Hi All, In a previous post I asked about a mild but noticable engine knock and was advised to synch the carbs. Well, I did and there was no change. A mechanically skilled friend said it sounded like a cam chain tensioner noise to him, so I searched U Tube and found 6 videos with good audio of VF500 Fs and 4 of them had exactly the same knock or click that mine has, but a couple of them did not. This to me says that most of the 500s still running have poorly or non-functioning CCTs but those that do have good CCTs are click-free. I have researched replacing or fixing VF500 F CCTs and it looks like a daunting job, fraught with risk of dropping oily parts into the crankcase, even if parts could be found. I'm really enjoying riding the bike and have put about 100 miles on it with no change in the knock and have (against general advice) run it up to 10K RPM a few times with no problems. So, what I'm wondering is, how risky to to the engine is it to continue to ride it as is, given that I typically ride like the 70 year old guy I am with only occasional higher RPM blasts. I'm leaning more and more to making this bike a long term keeper and have every reason to believe the bike and engine are very sound overall. I don't want to ruin the engine by running it a few hundred more miles just because it is fun to ride now. But I also don't want to spend a lot of time painting and detailing it now if fixing the CCT problem is not realistically possible without major expense and mechanical talent. I have built from bare blocks about 3 small block Chevys 7 Triumph twins, a couple of Nortons and 1 SOHC 550 Honda 4, but am uncertain I could succesfuly tackle a 500 CCT repair, even if new parts were available and affordable. So, my happy fantasy is that you will respond by saying, "No problem, ride it as much as you want, thoroughly do your homework on how to repair or rebuild the CCT and do that this winter." , but what I really want is your honest thoughts on the matter. Thanks in advance and thanks again for all the help given already. Jay
