Balancer shaft adjustment confusion

[Bill B]

My ST1300 has always made a whirring sound, similar to a turbine, when the engine is running. Not objectionable. Not screeching. But after reading the workshop manual section on the balancer shaft adjustment, I thought I should check it.

Following the procedure in the manual:

Engine cold and not running, loosen the lock bolts.
Turn the adjuster on the upper shaft counterclockwise, the lower clockwise, until resistance, then back off 1 tick mark.

By that process, mine were WAY loose. That is, turning the adjusters did not seem to meet "resistance" for about 8 or 10 tick marks [Late edit: maybe 4 or 5 tick marks or about 1/8th turn of the adjuster] . There was no marked feeling of resistance until I hit what felt like a hard stop. Hmmm....

Then you are supposed to warm up the motor and listen for a whirring sound and back off more ticks until the noise goes away.

Mione ALWAYS has the same whirring noise regardless of the adjuster position. I can precipitate a gravely noise if I go too far, but the whirring noise does not increase or decrease.

As I said before, the whirring noise is not objectionable. I thought it was perhaps normal gear noise, but there is no change with this adjustment, so it must be something else.

Am I missing something? The bike runs very well. It's smooth except perhaps for a slight unevenness at low idle after warming up. That could be normal or caused by many other things, like standard tuneup items (plugs, timing, whatever).

 

[drrod]

You will never get rid of the whirring noise. It is a characteristic of the cut of the gears that drive the balance shafts.
Adjusting the balancers MAY reduce the noise a bit but in my experience it is a lot easier to make it worse that better.
Your description of how much it takes to reach resistance is a bit odd though.

 

[Bill B]

OK, your information about the whirring coincides with my conclusion. The workshop manual says to back off until it "disappears". Prior to that it says "if the gear noise is excessive. Hence, my confusion, since my gear noise is constant but not excessive.

My comment about "resistance" not appearing until 8 or 10 tick marks was not right. It was about a 1/8th turn, 4 or 5 tick marks. So, that was from the position I found it in initially. And I thought I would feel resistance, but instead it was more like a hard stop. So, from that point, I will back off a tick mark, as it says to do, and leave it at that unless I hear "excessive" noise.

 

[Igofar]

There are a couple small details that you may have missed when reading the service manual.
You have to make sure you absolutely clean the shafts before you start turning back and forth, to make sure you are really feeling the correct resistance, and not just forcing through dirt and crap etc.
Also, the upper adjustment requires you to use the dot and the graduation marks, however, on the bottom adjuster, you use the LINE, and not the dot, or you will be off 2-3 graduation marks.
Loosening the adjusters, then starting the bike and letting it warm up, will also move the adjustment around.
Do it stone cold, and do not start the bike, or loosen things up while its running.
PM sent, feel free to give me a call if you want to talk about it.
Larry (Igofar)

 

[wjbertrand]

I put 150,000 miles on my ST and never touched the balance shaft adjusters. The gear whine never changed from new. It’s part of the bike’s personality.

 

[Bill B]

I put 150,000 miles on my ST and never touched the balance shaft adjusters. The gear whine never changed from new. It’s part of the bike’s personality.

That's what I thought until I read the part of the shop manual that confused me by stating you should adjust until the whine disappears.

 

[Bill B]

There are a couple small details that you may have missed when reading the service manual.
You have to make sure you absolutely clean the shafts before you start turning back and forth, to make sure you are really feeling the correct resistance, and not just forcing through dirt and crap etc.
Also, the upper adjustment requires you to use the dot and the graduation marks, however, on the bottom adjuster, you use the LINE, and not the dot, or you will be off 2-3 graduation marks.
Loosening the adjusters, then starting the bike and letting it warm up, will also move the adjustment around.
Do it stone cold, and do not start the bike, or loosen things up while its running.
PM sent, feel free to give me a call if you want to talk about it.
Larry (Igofar)

Thanks Larry. Clean the shafts? You mean the outer adjusters? I did spray brake cleaner on them and scrubbed off any grime. I did it stone cold. I understand what you are saying about the difference in how the upper and lower positions are marked differently. I was not so much concerned with that as that I found them so far from the "resistance" point. I'll look at that again. And THANKS for the PM!

 

[Mellow]

That's what I thought until I read the part of the shop manual that confused me by stating you should adjust until the whine disappears.

There are 2 'whines'. There's the one the engine produces that's just a characteristic of this engine and it's a loud one that many describe as a sewing machine sound, you always know when a Honda V4 is approaching.

The service manual is describing a whine sound when they adjustment is out, and if you turn the adjustment while the bike is running you'll hear THAT whine.

 

[RJG1300]

I like a good sharp cheese with my wine!

 

[wjbertrand]

That's what I thought until I read the part of the shop manual that confused me by stating you should adjust until the whine disappears.

I think that adjustment is primarily intended for setup after assembly as it does not appear on the schedule of regular maintenance tasks. All it does is change the drive and driven gear engagement lash, it does not adjust the phase of the balancers.

 

[Sadlsor]

Personally, I love to hear the "whine" on mine. It reminds me of a private jet, or maybe a turbo spooling up.
I've never considered my engine to be loud, though. Just smooth and efficient at making power when I want it.

 

[Bill B]

I think that adjustment is primarily intended for setup after assembly as it does not appear on the schedule of regular maintenance tasks. All it does is change the drive and driven gear engagement lash, it does not adjust the phase of the balancers.

I should have caught that. I searched hard to find it in the shop manual. It's buried in the motor teardown and reassembly section. Now, it's making sense. I will return it to the settings as I found them.

 

[Bill B]

Personally, I love to hear the "whine" on mine. It reminds me of a private jet, or maybe a turbo spooling up.
I've never considered my engine to be loud, though. Just smooth and efficient at making power when I want it.

That's how I have felt as well. An errant comment somewhere else led me down this path.

 

[ST Gui]

There are 2 'whines'. There's the one the engine produces that's just a characteristic of this engine and it's a loud one that many describe as a sewing machine sound, you always know when a Honda V4 is approaching.

I put 150,000 miles on my ST and never touched the balance shaft adjusters. The gear whine never changed from new. It’s part of the bike’s personality.

After a few thousand miles I played with the adjustment and ended up leaving it where it was. The gear cut whine aka 'Jetson' sound is there for the life of the machine. After the one time I played with the adjustment I've never had the feeling that it needed it then or now.

 

[ST Gui]

I like a good sharp cheese with my wine!

Hold the wine and I'll have a thick slab of pedestrian sharp cheddar in a grilled cheese with a bowl of tomato soup. I wish I knew what cheese In n Out used on their burgers. It's my favorite non-gourmand cheese. Not that I have a favorite gourmand cheese.

 

[drrod]

f you turn the adjustment while the bike is running you'll hear THAT whine.

Turn it far enough and the whine turns to a screech!

 

[Bill B]

There are 2 'whines'. There's the one the engine produces that's just a characteristic of this engine and it's a loud one that many describe as a sewing machine sound, you always know when a Honda V4 is approaching.

The service manual is describing a whine sound when they adjustment is out, and if you turn the adjustment while the bike is running you'll hear THAT whine.

I'm getting a good education here. I'm glad I exposed my confusion. Maybe it will save someone else some trouble. I've got a few bikes. The 2009 ST1300 is the newest bike I have ever owned, bought 3 years ago, and it gets more use than the others. It's the most comfortable, reliable and easiest to ride.

 

[diferg]

We all learn from every question, problem, discovery and solution.

 

[jfheath]

To get a good sense of what the whine and the rattle is, place a long screwdriver handle against your ear - Clean it first ! and rest the blade on the end of the balancer shaft. It makes the sound from the balancer stand out with all other engine noise in the background.

The rattle when it happens is very obvious. The whine too is very obvious. There is no silent spot in the middle. I've not done this for a while, but the last time I did, I followed Larry's advice and I haven't touched it since.
But before I did, I took off the clamps, cleaned them up inside and out, and cleaned the shaft ends and applied some light oil around the shaft end, so that they could turn smoothly once the clamps were back in position.

 

[StabEDealin]

First time posting on this site, been lurking for a while. So hello all! I love this bike and am very sad it’s not still in production.

On topic though, this is such a maddening subject for me. I like to keep things mechanically sound, but this adjustment seems so subjective that I can’t even parse out if I need to do it.

Others say this engine is buttery smooth and can’t even tell the bike is running. To me, it’s not that smooth…and my last bike was an old Harley. In my best description the engine is incredibly smooth up to about 4,000rpm and then I start to feel some vibration coinciding with engine speed and throttle increase. Not alarming, just hard to know when it’s actually out of spec.

Sorry for the ranting and raving, and it’s good to see this community is still busy.