Dual-sporting a 2010 TE 450, with cheap tricks

After the first time mine went dry on the side of a mountain and putting brake fluid in it to get me back to the truck, I never ride without a bottle of mineral oil in my bag. My only complaint about the hydro clutch.

16,000 mile report
15,000 mile report was on Jul 21, 2013

I rolled over 16,000 miles on my annual trip to SW New Mexico, the TE did great with a couple of exceptions. I thought I had the deep water crossing problem fixed and I didn't, I barely made it thru the canyon where you have to cross the creek about 70 times and sometimes, you just are running right in the creek because it's the road. Bike would die and I'd crank it and it'd start and die and finally when it was dried out enough it would start and run until I hit the next crossing too hard. I blew a fuse and the dash, lights, and rad fan went out, caused me to blow rad fluid on a really nasty slow gravel dry creek bed, I'd replace the fuse and it kept blowing. Got a bare wire somewhere. Otherwise, the bike was a pleasure to ride, it's set up just the way I like it and I had a great time. Friday was a 195 mile day, then next 2 days were like 80 mile days, the first day really wore me out. The pics below with the Husky in them are my pics, then there are some pics that others took, of stuff that me and my guys just flew by, we were going pretty fast at times, 2 KTM guys with me went down pretty hard, one cut his eyebrow, the other guy destroyed his ignition switch and some wiring behind the cowling, I only toppled on a slow spot or 2.

Looks like great riding. Little bit of everything. Maybe your creek crossings didn't go so well but the pics are great!

Awesome pictures.

My TE 450 has died out 2 years running in a creek/road in New Mexico, I thought it was the gear position sensor, but I just spent 30 minutes in the driveway with the bike running, and a garden hose, getting everything wet that I could think of, and it never died. During the creek run, it would blubber/die and as long it got to dry out a little, I was able to start it and rev it to the next crossing where I tried to slow down or if it was a deep one, the bike would die no matter how slow I would go. I've googled and found some guy and his taillight might have been bad. Of course, it's not my carb vent lines on my EFI 2010 model.

Here's a vid of the creek run:


Well, if you were betting it was some of the work I've done, you wouldn't have gotten very good money odds, since 80% of what goes wrong on this bike is the direct result of work I've done on it, but you would have won the bet.....that said....

It was more the continuous supply of water than it was the depth of the water, and that led to.....

When I tested with hose water under the rear fender, I just kind of sprayed it back and forth, up and down, back and forth, but that did not really replicate what was happening in the creek, if you look at the creek vid, the rear tire really churns a big, continuous loop of water and it is a STEADY supply of water to ALL points under the fender, so that led to this....

The video below shows me holding the hose at various points under the fender and sure enough, when installing the Acerbis gas tank long ago, the cutting/trimming I did on the right side plastic cover had removed the baffle/blocking plates and water was pouring into the airbox.

But you say, "the Acerbis tank was on the bike for the creek run in 2011 and you had no problems with water dying"

Sometime after Nov 2011, I stuffed a rag down into the airbox to soak up the oil that would drip out of/off of the filter. Over time, the rag would get saturated with oil, it would get heavier and it would get pounded down into the drain holes of the air box by riding, plugging up the only real exit for pooling water.

As for the car wash, under the rear fender is always where I have to spend the most amount of time and once again, before Nov 2011, I don't remember having all the problems I had after I started putting the rag in there.

The vid is not the greatest, but there's a couple of flashes where you can see big time water flowing in.

UPDATE: WATER PROBLEM NOT SOLVED

Rode some mud today so I could wash it like a boss, spent 30 minutes at the car wash, ran the battery flat, checked the airbox, all clear, checked spark, had spark, finally sprayed some WD40 on the exposed electrics and the TPS, all the stuff on the left side of the throttle body, it finally kicked over and I rode home. 'bout ready to just live with it, again.....and give up riding in the creeks or the rain....

UPDATE: After I got home and all seemed to be squared away, I noticed I was getting a persistent FAIL on the speedo, after the boot up and all. I swapped out the temp sensor for a new one, no help. I then tried to wash off all the WD40 using MAF cleaner (sensitive electrics cleaner with fast evaporation) and then I disconnected the battery and amazingly, I am good to go now, no FAIL message, bike runs good.

I friend and I were riding in Colorado this summer and after going thru a water crossing his 08 TE450 started to cut out and die, kept doing it for a couple of days until finally it quit all together. We swapped the fuel pump relay with what ended up being the brake light relay and that fixed the problem. You might try that.

Well, the bike is running OK, has a little bit of rattle on the left side, I took the ACCT out and it's still on the same 7th click it's been on like since new I guess, a bit odd. But now, I have the persistent FAIL message on the dash, it blocks all the functions from showing up, no trip, no tach. Not really interested in buying a Vapor for this 3 year old bike and certainly not interested in doing the iBeat thing, never have done iBeat on this bike......

It'll be 3 years in December and I think I'm come to the conclusion that my time with this bike is nearly done. I really don't think that it is reliable enough to do my out of state trips, and it's about to need at least $2000 worth of engine work, plus the shock and the forks need rebuilding, plus the rotors are almost worn through.....I guess I'll ride it locally until it blows up and then part it out. It's been fun, but I really want to go back in time, to a simpler bike, carb'd, no CPU, air cooled, etc. That kind of bike, I understand.

I can understand where you are coming from. You have gotten many miles from it though--.
I'.m a (think old fashioned and out of touch) carbed guy.
I get way off the beaten path by myself more than I should.

What needs doing on the motor? Btw I'm getting ready to sell the 310 but so far as I can tell the motor is great. Although it doesn't have 30000km on it it has 6000km of decent trails.
Also have you thought about a drz 400 Suzuki?

I guess the TE450 found out I was talking end-of-life stuff and turned in a stellar performance today, no issues, great power, a joy to ride when it's runs and handles so damn good! Ride started out about 50F and ended about 75F, some kind of weed was putting out yellow flowers, a great day to ride a red Husky!

Sunday was another amazing performance by the TE450, no problems, ran great, 100 miles of 65 mph slab and a muddy, sloppy, rutty 30 miles of trail. A buddy on a KLX had a front flat and we were just riding through a part of Bastrop TX that had a massive wildfire burn a few years ago, and we fixed the flat on the abandoned basement of a burned out house. 2nd pic is of the Colorado River slowly coming down from a historic 27 foot flood level a few days previous.

This thread is awesome ive sat here and read it all from start to finish great write up OHR

Thanks man, I am close to the 17000 mile report, and I am having cold starting problems, it just wont turn over the compression stroke. I always use the manual compression release to start the bike, I pull it in and start turning the engine over, then I let go off the comp release lever and in the past, the bike will start like that cold. Now, I am having to kick start the bike cold. I have already put a new battery on so it's not that. I will check the valves and include this in my 17000 mile report.

Below are some pics of my Sidi boots resole with a poor choicein replacement soles that didn't last, the brake tip was getting hung up in the groove in the sole, the boots are about 3 years old now, and some pics of a recent urban dual sport ride with a friend on a CRF450x

I'm headed out to the garage to check my valves, the TE450 will not e-start, cold or hot, it's been a long time in the making, I bought a new battery back in October, right before my big New Mexico ride, the new battery didn't help the problem. And yesterday, on an urban dual sport ride, I was 100% kicker, didn't make it up a slippery embankment (my friend on his CRF450 didn't make it up either, pic below), slid back down into the creek, and then I blew the main fuse, with both feet in the creek and no elec start!

I have a sneaking suspicion that it is NOT the valve adjustment...

Sneaking suspicion confirmed. I got the right side exhaust valve to the tightest I could get it, and no help.

Also, the ADC is working perfectly, I rotated the engine until I saw the ADC lobe hit the ear on the rocker arm, I stopped, and the ADC ring was jammed up perfectly, opening the exhaust valve.

A few months ago, my friend bought and sold a 2007 TE250, and I couldn't believe how fast that bike turned over with the e-start.

My bike turns over VERY slowly, and I already bought a new battery, even hooked the 2 batteries inline as a boost, no help.

Also, today I noticed that the e-start, when I can actually get it to overcome the compression stroke, will NOT start the bike even though it is turning the bike over. I am thinking, it is not even turning the bike over fast enough to start it AT ALL, because I can pull the kicker out and it will start instantly.

Following Tinken's advice, I installed the iridium version of the oem NGK plug in my 2012 TE310. I am stunned at the difference. Supposedly the smaller iridium electrode takes less voltage to jump the gap, completely aside from the longevity advantage of iridium. The spark on my original plug was weak; new plug is an estimated 10 times brighter. Now it will start in gear, which has always been troublesome.

Have you had the starter apart?
Maybe it is something as simple as worn starter brushes?
Bad winding?
I wonder if it smells burnt inside?
Just throwing stuff out.

Well, I judged the valve adjustment effectiveness on the cold start, which was no good. I then jumped on the bike, kicked it alive and took a short ride, got it hot, and whaddya know, it will e-start hot again now. I am guessing that my ADC lobe is a little worn and absolutely MUST HAVE the tightest valve clearance AND the motor has to be hot and expanded for the ADC to work.

Here's one of the worst places to blow the main fuse....