Guys maybe you can help me on this one, its not my bike thankfully. Apologies for the lack of information, but there is a bit of a language barrier involved here and I am having to ask the owner a lot of questions. (bike is in Philippines) TR650 has covered 1303 miles and had the one Dealer service. Became hard to start as the owner described so he took it to the Dealer. The dealer is not really a dealer and is basically a seller, to my knowledge the mechanics are not Husky, KTM or BMW trained either. Dealer mechanic tried to start the bike and after some time he got it going but there was what is described as 'abnormal noise inside the engine' - that is all I knew about the problem until today. Info from owner.... Dealer mechanic checked Camshaft Timing - correct Dealer mechanic checked Valve clearances - correct Dealer mechanic opened the cylinder head and found the intake valve has a lot of debris and flax due to the lack of velocity of the fuel they used that made the carbon deposit upon it. I asked the owner for some pictures of this intake valve problem. That is what I got. Now I know this is not really enough to go on but the guy is asking my help as the bike has now been in the shop for 3 months and the Dealer has no idea what to do about it. Truth be known they have no idea what is wrong with it either and keep saying they are waiting for advice from their technical department. I know this dealer and I am pretty sure they do not have a technical department, in fact they are not known for their ability to fix bikes or give customers any real service either. Looking at the valves, apart from some carbon build up I do not see enough to cause any starting problem or 'abnormal noise' either. Latest today is that the 'dealer' has no idea where to get the gasket kit from and cannot rebuild the bike. Personally I would now be filing a claim against the dealer and asking for my money back, but i am not sure of the full details of the sale etc. So.....anyone got any ideas on this one?
Probably crap fuel yes, but I am not so sure that there is enough of a deposit to cause the problem experienced.
Compression relief sticky? I agree, that low miles and minimal soot is not going to keep bike from starting. The AIC could be fouled and stuck open, and that could make it hard starting, but with such low miles, I doubt that is the issue. Abnormal noise could come from the compression relief if stuck I guess, but not from a sticky AIC. Bad gas could make it start hard and make noise too. Situations like this are why I will not take my bike to any ole shop. I better know the mechanic and his/her ability. My first service was done at the dealer, and they overtightened the chain and cross threaded a sprocket cover bolt.
Thanks, yes I agree that the issue could be a sticking decompressor, but that is reasonably easy to check without a full strip down of the head. I would presume any reasonable mechanic would know how to do that, but I am not so sure about the 'jokers' that have opened this bike up. My first action would have been to try new fuel and pull the plugs for a look at what is going on before opening anything up, but possibly the 'abnormal noise' was so bad as to warrant deeper inspection anyway - not having heard it personally, I cannot say. This problem is that this 'ole shop' happens to be the only 'dealer' in the Philippines and the owner had no choice to take the bike back to them under warranty. They have a history of crap after sales service and an inability to fix things too. Now they are telling the owner that they cannot source a new head gasket and have had the bike 3 months waiting on a decision. My guess is they do not know what is wrong with the bike and having had their sales money, they do not care either. The owner is now doing his best to source a head gasket and have the bike rebuilt, but I would advocate legal action instead.
There is a place in California that will make a thicker gasket for it. That will drop the compression and you bikes should run a little better on your poor fuel
The bike may have been run on poor or incorrect fuel. but I am not sure. In Philippines we can obtain normal 95 everywhere and good quality 97 Octane gasoline in most places. In major cities we even have good 100 octane which I have always used in both my Huskys with no problems.
