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Adjusting rocker end play is still needed on your heads and can make a lot of noise is too loose or one of the thrust washers is missing.

Thrust washers?

http://www.maxbmwmotorcycles.com/fiche/ ... =154821214

Number 17

Start the engine with the rocker box off. Make sure you are getting oil oozing out from around the rocker bearings. If not, then the rocker has been fitted up-side-down, and will produce a noise similar to what you describe.
Just a thought....

Sterob

http://www.maxbmwmotorcycles.com/fiche/ ... =154821214
Number 17

Garnet, Thanks for the diagram, but it's not making things more clear. None of my rocker assys contain items 16 (ax bearing) or 17 (shim or "thrust washer"). My rocker assys, blocks, and posts look exactly like these ('76 to '84) pictures: http://www.largiader.com/tech/rockers/#7

Start the engine with the rocker box off. Make sure you are getting oil oozing out from around the rocker bearings. If not, then the rocker has been fitted up-side-down, and will produce a noise similar to what you describe.
Just a thought....

Sterob, I will try this, but I'm having trouble understanding how a rocker could be fitted upside down.

The rocker shaft could be upside down (assuming someone disassembled the rockers/shafts before putting it all back together)....moving the oil hole away from from where the oil comes into the shafts

To keep that from happening, we would remove the rocker arm and put it in the valve cover half that was also catching the dripping oil. Then we would mark it L or R.

Thanks for all the great input. I went back in yesterday and re-checked everything. The ticking has quieted a little but does sound excessive relative to the other three valves. Shafts were not upside down, and oil was oozing from all appropriate orifices... I did discover that my left intake rocker blocks were replaced with the OLDER style blocks (the ones without the indexing cutouts). The other three rocker sets have the correct blocks. And no, the one with the older blocks is not the one making the noise.

It still seems that the ticking has something to do with the lifter end of the rod. Can anyone tell me if the rubber seal on the end of the rod tube plays ANY role in guiding/dampening/etc. the rod? The offending rod seats positively on the lifter, but feels different than the other three when pulling it out (not when unseating it from the lifter). Maybe I should just get over it...

Have you confirmed, by looking up the pushrod tube that the head gasket is not protruding into the tube? The rubber tube seal between the block and tube makes no contact with the pushrod.

Well... I finally figured out where the infamous ticking noise was coming from. The bike died on me yesterday during a ride (thankfully not too far from home). I pulled the right side valve cover off on a hunch and sure enough, the exhaust valve was not opening. Long story short (head, jug, piston all off), the exhaust lifter is actually broken and currently stuck in place. This is not cool...

If you reread the last paragraph of my initial post it makes sense now (to me at least). What I described as the other three pushrods "sliding out 3/4 of an inch" and then "catching on something" before releasing, was the lifter sliding up in its seat with the rod, until the rod unseats and comes the rest of the way out. The offending pushrod didn't "feel" the same because the lifter was not rising up and down in its seat.

Again, not sure if that makes sense to anyone else... Also not sure how I'm going to get the BROKEN AND STUCK LIFTER out. Yikes!

The plot thickens... Dropped the oil pan and discovered 5 NEEDLE BEARINGS sitting in the bottom of the pan. I suspect at least one other needle bearing found its way down the pushrod tube and caused the lifter destruction. I may have to pull the cam to get the stuck/broken lifter out. I assume I can do that without pulling the motor off the bike, yes? Maybe a complete rebuild is in order; that could be fun.