Well...it doesn't seem to be catastrophic as of yet, the bike starts first or second kick and has a steady idle. It just started this rattle noise a couple days ago...and I wanted to make sure whatever it is is taken care of before a catastrophic failure occurs.
I've been reading that these factory automatic tensioners "LIFTER ASSY., TENSIONER - 14520-KCT-692" are prone to failure...after so many miles. Some sites are selling manual cam chain tensioners, like the "Tokyomods Camchain Tensioner CRF150F"
“THIS ITEM REPLACES OEM TENSIONERS THAT ARE PROBLEMATIC AT HIGH RPMs.”
http://www.ebay.com/itm/03-05-HONDA-CRF ... e0&vxp=mtr
So I was trying to find out if anyone else that owns a crf150f might have had this issue on the message board. Problematic "auto" tensioner not applying enough pressure on the cam chain. I've seen other videos of crf's that had this rattle sound...but no resolutions.