Recent odd failures on bikes that have come into my shop...

[Speeddog]

'07 695 19.6k miles

Bike presented with clutch lever solid as a rock, and clutch not working.

Opening bleed screw on the slave and squeezing lever, fluid comes out and lever goes full travel.
Hmmm, master OK then.

Removed slave, all seems OK with it, but pushrod seems a little short.....

Pull clutch cover, and the whole clutch stack is out too far.



Remove pressure plate, and the hub not is backed off a *lot*.

So, nut backing off allows the hub and stack to move outward, and the slave cylinder runs out of stroke, piston bottomed out, so lever solid.

Reassemble clutch (BTW, Adler 'slippers' are a PITA).
All is well.

As it turned out, the clutch issue was providence....

Crankshaft oil seal:



No, they're not supposed to look like that.

It had been running like that for a while, as you can see where the threads on the crank had cut into the pushed-out part of the seal.

Why it didn't kill the rod bearings, I don't know.

[Spidey]

Someone owes you a gazillion dollars for catching that problem with the seal.  Do they realize how much $ you saved them?

[Speeddog]

'06 M620 9.3k miles, '05 S2R800 33.1k miles



Vertical cambelt tensioner roller *fried*.
The pic is of the 620, but the S2R looked just as bad.
As you might imagine, the belt didn't look very good either.

I wouldn't consider it totally out of the ordinary on the S2R, considering the mileage.
Definitely out of the ordinary for the 620 though.

Both of the bikes came in for other service work, with no symptoms of the roller going bad.
Both riders were attentive to what was generally going on with their bikes.

Moral of the story... pull your belt covers and check out the rollers every so often.

[DucHead]

Thanks for posting Nick. 

I think I'm gonna check my rollers and belts with every oil change.

[Speeddog]

'03 M620 11k miles

Bike presented barely running, and unridable due to almost no power.
Bike had been sitting for a while.
The owner had started riding it, but running quality rapidly deteriorated.
Owner thought maybe it was bad gas, put some fresh gas in, but no improvement.

Bike would start, idle OK for 10 seconds or so, then idle would get ratty and engine wouldn't get over 4k rpm, regardless of throttle.
It would just go Duhduh..duhduh..duhduh..duhduh..duhduh.

Seemed like a fuel issue.  

Popped the cap... fuel smelled a little funky, but not terrible.
Drained the tank, refilled with fresh fuel.
No improvement.

Pulled the plugs, they looked OK.

Opened the airbox, no pack of rodents nesting inside.

Started the engine, fuel seemed to be flowing out the injector reasonably well, but seems to ebb and flow with the duhduh..duhduh..duhduh..duhduh.

Hmmm.  

Turned the key on, listened... fuel pump sound was a bit abnormal.
Popped the cap, turned the key on, fuel in the tank seemed to 'boil' a bit when the pump ran.
Looked at the hose where it attached to the filter.
Ugh.
Pulled the cap assembly, and unhooked the pump so I could see the whole hose.
Double Ugh.



For some reason, the fuel just obliterated the hose while it was sitting.
Looks fine under where the clamp was, but the rest of it looked like a barbecued tree branch.

Replaced the hoses, and filter for good measure.

Bike ran like a top.

[ghostface]

Dude I think this thread deserves a sticky. I'm fooking entertained. 

[Speeddog]

Someone owes you a gazillion dollars for catching that problem with the seal.  Do they realize how much $ you saved them?

Owner was not so mechanically inclined, but did seem to understand.
Hope it doesn't throw a rod.
No knocking when I started it up afterwards, so maybe he completely dodged the bullet.

Thanks for posting Nick. 

I think I'm gonna check my rollers and belts with every oil change.

That's a good plan.
Really disturbing that the 'roller' can be that bad without a ear-splitting squeal when it's running.

[rockaduc]

Thanks for posting Nick. 

I think I'm gonna check my rollers and belts with every oil change.

Yeah, WOW!! + 1 to checking the rollers at every oil change.

[corndog67]

Hey Nick, what do you think caused the fuel line to deteriorate like that?   Ethanol fuel?   Someone trying some jet fuel, or acetone, or paint thinner or something equally stupid in there?    Bad fuel line from the beginning? 

[Popeye the Sailor]

Hey Nick, what do you think caused the fuel line to deteriorate like that?   Ethanol fuel?   Someone trying some jet fuel, or acetone, or paint thinner or something equally stupid in there?    Bad fuel line from the beginning? 

NOS 

[He Man]

NOS 

you mean it was the large amounts of high fractose corn syrup that did that?

[dlearl476]

Hey Nick, what do you think caused the fuel line to deteriorate like that?   Ethanol fuel?   Someone trying some jet fuel, or acetone, or paint thinner or something equally stupid in there?    Bad fuel line from the beginning? 

Or Stabil??? Or some other additive?

FWIW, the manufacturers of my bike strongly advise against putting ANY additive in the fuel.  But this could be from some variable of simply sitting as well I suppose.  Pretty scary, regardless.

My bike is a '99 and several months ago, I came home to a strong smell of gasoline in the garage.  (Luckily the pilot light on my water heater hadn't exploded my garage, yet)  Turns out my fuel line had cracked right at the fuel tank fitting and leaked about 2 gallons of gasoline.  The weird thing is that other than this, the fuel line looked fine.  No cracking, no blistering, etc.

Moral of the story:  $5 worth of replaced hoses could save a burnt up bike or (in my case) burnt down house.

[Speeddog]

'05 M620, picked up due to a non-start condition.
Non-start wasn't a big shock, bike hadn't run for several months, and it still had the original battery.

Dropped in a known good battery.
No cranking, just a click.
Hmmm.
Jumped the solenoid, no cranking.
Battery cables getting a bit warm, not bad though.

Put it up on a rearstand, pulled the sparkplugs.
Click it into top gear, engine will turn forward.
Will not turn backward.
Starter won't turn.

Pull left sidecover.
The mesh of the starter gear with the idler gear doesn't look right.




Try to turn the idler gear by hand.
No dice.
Gently pry using a hole in the gear and a hole in the case.
Poink, a piece of spring falls out.

Oh.
Shift pawl spring broke, and a piece *somehow* got flung up into the starter gears.
"J" shaped piece was the one jamming the works, you can see one end is flattened.




OW, MY TEETH!

[pennyrobber]

Great thread.

[RAT900]

Great thread Speeddog...fascinating and unsettling at the same time. Like watching some Animal Planet "When Good Pets Go Bad"  show