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[MarkB]

The Sport has now arrived home from France, thanks to the AA, and it's time to investigate what went wrong. Basically, after a couple of hundred miles on the road to Germany I noticed that the engine was making clattering noises at lower speeds (say below 40mph). It wasn't knackered-bearing ticking or knocking noises, more like something rattling around in the tumble dryer. Engine response was fine: it accelerated, held high revs etc, but wouldn't tick over happily - at the start of the day it was ticking over at about 1,500rpm and at the end of the day it would die as soon as the throttle was closed.

A quick roadside check showed nothing obviously loose, no play in the flywheel generator, or the camshaft pulley, or the clutch basket. Oil was still just below the max level and clean as new oil. Towards the end of the day the engine was hesitating like when it's telling you that you need to switch to reserve petrol, although there was plenty in the tank, and it stuttered, eventually just going bleurgh while climbing a long hill.

I think the engine finally went because we'd ridden 400 miles in horrendous rain and the electrics must have got soaked. However, I'm reluctant to start it up because of the increasingly unpleasant clattery noises. So, any obvious suspects, things to check first etc etc? Any thoughts gratefully received.

[SupermotoDave]

Possibly 2 separate problems?
1 Drain all the petrol from it and replace with new, the trouble Gary and Ann had trying to leave Villingen after riding through basically the same rainstorm was all down to water in the petrol.
2 Then possibly look at valve gear, because its very easy to do.

David