Backstory, bought this one cheap ($400) and had to rebuild the whole thing; knuckles, carb, brakes, tie rods, new crank, new top end, etc etc. What I didn’t replace was the timing chain (I know, I know, live and learn, but this was my first rebuild a couple years ago and I didn’t know any better).

So I’ve had a new timing chain sitting in the parts pile for awhile, and when the noise started getting louder i thought "Time to do it"

Tore it down, chain was pretty stretched, and when I went to take it off, of course I spun the crank a little bit. No problem, I thought. Looked in the sight hole, and spun the crank around till I got to T again, and then put everything back together.

It fired up, seems to idle fine, but the noise is still there and seems louder than before. I took everything off and it’s coming from the top end. I checked the valves and they were TIGHT. .005 feeler wouldn’t go. I set them to .006 and noise is still there.

My question is, could I have possibly gotten the timing out 180deg? If I did so, it wouldn’t run right, correct?

Any ideas on why the valves tightened up? I’ve had them set at .006 and haven’t put that many miles on it since I last adjusted them.

The top end was done by a local shop (now kaput) and I’m wondering if I might have gotten a bad bore. He’s done a couple for me and every one has gone south within a thousand miles, while the two I’ve had done elsewhere have been good to go.

Any input on this?