Broke it

[davamb]

Hey Paul,

welcome ex-TRX owner!

Decided to call up old mate prof Brian Cox and he gave me some guff about "conservation of entropy", something to do with the second law of thermodynamics. I had no idea what he was talking about. (Thought only enthalpy was conserved and entropy could increase without bound.) He asked if I'd changed the state of order in my shed recently and I told him that I'd been working on the Commando and that I'd recently introduced a new bike to the fold. "Ah!" He said. "That'll do it. It's actually thermodynamics in action." Oh, right. Thanked him and said we'd better catch up for a beer next time he was in town. Thought it was just machine jealousy. You know how faithless these bitches can be.

Well, that's the best I can do in the way of making light of the whole situation. I'll go back to my melancholia now.

[cobbadiggabuddyblooo]

It's mental health week here in Oz too Dave so plenty onboard here with you on your journey.
Don't go and shoot yourself over this mate but if you do just aim for your foot.
Sometimes laughter is the best medicine.
Maybe you can make a Frankenstein out of the 3 twins you have.

[dicky]

I went to start the TRX this morning.
It has been on a rear axle stand over the weekend, last ridden 5 days ago.
Hit the starter button, starter engages then immediately stops with compression lock.
I'll be lifting the tank and airbox in a few minutes to begin investigating...

[davamb]

I'd be very interested in what you find Dicky. In hindsight, I should not have pushed on without pulling the plugs and having a squiz. Was just too damn impatient.

Where do I go from here though? I've no idea what damage has been done. I'm assuming the noise I heard was the crank bearings beginning to fail, but I don't know this for certain. If I refill the sump and start her up will I just be risking the crank journals that might otherwise be ok as Brian suggested? Or really, have I little to lose?

[dicky]

Well, bugger me with a fish fork.
Guess whose got a pot full of petrol?
RHS pot full, LHS seems dry.
Don't have the carbs off yet.
More later, gotta go shopping.

[davamb]

Well there ya go, it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good!

[dicky]

Ok, carbs are off and the float needles out and inspected.
Can't see anything obviously wrong with them or different between them.
What I did find is that the o-ring on the main jet is perished/damaged, but this very unlikely to be the cause of my problem.
From what I can see of the kits available, the Keyster has the o-ring for this but the Viton does not.
Can anyone confirm this?

[dicky]

From what I can glean off the interwebs, the o-ring I'm searching for is Mikuni #007-790 or Yamaha 3LD-14147-00
Can anyone confirm if this part is in either the Keyster or Blair Viton kits?
I'll be doing the rounds of the local bike tuners tomorrow to see if I can find some.
Wish me luck.

[Stu99]

From what I can glean off the interwebs, the o-ring I'm searching for is Mikuni #007-790 or Yamaha 3LD-14147-00
Can anyone confirm if this part is in either the Keyster or Blair Viton kits?
I'll be doing the rounds of the local bike tuners tomorrow to see if I can find some.
Wish me luck.

Think I might have a couple tucked away Dicky. If you get stuck give me a holler and I'll have a search for you.

Cheers,
Stu

[Stu99]

Not good to hear Dave. I hope it turns out to be not too bad.

Cheers,
Stu

[davamb]

Good find Dicky, d'ya reckon a bit of the perished o-ring has jammed between float valve and seat?

Decanted the oil/petrol drained from the sump - just filled a used 4Litre oil container. Must have mopped up a litre off the floor and am yet to determine how much still lurks in the exhaust system.
Dropped the radiator and fan. No oil in water, no water in oil, so unlikely to have popped the head gasket from incompressible fluid in cylinder.
Oil drained out of the airbox though. Have removed it, but not opened it to look at the filter yet.
Pulled the plugs. Both pretty dirty with fresh carbon.
Engine spins over easy with no undue noises with the plugs out.

[SDN]

Fingers crossed - it will be OK then?

Best of luck - but at least it happened at the end of this so called summer

[dicky]

Fingers crossed - it will be OK then?

Best of luck - but at least it happened at the end of this so called summer

Davmb and I live in Australia, summer is just starting.
We had our first real bushfires of the season a few days ago.
Winter here has been cold, wet and windy and we have all been waiting patiently for better times (except for davmb who pissed of to the bush on his tiger)

[davamb]

Winter here has been cold, wet and windy and we have all been waiting patiently for better times (except for davamb who pissed of to the bush on his tiger)

Wasn't all beer and skittles, like the day I spent riding from Tinaroo to Karumba - 700ks in 38C temperatures was not a whole lot of fun! The Top End is so dry - drought for 4 years now, a lot of nights spent camping in dust, ground so hard you can't bang a tent peg home. At the other end, plenty of camping down South was farkin' cold (like Sofala below):



Anways, back to the topic at hand. Did you find the root cause of the jammed float valve?

[dicky]

I just bought the last main jet o-ring from Staffords.
3LD-14147-00
Current Yamaha dealers should still have these available, but whether they keep any stock is a different question.

After some discussion with Don and my mate Steve who used to run Greensborough Yamaha, I've decided to put the carbs back together with the current float needles as there does not seem to be any damage.
I've never knowingly used ethanol contaminated fuel, so degradation should be minimal.
I'll get some Viton kits as a precaution.

So, the cause of the problem?
Buggered if I know.
It is possible that the RHS float was not sealing, but normally being on the side stand did not cause any problem, and that by sitting upright for a few days did cause a problem?
Sounds a bit far fetched, but who knows.

What I do know if that if the fuel tap actually shut off completely then there would be no problem whatsoever.
I have noticed a slight weep of fuel from the spigot with the tap in the On or Res positions. Not a big leak but I guess over a few days it would become a problem.
Steve reckons that he had heaps of problems with them and that the TRX tap was never any good.

I'll reassemble the carbs and connect the fuel line but not fit them to the inlet rubbers. This way if it still leaks it won't run fuel into the cylinders.