A little while ago I thought I noticed that my bike was making more noise at start up. The last time I had it out I was sure that it was sounding bad, and then it completely let go. It went from sounding questionable to sounding like there were a handful of rocks in it and it wouldn't even turn the engine over. Luckily i was just at the local mcy club grounds, and not 100 miles from my truck.
It ended up that I had trouble in the starter gear train. One of the idler gears between the starter and the flywheel wore out it's bushing/bearing in the crankcase and the stator cover, and cracked the boss on the crankcase.
Occasionally my bike would (during start-up, or at very low rpms ) misfire, and make a locking up noise. I am now pretty sure that each time it did this , it was prematurely detonating and sending the piston backwards before TDC. This backwards force transfered through the "one way clutch gear" behind the flywheel, and directly to the first idler gear heading up to the starter. this gear is held by bosses in the crankcase and the stator cover. The one way clutch gear free wheels while the engine is running in the proper direction. When the starter is turned over it engages the clutch to spin the engine, this happens in reverse when the engine tries to run the wrong direction the clutch engages and transfers the "hit" to the idler gears. After repeated hits, the bushing wore through and the "hit" was transferred to the boss in the cases.









I found a crankcase on eBay for $130 and bought that, but still need to get a BB head gasket and the rest of the gaskets and seals for the engine. ( If anyone knows where to buy a set for an "07" please let me know) I found this set Complete Gaskets Kit - Complete Gaskets Kit » Athena Aftermarket Division for "09"s and up and NDklx'd confirmed that some of the part numbers are the same.
more to come.
Dan

 

There is no way to pull that bushing, get a weld in there and re-machine the bore; then pop in a new bushing and gear?

Just a thought... sry for the bad news brah.

 

Dang! I want to cry for you.

 

It was easy to pull the bushing. I engaged the one in the stator cover with a tap and it came right out. I'm told that aluminum castings are porous and don't weld well since they soak up a fair amount of oil, etc. Also told that if you do try welding , the cases still need to be split to do it right, same for re-doing the bore. By the time I pay someone to weld it , get it bored, and get new bushing etc,I figure I'm close to the price of the one on eBay.
Dan

 

just send money.......

 

Agreed; I've only ever dealt with cast iron weld repair ( high nickle rod, pre-heated part... yada yada).

I just figured either way you were splitting the cases so maybe it would be worth a shot, but definitely not if you have to pay "real" prices for the labor such as $65-75 per hour labor with one hour minimums. Reminds me of how much I can't wait to get my own garage one day.

Good luck.

 

Sum ah beech! At least you're ok other than the PIA!

 

Hey Dan, how many miles does your bike have?

 

Ouch, sorry to hear. That sounds kinda similar to what I've been experiencing w/my 351. Haven't noticed anything at start-up, but at low RPM's I've been occasionally getting a loud pinging sound when the engine dies. I've been worried about it and it seemed to have been happening at a more frequent rate. I'll be pulling the valve cover soon to check clearances and timing, but now I'm not sure if I should be checking more.

 

Time for a kickstarter?

I am hesitant to replace my estart by a kickstart: I would welcome the weight reduction, on the other hand I've seen people on trails exhaust themself cranking their bikes, specially after it was dropped. But if I was in your situation, I would not hesitate to forgive the estart and go kickstart.

Edit: reading further, I see you're already looking at that option...