:04 PM *

bbzx14, if your really lazy like me, you can loosen and then re-torque the header nuts by removing the fairing (that is seems to be almost a pre-req for even filling the tank ;) and removing the bottom rad bolt then gently pulling the rad forward from the bottom with the right sized socket extensions and a bit of cursing and you can do it without removing the rad.

Of course, if you need to flush the rad anyways, it would be WAY easier to just remove it.

I'm hoping later this week since I have some more time off to run a compression test (that SHOULD tell me if its a valve or not, wish I had the gear to do a leak-down test).

The only thing that has me a bit worried right now is DanoZX14 here on the forums had the same noise and his ended up being a problem with the #2 wrist pin as well as I saw someone selling their 08 Sapphire blue in Edmonton, for $4,500 since it was ticking and is apparently a problem with the #2 wrist pin as well, might be a coincidence. I figure I might end up cracking the engine apart this winter and checking into it further since it's been a couple of years with the ticking and she hasn't let me down yet (I just hope the engine doesn't seize while i'm riding).

hi guys.........just to balance... i got my 2007 ZX14 (or ZZR1400) as it is called here...i had this knocking noise from day one.....comes and go. i have today 153K on my odo. same noise ... not better not worse. i use this bike for work, and i cross all the country south to north , and frequent i do more that 1K km per day so on a 3 day trip i have 2.5-2.8K.
so far results are amazing. valves clearance did not change a bit after the 100K service. no one drop of oil consumption. knocking is still present, and according to the external temperature it goes louder or quieter.
clutch bearings soon to be replaced (both). by the way cylinder compression are 195-198 and oil pressure 5.1-5.2.
that's some rigid beast.

"according to the external temperature it goes louder or quieter"...yup...my experience also...with my 07.These earlier engines did not have the teflon sound dampeners in there.I would guess that the temps allow the sounds to resonate better or worse depending.(metal engine case expanding or contracting)????IDK...just a thought.

I'm not talking about 'knock' per se...only ticking or 'tapping'.

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 9/1/2012 @ 2:12 PM *

I tightened up the headers today, mainly because I was noticing more vibes in the bars, and wow did it help. Ticking is still there but better.
I used the Brocks instructions found on this site and it was pretty easy. I removed all 3 radiator bolts and let it hang by the hoses to get at the header bolts. The 2 plastic rivets under the upper fairing did not survive the job.
BB

good morning guys...another issue to do with age.
i had to replace the fuel pump, since due to bad fuel i had to take it of for cleaning. the moment i touched the filter i found it is cracked A thin open and so the way for all dirt to enter injectors was short. it started with "every time i started the bike on central stand it was working normal but if i started on side stand it was gagging on idle."
when taking off all the fuel assembly (from pump to injectors) i found that dirt was collected in the metal tube that holds the injectors. i replaced the fuel pump (yes with 15.2-4 km/L and after 153K means more less 10,000L of fuel....)
with a new one and gained back the the fuel pressure that was more like pee.. cleaned the injectors (sent to an expert with dedicated machine that on that case measured also the output quantity to be equal between the 4 injectors), checked all electrical system to and from the throttle (main and sub sensors) and all is within the factory settings.
checked and tighten head bolts....however well into the excitement i forgot the air filter which was so clogged with whole generations of fly and bees and stuff...totally not like me but i did forgot to check it. all the bike is stock to the bone. the timing chain and tensor where replaced at the 100K service... so coming Monday i will put a K&N air filter and that's about it. regarding oil , i use 15-50 semi synthetic oil which holds 8K easily without changing color or anything else. this is a hardworking bike, but i can tell u this. its fully trusted and extremely rigid. doesn't ask for much more than just treat it fairly. nothing more.

FYI, Did a compression test today, readings (cylinders 1 to 4) are: 180, 180, 185, 182... as i'm typing this I JUST realized I forgot to hold the throttle open! DOH!!

Ok... re-did the compression test with the throttle held open, new numbers are (1 to 4): 190, 200, 200 & 197psi

I have the same exact ticking noise on my bike. The bike is a 2006. It started around 6500 miles. To me it reminds me of the sound of a bad hydraulic lifter in a car that has not pumped up. The noise comes and goes and gets worse the hotter the bike is. When cold there is no noise. The day is started I had run the bike up through the gears but only to about 6k rpm during the shifts then dropped the throttle to slow to make a turn. When I did I got a pretty good backfire, a little louder than the normal decel pops that I had previously noticed with the aftermarket exhaust. I have done two oil changes since it started. First with Mobile 1 synthetic, made no difference. Second with Amsoil synthetic. It seemed quiter the first couple hundred miles with the Amsoil but now is about the same. The ticking is at idle and up to about 3500rpm, mainly around 2000-3000rpm part throttle. If I load the motor without increasing the rpm it seems to quiet the tick a lot. Another thing I notice is on decel I here some clicking from the same general area which made me think of an exaust leak. I had the bike checked out for exhaust leak and changed plugs. Dealer could find nothing wrong or no exhaust leaks. I am starting to wonder about the PAIR valve or maybe an injector clicking. Had a very similar sound on my Ninja 650R but sold it before following up on it. That bike also was a low mile bike. Thinking about switching from the TIforce exhaust to the Brocks Megaphone or Alien Head this winter so I will probably do the PAIR blockoff plate then. The bike runs great but it's the not knowing that drives me crazy. I would hate to be leaning hard in a mountain curve and have a motor lock up.

* Last updated by: mustangdaren on 9/19/2012 @ 10:03 PM *

Starting to hear a new sounds now... this time its coming from this thread and it sounds like this:
http://www.naturesongs.com/cricket1.wav

LOL