That's not rust, it's just what color it is.

 

thats not rust, there made that way [8D]

sorry to hear about your bike going back to the shop EMS,hope it all get straited out

 

anyone know if lemon laws apply to bikes?

 

I've seen this before, and I know why it happens. I work for a company that makes powdered metal parts. I don't know if that gear is powdered metal, but I know companies in the area make parts for Kawasaki. When making a gear, metal powder is poured into a die mounted on a huge (50 to 800 ton) press. A ram comes down and compacts the powder into a part. This is known as a green part. The green parts are then placed into an oven at about 1500 degrees for a period of time to cure. When they come out of the oven, they are as hard as the metal they're made from.

Now, because of how the molding process works, its very hard to make a gear that has a hub or flange on both sides. So what they do is mold each side of the part separately. Then they take both green halves, line them up and place them together in the oven to cure together. I'm simplifying this, but the end result is a gear with a hub or flange on both sides. If the oven temp is too low or the duration in the oven is too short, the halves don't fully cure together and come back apart.

I was just thinking that this might be what happened to your gear.

 

Well, I'm a little concerned about that gear. Clearly from my photo, that gear is split also. So I think there are a few possible conclusions to draw:

1) that's the way it is made and it's supposed to be that way even though the diagram only shows 1 gear

a) EMS's gear further seperated causing problems

b) EMS's gear is fine, and it is a red-herring and they haven't found the real problem yet

2) mine is split too and I need to take it to the shop

I find #2 to be highly unlikely. As best I can tell, my bike purrs like a kittten - no odd noises or anything. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of it from when I did my 300cc install in June, just this latest one. But it looks like two seperate pieces, not a single gear that has split, to me.

Any other ideas or thoughts on this?

 

I must have been typing while mustang was replying and our posts overlapped. That sounds like a pretty reasonable explanation, mustang. Thanks.

 

No problem - glad I could shine some light on this. I'd also like to add that this is extremely rare. If this type of thing happens, it is almost immediately caught by either the oven operator or by QC. When the halves don't cure together properly, there is usually a parting line right down the center of the part that is pretty obvious to see. But, sometimes a bad part or two makes it through.

 

I am going to take a wild guess.

1) One gear with two ratios one for the balancer and one for the starter.

2) Two gears one for the balancer one for the starter but the gear is on another fiche.

I will look further into that....

 

looked it up in fiche kinda unlikely. Really haven't seen these engines on the inside.

Got the picture the gears are in front of the engine, right side. ok. hummm Kinda interesting.

 

I called the dealer this afternoon to see what was going on. Sounds like they haven't done anything but remove the valve cover. He said they were getting a parts list together to send to Kawasaki. I get the feeling my bike will be in the shop for a long time.