I was out on my TE450 on one of the most dangerous and remote trails in Wales yesterday, and halfway through I cough stalled the bike, and it spat back through the throttle body as it often does. I tried to restart the bike, and it had absolutely no compression. Massive panic, as if you break down here, you leave the bike behind unless you have a lot of helpers and ropes - its littered with deep peat bogs that can, and have swallowed bikes never to be seen again. Anyway, I was thinking it must have a stuck valve, as surely major mechanicl failure can't happen on tickover. So just before the battery died, and was then going to remove the cam cover, she suddenly burst into life and ran fine for the rest of the day! All I can think that happened, was the backfire blew an inlet valve open, and a shim partially popped out, jamming the valve open a bit? Anyone had anything like this happen before, was it a one off freak incident, or a sign of looming problems? This is the third breakdown within a year (dirt in fuel injector, and mud in fuse carrier which both required a tow home), and I'm starting to loose faith in the bike.
Hi Tetley Not sure what that may be but let us know how many Ks you have done and servicing etc......... Have a look at my wiring thread There is plenty of pics for you to look at Reply soon for more help
Bike has done 9,000 miles, tappets always spot on, oil just changed etc. This is definately a mechanical issue, not wiring, as the bike had absolutely no compression for about 5 minutes. The only thing that this could be is a valve that is not seating. Anything else eg broken piston / rings, cracked head etc would not have rectified themselves. The big question is what was jamming the valve, and will it happen again? I'm running 2 trains of thought here, 1. A shifted tappet shim, and 2. The backfire broke something inside the throttle body that got sucked in and jammed the valve open.
Check your intake manifold boot, the metal ring inside the rubber boot broke and pieces of rubber passed thru my engine, I think. Could have been a piece of intake manifold jamming a valve open and then it slipped out.
