Back in December and January I was about to take delivery of my first sidecar rig and was on the forum looking for tips on learning to ride it. In the second week of January I received my new 2016 metallic green Ural CT. It's a beautiful bike which receives a lot of compliments. In about 2 weeks I put about 100 local miles on it and got comfortable driving it. I made some modifications to help my handicapped wife get in and out of it (which I'll get into in another post.)
Then I started to hear a noise in the engine. It is a rapping sound which I always hear when it's under load starting out (or in gear, brake on, clutch eased out) It sometimes comes on sitting at idle but will go away with a little increase in RPM. It comes and goes when cruising. At about 150 miles, I took it to a service center where they were baffled by the sound which seemed to be coming from the top of the engine, far away from the crank and cylinders. The factory authorized them to do some disassembly to look at the alternator and drive gear which are in that location.
The factory says they have never had a crank problem in a 2016 (but they have in other recent models) and finally decided to have the engine and tranny pulled and sent back to their US Center for disassembly and inspection. So now I'm looking at a month and who knows what in the way of a engine.
I would bet it is a main bearing except for the sound going away with the rpm up a little in neutral. I suppose that could be due to increased oil flow or maybe even the result of a shift in timing affecting something mechanical.
Anyone have a similar experience with that engine? 🙁
You might want to post this over at Soviet Steeds to see what they might have to say. Also, it really doesn't seem fair for them to have your engine tied up for a month do their research and/or quality control. They obviously have spare engines and anything that isn't a local repair should rate an exchange. Of course, that's just my opinion, you'll hear others.
Hello Malcom,
as out of my personal experience with a 2013 Patrol: Both have to get educated!
Rider and motorcycle.
Specially the first 16.000km/10.000miles are critical on the Ural.
Once upon the time I had to give my own perfectly run in bike to a Church missionary who rode before his and then my former bike just the way like he drove his whole life long Diesel trucks and cars...He shot the engine in 8.000km(6 month).
I fear You commited the same error to "lug" the engine. I would not wonder at all, as I have seen it before.
With the Ural beeing built by people who still have the "plan economics mentality" and done by their nails with obsolete and worn out machinery the "break in period" is definitely essential to be well done !!!!!
One of the week points in Ural engines are wide tollerances in the engine and a very sparecely delivering oil pump.
My son showed me that oil delivery even with the high volume pump (3 times the normal volume) will not occure before 35 seconds after starting.
You are probably still running on what they call "break in oil". Not much to expect from it. BUT DO NOT SWITCH TP SYNTHETIC OIL YET !!!
The good point about waiting on Ural headquarters in Washington...They do a great job on waranty work! (much better then the factory)
Engineer Sergey (?) is in deed a detaillist profesional.
Wait your time and prepare yourself specially with Gobium's videos and reading through Soviet steeds.
http://sovietsteeds.com/
See you there for the bike specific questions.
Best regards and welcome in the slightly offset world.
You will notice fast here in sidecar.com you will fing kind people who like to share their knowledge.
On, on.
Sven
