barryhoward
New member
i was riding my '80 gl1100, which has 47'000 miles on it and it was running flawlessly as usual...stopped at a light and suddenly, as if something broke, i had a very loud, horrible noise which made me think immediately that my engine had suffered a fatal attack of some kind...i would describe it as something between a scraping noise and a squealing noise...the engine died...i pushed it to the side, horrified and stared...my first thought was that i broke a ring, (this was a wild guess as i am, by no stretch, a mechanic and have never had a broken ring and don't have a clue what one sounds like.) after staring for awhile, i started it....the noise was still there but i noticed that it ran smooth as silk, like always....i eventually elected to drive it home...(probably not advisable, but i did...) and the sound was less audible as the rpm's increased...everything still functions normally...clutch and shifting don't affect the noise...no smoke, doesn't miss...got home and my next thought was maybe something to do with a timing belt tensioner...(i did replace the belts, but not the tensioners, at about 45,000 miles...) so i opened it up and everything looks normal....belt tension appears normal...so i started it with the covers off....the noise is gone...let it warm up....revved it several times...nothing....put it all back together and went for a test ride....nothing...runs perfectly...so now i am uneasy and perplexed...wondering if it will happen again and what it could have been...my lady friend thinks it may have passed a kidney stone...so, ok honda geniuses...any ideas??? it's made me very nervous....thank you, in advance for your help...