Honda 50 Ticking/Whirly Sound

[louish67]

hello,

my bf50 makes a ticking sound directly under the large flywheel. in addition to the ticking sound there's a whirly sound that goes with it.

i've recently put a lower unit, adjusted the valves, changed the motor oil and replaced the sparkplugs.

the ticking sounds is NOT from the valves. when i removed the timing belt cover the sound is much louder. when the motor rpm goes up the ticking sounds goes up. i shook the flywheel hard and it doesn't move side to side so i don't think it's a worn bearing (if there is any there).

i've put on over 10 hours with this ticking sound and the motor runs perfectly...just a little unnerving. any suggestions on what it may be?

thanks in advance.

 

[louish67]

Re: Honda 50 Ticking/Whirly Sound

I forgot to mention that this noise is there in nutral, drive, reverse. it doesn't seem to be related to the gear box. lastly, should i be driving this boat or will it go kaboom on me???

 

[WillyBWright]

Re: Honda 50 Ticking/Whirly Sound

I've heard it on a few and investigated the first. It was the flywheel just barely rubbing on one of the coil frames. There is no adjustment. I tried loosening the screws and moving it back, but that didn't help. It seems to be harmless, but the motors run so quietly that it can be noticable, especially with the hood off.

 

[louish67]

Re: Honda 50 Ticking/Whirly Sound

thanks for the reply. what worries me is that it wasn't there before. i have over 600 hours on it and it only started 10-12 hours ago. any suggestions on things i should check before i go out on the water again?

 

[Skinnywater]

Re: Honda 50 Ticking/Whirly Sound

Have you checked the timing belt tensioner?

 

[louish67]

Re: Honda 50 Ticking/Whirly Sound

yes, and the belt is firmly in place and still looks new even though it's 2 years old.

 

[Skinnywater]

Re: Honda 50 Ticking/Whirly Sound

yes, and the belt is firmly in place and still looks new even though it's 2 years old.

OK, that means to me that you took the tension off the belt so you'd be able to spin the tensioner pully by hand to feel/hear that the bearing in the tensioner is still serviceable or not.

lastly, should i be driving this boat or will it go kaboom on me

My thoughts are to investigate the problem and correct it.
Since we don't know what the noise is it's very possible that it is a prelude to a larger more costly problem.
I'd hate to see a $100 dollar ticking noise escalate to a $1200 problem.

 

[louish67]

Re: Honda 50 Ticking/Whirly Sound

i agree...i'm just running out of things to check for. i've checked the starter to make sure that it's not loose or something is rattling inside. i can see that the starter is not stuck in gear. i've checked the flywheel as described above and it's very solid. i've gentle wacked various places with a rubber mallet to see if anything is loose and everything is solid.

the only thing that's changed on this motor is a new lower unit but the noise isn't anywhere near the lower unit...just directly under the flywheel (and this was changed 3 months ago). i've also poked around with a long screwdriver under the flywheel to see if anything is loose and i don't see anything obvious.

other than the noise everything seems to be working perfectly. apart from taking it to a mechanic tearing into it and looking for something that they may or may not find i'd rather check for specific things if anyone can point me.

i had a bad experience of my car being worked on for 3 weeks while the mechanic was "fixing" a laundry list of items for a myterious problem like this. i don't want to repeat that ever again!!!

 

[Skinnywater]

Re: Honda 50 Ticking/Whirly Sound

I don't know your mechanical/diagnostic skills.

If you feel confident enough that a valve adjusting screw isn't backing off from a mistake during the valve adjustment then the only other moving part that can be accessed easily/cheaply is the flywheel.
I'd take the flywheel off and do an inspection. At least you'll know then what further action is need even if it is a coil frame as suggested.
Know that any further in will get expensive but it's all valuable information anyhow.

Keep us informed please.

 

[louish67]

Re: Honda 50 Ticking/Whirly Sound

I finally got a chance to do some more work over the weekend. The same story. I took a closer look at the belt tensioner and under the flywheel...same story. Everything looks fine.

There's no doubt that the noise is coming directly under the flywheel. I took it out for 2 hours motored around at various throttle and everything seems to be fine.

My next action is to take it to a mechanic and see if he thinks the noise is "normal". I spoke with another guy at the boat dock that has the same motor and his seems to be noticeably quieter than mine but he tells me that he heard another fellow's BF50 motor just like mine. Very frustrating... :/

 

[Noah4200]

Re: Honda 50 Ticking/Whirly Sound

I finally got a chance to do some more work over the weekend. The same story. I took a closer look at the belt tensioner and under the flywheel...same story. Everything looks fine.

There's no doubt that the noise is coming directly under the flywheel. I took it out for 2 hours motored around at various throttle and everything seems to be fine.

My next action is to take it to a mechanic and see if he thinks the noise is "normal". I spoke with another guy at the boat dock that has the same motor and his seems to be noticeably quieter than mine but he tells me that he heard another fellow's BF50 motor just like mine. Very frustrating... :/

I know this is a very old post but has anyone ever figured this out…I have the same problem

 

[MattFL]

Maybe the magnets on the flywheel. Here's my story: I've got the 99' 50. About 2 years out of warranty it started making a knocking sound, only when it was hot, I thought a rod bearing was going bad or something. Turns out it was the magnets on the flywheel, there was a known issue with them coming lose or unglued or whatever, and when things got hot and tolerances got tight, they were displaced enough to start touching the coils as they went around, making a knocking sound. Honda paid for the flywheel because it was a known issue. Your sound isn't knocking, but if you're running out of ideas then this is definitely what I would check. If a visual inspection doesn't turn up anything, maybe paint the coils with some dye, run it for a bit then look again and see if any of the dye has been knocked/rubbed off, which would verify that parts are touching. If that turns up nothing, maybe replace the timing belt tensioner just as a cheap way to knock that item off the list, maybe the bearing is getting flaky.

 

[ahicks]

Flywheel is pretty easy to remove and check for issues....

Be surprised if they don't shut this down because it's old....

 

[MattFL]

It's a shame when they shut down old threads about motors that people are still using. The issues and fixes are still relevant, the thread is still useful.. until they close it.

 

[Noah4200]

It's a shame when they shut down old threads about motors that people are still using. The issues and fixes are still relevant, the thread is still useful.. until they close it.

Thanks a ton guys…I know this thread is old. There is def some noise coming from the tensioner too so will replace that and also check the magnets on the flywheel. Really appreciate the help

 

[ahicks]

They COULD leave them available, so people could open and read them for reference, but write protect them so a new topic would have to be started.

 

[Noah4200]

So guys I did my timing belt, tensioner and valve adjustment today. The flywheel looked pretty good except for just the faintest streak on one magnet face. There was no dust underneath but I did see a tiny little edge/corner of one coil pickup was slightly shiny. I guess it’s possible that it happened during removal but that would explain my faint pinging noise. I’m hoping the new tensioner helps quiet it down the old one felt sloppy and has a little corrosion. So aside from a little noise, is this issue going to be a problem? There isn’t any heavy damage going on..I figured worse that will happen is long term it might damage the coil but it’s so slight I almost couldn’t see it. Thanks

Noah

 

[MattFL]

If you can do it without touching the insulation on the coil, at all, grab a little file and knock down that metal where it's shiny a little bit, maybe 0.5-1mm. It definitely looks like that has been touching. My guess is the magnet is swelling, and if it touches too hard it might damage the magnet. Filing the coil side down should buy you some more time.

 

[Noah4200]

If you can do it without touching the insulation on the coil, at all, grab a little file and knock down that metal where it's shiny a little bit, maybe 0.5-1mm. It definitely looks like that has been touching. My guess is the magnet is swelling, and if it touches too hard it might damage the magnet. Filing the coil side down should buy you some more time.

Will do…thank you Matt

 

[Noah4200]

Well after new tensioner and filing the one magnet edge slightly no change in flywheel noise. I’ve had engines that have natural flywheel pulley noise I’m just stumped here. Hope it’s not a bearing or something. Any ideas? Maybe sharpie the magnets and see how bad the contact is? It sounds more of a rachety noise than a pinging…
Thanks