broken plastic in the engine?

[paulos]

A mate had his very low mileage 2011 ec200 lock up on the weekend, we haven't pulled it down yet but there was a thumbnail size chunk of melted plastic in the exhaust pipe when we took it off to have a look in the cylinder.

It did turn over again but then locked up.

We'll have a look at the reeds but are there any other plastic parts that could get sucked in there?

 

[djroggen]

I'm gonna guess it's the crank stuffers. The bolt can back out and destroy that crank stuffer (black dry plastic). I had my 11 300 do that to me this spring.

 

[djroggen]

Don't try to turn it over until you tear it down. The bolt can wedge between the case and the crank breaking the case...

 

[Rick]

Don't try to turn it over until you tear it down. The bolt can wedge between the case and the crank breaking the case...

^^^^^^ Damn crank stuffers cause more issues!!! I can't believe that the factory can't get this right! Your not the first and will not be the last to encounter this problem. Sad!!! Not intended to bash but this has been an on going issue for years!^^^^^^

There is nylon inserts that are bolted inside of the crank weights, sandwiched between rod. There are a couple of Allen head bolts the secure the nylon inserts in place. What happens is the .bolt backs out and will "jam" the rod, allowing for about 350 degrees rotation of the crank, the allen cap screw is preventing full rotation.

The ideal fix is, remove the crank, separate the halfs of the cranks, replace stuffer new allen head bolts and locite them!!!

Some else with a 300 posted a very similar issue recently!

 

[djroggen]

My 2013 300 does not have crank stuffers. Crank is manufactured differently.

 

[djroggen]

Preventative maintenance. Honestly, if you have a bike with stuffers. When you do a top end. You can position the crank as such to allow for the Allen bolts access. With a ground down Allen wrench back the bolts out one at a time and loctite them in before reassembly.

 

[paulos]

Thanks guys, sounds like the problem. Has anyone had any luck with warranty claims given its a relatively common issue? The bike in question has done less than 1000 klms.

 

[paulos]

Preventative maintenance. Honestly, if you have a bike with stuffers. When you do a top end. You can position the crank as such to allow for the Allen bolts access. With a ground down Allen wrench back the bolts out one at a time and loctite them in before reassembly.

I wish i'd known about it before, i just bolted mine back together on the weekend.

 

[Rick]

Preventative maintenance. Honestly, if you have a bike with stuffers. When you do a top end. You can position the crank as such to allow for the Allen bolts access. With a ground down Allen wrench back the bolts out one at a time and loctite them in before reassembly.

That is how I fixed mine. I was lucky when my bolt backed out, I was giving it a kick to start it and it locked up.

 

[paulos]

Well it looks like a bullet has been dodged to some extent. One half of the nylon crank stuffer has broken off ( presumably when the bolt loosened?) and has caused the engine to lock up. It has also melted itself all over the top of the piston and through the power valve.

Luckily the bolt was still in-situ and hadn't come out enough to cause any damage.

The engine will still need to be split, but the crank seems good so it may just be a case of replacing the stuffers and maybe the main bearing?

I'm assuming the crank stuffers can be bought separately?