09-12 rocker arm shaft and bearing play

What is considered normal play on the rocker arm bearings (axial) and axial play on the rocker arm itself when the shaft is in and installed on the head?

My 570 today started to make some top end noise when idling. Heard it for the first time when I ran the motor pretty good and hot. It's like a loose valve ticking or no oil going to the cam, but I pulled the valve cover, cam and rockers out and checked everything.

Clearances were ok, cam looks ok even though it's not standard cam, but exhaust rocker seems weird. I know it has been like that before, but the bike hasn't made a sound like it does now. The roller bearing has quite a bit axial play and makes loud tick tick when moving it back and forth. Intake bearing has noticeably less play and doesn't make similar sound. The whole rocker arm has much more axial play than intake side.

I'm gonna swap in stock -11 cam and see does it makes difference and help the bike to start easier, as I now have serious starting problems and my Shorai battery shows 9-11 volts when cranking over. The current cam is also -11 cam but it's welded and grinded with much more aggressive profile and lift. Maybe there is now too much lift and the rocker can't handle it, or the cam is the one to blame.

Well well. Now after a tiresome graveyard shift and a good 8 hour sleep after that, I'm reborn again.

I inspected both intake and exhaust rocker rollers and I find the exhaust quite amusing. It's got maybe half or less the needle bearings left in it. Intake has few gone but still way more than exhaust, and that has to be the reason why it's quieter and not that much play.

Now, should I order just new rollers or both new rocker arm assemblies? It's ~80€ per rocker or something like 20-30€ per roller. I guess they are press-fit, but which way is more reliable solution? The rockers itself look ok, and the shafts have some light polishing on them. I still find the exhaust rocker axial play too radical. There are no shims used to get clearances down, and service manual won't state what is acceptable play. Is the shaft worn or the big end plug that goes through the other side of head in shaft hole not torqued down enough?


E: Errr....I can be a bit stupid sometimes. All the bearings looks to be in place. Don't know what to do now damn. Guess I just press the rollers out now and try to think of something.

Pressed out exhaust roller. Nothing that indicates wear on the parts.

Hmm....no clues anymore. Blindly buy new rockers or try with stock cam first. Decisions decisions. New rockers might come in handy in the future, but if the problem is not in them it's ~150€ waste. Why would the cam make noise if it would? It's not touching anything at least there are no marks on the head, rockers or cam itself.

I've cleaned them pretty good before putting the head back on. I will look at them today when I'm putting the stock cam in place and see is the starting issue and noise gone. Ordered both intake and exhaust rockers also...don't know maybe a waste of money but I don't really care at this point.

Wonder why the new cam has ~1mm narrower ADC lobe compared to stocker -11 cam? Lift wise it seems to have more, but can it be too narrow and aggressive to not work like it's supposed?

Well guess what? Put the stock cam back in.........



....bike starts immediately and starter spins like mofo. No cranking problems, no click click starter sounds when pushing the button and best of all it starts everytime in less than 1 second.

So now I have pretty much useless camshaft that costed way too much. Unless I can think of some reason why the ADC doesn't work with the thumper cam. If I can swap the ADC shafts from my stock cam to the other cam, but don't know is that wise? The base circle is smaller on the other cam, so that might create even more issues.

Too damn clueless now. Gonna go ride the bike now and let out some steam.