hello all,
I ride a 99 custom 883 with the 1200 conversion. 27,500 miles. I have what sounds like a tappet making some noise. My question is....do they have a life span? if so, what is the expected life? and What makes them go bad? Also, Can I replace just one or should I do the pair or all 4? Would it being 104 degrees have something to do with the noise?
All help is appreciated!
John

 

Well in general the stock tappets are very reliable. I've got over 75k miles without issues. But yes they can fail, the rollers can seize up, and the seals could go bad. With very hot temps, your oil is going to be thinner, so the hydrolics function of the tappets may act up. Depending on where you live, if it's a heat wave your dealing with, just wait till it cools down abit in a few days and see if their still acting up. Although if you live with temps pretty constant around 100 degrees, consider using a heavier weight oil to accomodate those temps. Also if you don't already use synth oil, give it a try, syth oil will help drop you running oil temp by 10-30 degrees. But I'd wait till temps cool down a little before changing the tappets, just to make sure if it's just temperature related, cause the tappets may be just fine. But if you do end up changing them, you can replace them individually, but the tricky part may be determining which one is bad. A bad roller is pretty obvious, but if it's failed hydrolic seals, they can visually look just fine and be hard to tell which one is bad.

 

+++++1 on what Drum412 said.
Seems the hotter the outside air temp the noisier our valve trains get. See how it sounds in the morning when its cool then compare it to when its over a hundred and see if there is a difference.

 

I rebuilt my engine at 65,000 miles, the tappets were fine.

 

Thanks for the responses. I ran it today and it sounded fine. I definitely think it was the heat. 100+ here for the last 2 days. I guess I just extra paranoid, I am getting ready to go on a solo 2 up ride for the weekend. (That means no buddies to help, just the wife to say "I told you....")
Thanks,
John