Metal shavings on drain plug magnet

[Sammo]

Did my monthly oil change and noticed some metal.shavings on the magnet. Obviously this isnt normal. This is my first bike and just curious what this.could be. Also. Im hearing some sort of.tapping noise on the left side.of.motor. once its running for a couple of minutes. Im going to.adjust valves.this weekend.

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[PickleSlice]

Starter been acting up? My starter is all jammed up and put metal shavings in the oil.

 

[Stoop22kid]

I have metal shavings in mine as well. Drain plug and both magnets on my sump filter were absolutely covered in shavings. I'm tearing mine apart now so if I find anything I'll be sure to post here and let you know.

 

[XSLeo]

Could be stuff from the original build. A lot of these bikes got poor care. I might do a few quick oil changes, say 250 or 500 miles, see if it improves.
Tapping left side of engine? Head or crank case? Head can be valves, even set right they make some noise. It may also be the cam chain. If too loose it makes noise. Too tight puts excessive strain on chain sprockets and bearings.
Leo

 

[Paulrxs650]

Hi, how many miles on the bike? Are the shavings attracted to the magnet or just stuck to it in the normal fine sludge that accumulates there? If you still have them check if they're ferrous or not using a clean magnet. If they are aluminium, it could be you cam chain guides worn through to the alluminium backing.

XSLeo is right, these engines can be a tad tappety. If you are going the set the valve clearance make sure that you adjust the cam chain first, then set the valve clearance gap

 

[Motocue]

Starter clip pops off . Fix pull cover and just run a new clip and dich the split washer put the new clip on the inside grove . Change filters and oil. Back on the road.

 

[member3480]

Small amounts of shavings is not bad. Most older motor all have some sort of this and it can come from TRANS/Clutch Plates/Pistons ETC ... So don't get too crazy. I would change my oil and filter and next time you pull plug if same amount of metal there you may have to go into motor. Guys who change there oil every 2000 miles won't see this as much because it takes a lot of miles to build up. BUT if you miss shifts and have a hard time getting into gear it will build up quick. I have done motors that have had big chunks and motor still ran very well it was just lack of oil changes.
Tapping can be narrowed down by just taking a small 12" piece of heater hose and putting one end to your ear and the other to points on motor. You may think it is coming from the bottom end and its a cam chain guide that's worn and chain is slapping a little.
I had a customer bring me a motor for rebuild and he even added another magnet on the sump plate to get all the metal that he was seeing from plug and filter. It was just a old tired motor with many old parts that were bad but the sucker ran good.
If you pull your clutch plates and the metal plates have marks or dimples good that's metal that has to go somewhere and hopefully magnet gets it.
I have done many rebuilds on XS650 motors and they just amaze me of the damage some of these motors have and the motor still runs and sounds good. I had a motor with a dime size hole in piston and if you rode it you would never bet that that was there. VERY solid little motors.

 

[Sammo]

Speedometer reads 15k. I got the bike with no cable so who really knows. Pretty sure its alluminum it was stuck on the magnet good. It doesnt help I can only remove one of the drain plugs. Im gonna adjust the cam.chain and then.valves and see where that gets me. So how much do I have to pull apart to replace cam.chain guide

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[5twins]

The whole top end of the motor needs to come off for cam chain/guide replacement. To do that, the motor has to come out of the frame. There's so much work involved here that it's wise to replace any other items in there that need it. Usually that would include valve guide seals and piston rings.