Engine Failure Report....Check in Here.

[Eli]

I am curious to see what type of, if any, engine failures or engine issues that may be directly related to snowbikes.

If we have one place for the failures, maybe we can come up with some solutions.

Eli

 

[1dn5up]

i lost a tooth off a gear in my tranny that took out 4 other gears on my new kx450 after 5 rides in the snow but motor still runs great. have a feeling that it would have broke regardless of a track or not.

 

[Jon Mutiger]

Chris, I was thinking about that.. And I wonder if the gear shifter had been accidently stomped on while under full load. I wear moto boots so I don't have to adjust how I stand much, but with big boots and big feet, it's a bit clunky around the left side with the chain case there.

How long until your re-assembled?

Jon

 

[Mtn. Muncher]

I lost an engine on my YZ when I forgot to tighten my drain plug and it fell out.<O</O
My friend Ty did the same thing a year later and lost his motor. No oil is a bad thing.<O</O
I think we need to have a designated guy checking our drain plugs. LOL<O</O
At Timbersled we have owned many motorcycles in the past few years and have put many miles personally and in our demo fleet and have had no other engine failures or any problems of any kind with our bikes. We have owned about every brand and they all seem to be reliable. <O</O

 

[1dn5up]

find out tomorrow when I get it back together

Jon I don't recall anything like that happening my boots are pretty soft but could have happened maybe a tree branch

The other thing that it could have been is jumping and landing with a high track speed and landing hard but where I was at the there was to much powder to get air off anything.

I plan to do a hardness test on the gear that failed to see if weak metal is to be blamed

 

[powdermuncher]

I just talked to a guy in south east AK that had his Husaberg 570 eat the piston rings.

 

[Jon Mutiger]

If you look closely at where the crack is, you can likely see how it started. Porosity in the wrong spot could be the culprit, but I suspect external loading.

Check the dogs really close, look at the drum for any sign of impact with the fork guide pins.. It is possibly just bad material, bad luck.. I have never seen that before, and like Timbersled's rental fleet all of our damage is from riders..

Crunching forks is the most common problem, second by parking too closely and ruining rads, cases, ect..

I hope it's a isolated instance. My KX was run hard for 3 years and didn't give me an ounce of issues.

Jon

 

[KAWGRN]

I just talked to a guy in south east AK that had his Husaberg 570 eat the piston rings.

Did he say WHY?

 

[TeamOrange]

Did he say WHY?

I wonder who that is. I live in SE AK and have a Berg570. Only bike in my town though. I did ,however have an incident where i was climbing steep terrain and heard a couple small kachunks in I think my gearbox. Only happened once. So far I am attributing it to possibly letting my toe of the Klim boots influence the shift lever a bit (I hope). It was the first ride of the year and I was a bit nerved out. Changed oil when i got back. Only found a couple of metal micro splinters and a few bits of metal micro dust on the magnet. Next ride will tell the story. I am pretty confident it was just me.

 

[Eli]

I lost a big bore setup on my 525 ktm with a DJH 100mm piston/Thumper Racing Liner. 23 hours in the dirt was fine, but after 2 hours on the snow it smeared the skirts. Moral of the story......get the needed clearances on aftermarket stuff.

Water temps were monitered and jetting was not lean, verified by an air/fuel gauge.

 

[Eli]

I lost an engine on my YZ when I forgot to tighten my drain plug and it fell out.<O</O
My friend Ty did the same thing a year later and lost his motor. No oil is a bad thing.<O</O
I think we need to have designated guy checking our drain plugs. LOL<O</O
At Timberslede we have own many motorcycle in the past few years and have put many miles personally and in our demo fleet and have had no other engine failures or any problem of any kind with our bikes. We have owned about every brand and they all seem to be reliable. <O</O

Allen,

I understand that there may have been an issue with a big bore of yours. Anything to do with the snowbike, or the machining/tolerances?

 

[Uncle si]

2012 kx450f started leaking oil from the inner clutch cover gasket adjacent to the swing arm mount. I worry the subframe is flexing the case. I plan to check the that the swing arm bolt is strait, and I won't stand on the track when she's laying down again. I will report back.

Update: a piece of gasket is sticking out. I hope she just wants a new gasket.

Upperdate: new gasket installed, no new problems found and no leaks idling in the garage. I should get out on the ice Friday.