Well it seems like a case of deja vu. Around 2 years ago I bought a 1992 TE 410 which only lasted about 7 months and resulted in a quick death with valve issues (stem snapped and valve got chewed by piston).

After that incidend I went out and bought a brand new 2010 TE 510 in January of 2011, it has worked flawlessly until yesterday when I went for a quick ride. After about 30 min the motor died suddently so I started it up again, had a bit of a problem starting and had to use the decompressor.

Got the engine running again but noticed a very loud clunking noise, very similar to the sound of a faulty bottom end bearing. Thoughts of &%$#@! instantly entered my head followed closely by the sinking feeling I had when my 410 had a heart attack.

Now I'm in the process of stripping the engine/gearbox down to see what has caused the failure. I found bits of what LOOKS like a washer about an inch in size. Warranty on my bike has lapsed 4 months ago but considering the failure I will be having a talk with the Australian distributor, our laws give us the opportunity to fight for warranty depsite its "past" date if the failure is deemed premature.

Regardless, I am now stuck at the stator, need to get the darn thing off and getting the correct tool here in Australia is neither cheap or easy to come by ($150AU) so it's off to ebay.

I will keep you all posted, but any suggestions on what it could have been are appreciated. At the top end (head and piston) everything is fine, there are no scour marks what so ever on the cylinder walls so it has to be crankshaft or gearbox area.

I will hopefully get some assistance from Husky AU financially for my time and troubles but that's a fight I might have to take through the courts, hopefully not.

Cheers

CrazyNuts.

crazynuts, on 09 April 2012 - 08:57 PM, said:

Got any pics? Also have a close look at your oil filter, you can get a hint of what may have happened before fully dismantling it.

Hi Spocko, thanks for replying.

Yes I have pics but not on the net, will have to upload them. I'll do that in the next day or two as they are currently on my phone.

No metal shards in the oil filter at all. That's the first place I checked. I did see a large amount of the foreign metal stuck to the magnetic bung (oil drain) and also noticed the magnetic bung was damaged, not sure where all those pieces ended up, but i'll have to find them.

I also noticed quite a bit of metal shards inside the stator, which resulted in some premature wear on the stator "blades" or whatever you want to call them. I unfortunately don't have pics of that particular location but will show you the metal shards found on the magnetic bung.

Seems to have isolated itself the LHS of the engine only. Found no traces of metal on the clutch side.

^{Here are the pics
http://img72.imagesh...20409152405.jpg
http://img814.images...20409125718.jpg
http://img406.images...20409125315.jpg}

crazynuts, on 10 April 2012 - 12:48 AM, said:

I am not super upto date on what the bottom end of that motor looks like parts wise but that does look like a big end thrust washer. Only because of the small dimples in the washers surface and the fact its magnetic. Could also be a transmission washer but i have yet to see one look like that.

Yeah I have a feeling that's what it will be as I noticed quite a loud banging/clanking sound as soon as it failed.

Now the question begs, should this be a warranty issue after 1800km (1100mi)? There is NO WAY this should have failed so early in the bike's life. I don't ride hard nor do I keep it at WOT.

Not sure I'm keen to see what the damage is, nor the cost to fix it all.

Edited by crazynuts, 10 April 2012 - 01:09 AM.

Also, I noticed quite a bit of scarring in the stator nut, as per pics below.

Not sure how that's happened considering the nut was tight.

http://img607.images...20410165925.jpg

And the below pic is the damage caused to the stator itself from all the shards.

http://img269.images...20410170003.jpg

Edited by crazynuts, 10 April 2012 - 01:09 AM.

crazynuts, on 10 April 2012 - 01:04 AM, said:

That is a tough question. One one hand it is not a very old motor but on the other hand it is out of warranty.  I work within the motorcycle industry in Australia and the first issue you might have in claiming warranty apart from it running out is that you have already taken it apart so they might not like that but you would have to bring that up with the dealer etc.

That sort of failure (if it is a thrust washer/bottom end issue) can have a lot of factors contributing to its demise so its hard to put a finger on it sometimes. I assume the engine has never been apart before? as in no one has been fiddling around with stators or flywheels?

Well I pulled the motor apart so that I personally know what the cause of failure is/was and won't be fobbed off easily. Me stripping the engine wasn't the cause of the failure, it's something I'm doing after the fact.

The motor has never been touched other than the valve adjustments done at 650km by the dealer.

By the way, I'm not inexperienced when it comes to mechanics, I've been working on engines for quite some time. I'm not an expert but I do have a lot of knowedge in the area; besides I have been stripping the engine down with the assistance of my uncle who is a qualified motor mechanic.

Either way it should be no excuse for a warranty denial. I will take it up with the authorities if need be. First things first, I need to find the cause of failure.

Edited by crazynuts, 10 April 2012 - 01:29 AM.

crazynuts, on 10 April 2012 - 01:27 AM, said:

Just giving a heads up of what may happen was not intending that the issue is your fault. On a side note i would be measuring everything that comes out of the motor and compare it to what it should be. I.e the bottom end failed because the side clearance was excessive or the run-out was 0.10mm etc. The same should be said for any new parts going in if it comes down to doing the work yourself, measure it all esp if your have to get a complete crank assy weather its oem or weiseco (not sure if they do them for not for the TE tho).

Thanks Spocko I didn't take your comment personally, I was just making a statement.

Thanks for your suggestions so far, will definitely be measuring all the tollerances etc.

crazynuts, on 10 April 2012 - 12:35 AM, said:

Hi,
have alook at some of the older 2006 / 2007 510 posts,
most people get 15 /20 thousand MILES out of theirs -  but there are exceptions.. BUT 1100 is NOT wear and tear =  something will have failed,

do you mean the paper oil filter has no debris?,
that's normal as the 2 metal screen "BAG" filters take-out all of the bigger stuff,

metal debris on the stator is VERY common, as the magnets tend to drag all the crud out of the oil,
can cause the stators to short..!!

good luck with your  claim,
Charlie

I have almost 8000 miles on my 2010 TE450, so I would think your failure should be covered under an extended AUS type of scenario,

A main bearing failure could cause that type of wear on the stator.

sorry to see this,  at only 1100 miles,  that is UNACCEPTABLE for sure!

good luck,  hopefully they make things right for you,  ive always liked the TE'S as Dual Sports,  kinda bummed to see this...

Yeah I'm certainly dissapointed with the failure but things happen. As long as I get support from Husky I'll be happy otherwise I will boycot the product.

Will be a couple of weeks before I can update the progress on this as I'm away from home (work away on a mine site) and I'm also waiting for the stator/flywheel puller to arrive from ebay.

Thank you all for your comments/advice.

OK...so I got my stator puller etc and managed to get it off with ease. Decided it was easier to work on the engine with it on a workbench and took it all out. Surprised at how light the whole whing is. 15kg (33lbs) MAX.

Anyway...I took of the starter motor, sproket and anything else that may get in the way. Undid the 12 odd bolts and tried to take the cover off. No luck, seems like something is still holding it down.

Anyone able to give me some insight here? I'm assuming I don't need to disasemble the clutch side of the motor to remove the stator side? I don't want to be too forcefull in case I damage/break something.

I've got a workshop manual from a 2009 TE510 and I can't find anything that will assist. I can see, in the manual, that they take both sides off but that's a complete disassembly. I am only interested in taking the LHS cover off.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

CrazyNuts

Should be just the dowels and gasket holding the case on assuming you removed the kickstart lever.

hey crazynuts.....  this is like a good book ....... but the last page is missing.......
please please tell us what you have found!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

single track, on 20 April 2012 - 09:58 AM, said:

Dowels? What dowels?

Yes the kickstart lever has been removed, the only thing left is the timing chain sproket.

honda4oo, on 20 April 2012 - 04:04 PM, said:

Once I have the cover off I'll update immediately, with pics