Chatter Noise

Thank you for all of the suggestions guys! I will be taking this apart very soon to see what the issue is!

And no, my girlfriend stays home because I have a corbin seat on it so I can only ride on it LOL :lol:

I will also look over the sprockets. The transmission is the only piece I didn't rebuild.
The spacer you are talking about is on top in between the transmission and the cradle? I have a spacer in there but it was not easy getting it in there. It was a fight.

-Mark

And that spacer is on the left side sitting on the bike.

-Mark

My 73 850 exhibits the exact same symptom. All of the components in the primary have only about 5,000 miles total so it's not coming from there. When I replaced the rear drive chain 1,500 miles ago the noise decreased and the sound pitch changed. My guess, like that of many others, is that since I still have the original sprockets on the bike that they are the culprit. I had my wife ride on the back seat and wearing a half helmet and she felt that the noise was coming from down by her left foot She too could hear the difference after putting on the new chain. I can grab the chain on the rear sprocket and there is a bit of back and forth movement. Not enough to shell out the bucks to replace it.
A side note/observation is that I can't believe how the Norton has shrunk over the years. The two of us used to fit fine two up back in the 70's even with our camping gear. I guess that this is indisputable proof that aluminum and steel are subject to the same phenomenon that also affects riding gear, levis, and t-shirts. The Age Shrinkage Theory. What else could it be.

If you do bight the bullet and treat your self to a new set of sprockets (and brake drum) I would endeavour to buy the genuine article. There is a lot of pirate crap out there.

Just FWIW here. The sound is either consistent with RPM, or consistent with road speed. It can't be both and it does make a difference in determining where it comes from.