primary noise

New 961 owner 2013. After some electrical issues traced to tip over switch the bike was on the road. It sounded slightly agricultural ( no surprise). On the second ride, I noticed a major new sound at idle that sounded like a primary chain hitting the primary case— of course it is gear primary. Pulling in the clutch made no difference. I then changed the primary oil— noticed the oil looked like it had moly in it? Put in full synthetic. Sound at idle now seems even worse. Pulled the primary cover and everything appears good. One other point is starter is very metallic sounding. Not sure how to proceedHELP

Go to CNW website and read my manual for timing chain and split gear. Could be one or both of those.

Here is an excerpt from Richard-7 manual : Get the rest of it at CNW .

Do you have a Norton 961 Service Manual ? You need one of those too.

Thanks, going to order manual from CNW. Does the tension spring fail or does it just lose tension and go out of adjustment?

Manuals are free.

At assembly by factory or yourself, it is easy to stretch the spring. Almost effortlessly. If stretched, even a little, then it defeats the purpose of the split gear. Nothing bad will happen but it will be noisy. I haven’t seen a broken one but that is also an option. Next time you pull your primary case give it a wiggle check. While in there, check that your ring gear isn’t loose. They’ve been known to shear bolts. This will lock up the rear wheel when it goes. Happened to my dad, thankfully at a traffic light next to me. A couple others on the forum had this break on them. We pin ours to prevent this but you need a machine shop to do it. If you search the forum I've provided photos and instructions on pinning the ring gears.