Any thoughts on this mystery???

I have an 1983 GL1100 that I've stripped to go drag racing. The last time out I was coming back up the return road when the engine made some bad noise. I pulled into the pits to gas up and the sound persisted. I could rev the engine and it sounded good but as I backed off the throttle there was motor noise like a primary chain was flopping around w/o a tensioner.
When my buddy got back to the pits I repeated it for him. Same thing motor seamed to spin up nicely but backing off it got clattery. Bad enough I knew our night was done and the motor was coming apart.
Fast forward - motor is on the bench with the cases cracked open and I can't see a single thing amiss. No metal bits inside, primary and starter chain all look good with no sprocket damage and tensioners appear to be in place and intact.

Any thoughts?

Have you measured your primary chain for stretch?


"If the primary chain is excessivly worn (stretched), it will make quite a racket. The spring-loaded tensioner only takes up the slack under load, during deceleration any slack is free to slap against the stationary tensioner. How many miles on the bike?"

yeah, I'm thinking a stretched chain could present as I've heard it. A quick check of the manual didn't appear to give a spec for it. Have yet to google it.

This is a response from a wing site. Not unlike what @Relax found. I'm willing to believe this is the problem. How ever this is not my first rodeo. I played this game about 10 years ago with another 82/3 GL1100 and after beating it hard (50+ redline happy passes) and it never missed a beat? Also this my second outing with the newer bike. First time out I got about 6-8 passes and it never made a sound. I think I'll search out a cheap runner. Chances are I can find one for little more than what a complete set of gaskets will cost. Not to mention save me mating the cases. With the jugs being within the cases that means trying to compress the rings and feed in two pistons while mating the halves with silicone.

What you said sounds like "a primary chain flopping around without a tensioner" is likely the primary chain, flopping around without a tensioner.

Well...it kind of has one, but not much of one, just that little V-shaped spring thing.

The four-cylinder wings are very sensitive to unbalanced carbs at low power settings (or at higher power settings and lower RPM - i.e. lugging the engine), and the way they voice their disapproval is by flopping their primary chain around. It sounds like someone poured a buck of bolts into your crankcase, but it's not actually coming apart.