I have a 1995 Ultraclassic with a 1340 Evo. The bike runs great, very strong with no performance problems at all. It has 58,000 miles on it. I have recently noticed a chattering / clackety noise coming from the front of engine, when at idle with the engine hot. I notice this especially when the ambient air temp is hot. When im riding it there is no noise, it only occurs at idle when the engine is hot. It sounds very similar to a car with noisy valves. The only thing ive done recently is change the oil. I used Castrol 20w-50. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

I've got an 02 Roadking. I recently dumped the synthetic and went back to Dino oil. Also I stopped using the 20-50. I was reading the owners manual and it talks about using straight 50 or 60 wt oil depending upon the air temp. I now use straight 50 during summer riding months. I have already noticed that the Dino oil in 50 wgt has made the motor much quieter when hot. Read your manual for the oil use recommendations for summer riding.

 

Look at the cam chest cover...

to the left, you will see the oil pump with two plugs on top. On top of the crank case, just to the right of the oil pump, there is another plug. Under that plug is a filter screen. Pull the plug and clean the screen. It gets clogged from time to time, and oil going to the top end slows.

Sometimes this plug is used to mount an oil pressure gauge. In that case, you would remove the gauge, to access the screen.

This video may help...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=47ljGG0XMa0

 

After a cam and shaving the heads, at around 25,000 miles I heard that noise. The stock lifters were done. One of them was sloppy enough that I actually counted the needles in the bearing to make sure none had fallen out.
Put Jim's big-axle hydraulic lifters in there, and the bike has 100,000 miles on it now with no issues.

 

60WT Amsoil. And what Def Mute said.