[Jdehawk]

Alright.. new to the forum but here's what happened..

Heading down the freeway about 55mph on my 09 650 with about 2850 on the odometer, when it lost power for just a moment, then got nice and loud, and then the back tire seized. I went skidding merrily down the freeway and somehow managed to keep it up, pop the clutch in and coast off the road... I think it helped it was rainy and wet. Definitely glad to walk from that one..

I popped things off today and looked at the engine and the exhaust valve cover is shattered and I can see straight into the housing and there's metal bits jammed in there.

Now what?

Looking for advice on what to do from here... new what? I'm not too familiar with these bikes yet and I'm trying to figure out what all else could be damaged. As I start tearing into this thing I'm not really sure what good parts look like and if it's not obvious I'm not going to know what's worth replacing and what's not. Have to say I'm a little skeptical on even keeping the bike after that... I bought it used with 1400 miles on it so I was up to 1400 I'd ridden myself .. put about 40k on a few other bikes and nothing like this has ever happened.

You all know more about these bikes than I do, so what would you do if this was your situation? Anyone else heard of this kind of problem on the 09's?

Thanks - Joe

I'll get pictures up as soon as I'm able...

 

[PHBiker]

Almost sounds like a timing chain issue. I'd take it to a dealers. Warranted or not, this type of thing is dangerous and Kawasaki should fix it just to make sure someone else doesn't get killed.

 

[Damocles]

First approach; WARRANTY ISSUE.

If claim valid, Kawasaki should fix; if not, an exercise for the owner.

Without more information on the proximate cause of the malfunction, hard to say anything meaningful.

 

[wrenrj1]

First approach; WARRANTY ISSUE.

If claim valid, Kawasaki should fix; if not, an exercise for the owner.

Without more information on the proximate cause of the malfunction, hard to say anything meaningful.

He's out of the OEM warranty unfortunately, unless the OP bought an extended warranty however sounds like he bought it used.

Get it diagnosed and go from there. Sorry for your loss.

Wren

 

[Snakeboy66]

Good Evening JdeHawk,

I have got to hand it to you. You maintained trajectory and balance with a seized rear wheel. You have skills and brass balls. You should teach a course in survival.

Snakeboy66

 

[Jdehawk]

The manager of the local Kawasaki dealer is a good guy and said to tell my story to Kawasaki customer service and see if they'll give a claim number... apparently with the claim number than his shop can take a look at things and go from there... let the jumping through hoops commence.

was trying to post a link to a video of it here but I don't have 15 posts yet...

 

[Damocles]

Good luck on your repairs, Jdehawk!

Two-stroke engines sometimes overheat internally, with the piston expanding to the point of seizure in the cylinder; four-stroke engines seldom seize at all The countermeasure for a seized engine remains, immediate clutch release.

Thus, a syndrome of clutch hand fingers making grasping motions anticipating this emergency manuever developed, known commonly as, "two-stroke twitch."

Again, engine seizures remain fortunately rare for four-strokes, but--good thing to keep in mind what to do, should one ever experience this phenomenon.

(Happened once to me; at about 55 mph, riding straight-and-level (fortunately!) on a two-stroke Tohatsu; asphalt, mild traffic . . . able to pull clutch lever after some yards of rear wheel lock-up and skidding, coming to a safe stop; started up after cool-down. Incident got my attention! Don't reckon I developed two-stroke twitch, but . . . my fingers stayed close to the clutch lever, ever after.)

 

[clogan]

Only rear wheel lock up I ever had was back in 1970, due to broken chain on an older Honda. Pulling clutch didn't help on that one!

Tip of the hat to the OP for keeping his wits about him!!

 

[Jdehawk]

So Kawasaki is requiring the dealer to fully tear the engine down to "determine the cause" ... the giant hole in the exhaust valve cover with metal sticking out is apparently not enough of an indicator of what happened. I don't really want to pay $500 just to have the engine torn down and then still be out a repair covered by Kawasaki.

What I'm getting at is...

does anyone know where I can find a good engine to put in this bike? 2009 650.

How much do they cost?

Kawasaki should be looking into this themselves to make sure it doesn't happen to other people. I shouldn't be paying the bill for them to do their research.

 

[Buzzkill]

Buy a new bike.

 

[xuare]

So Kawasaki is requiring the dealer to fully tear the engine down to "determine the cause" ... the giant hole in the exhaust valve cover with metal sticking out is apparently not enough of an indicator of what happened. I don't really want to pay $500 just to have the engine torn down and then still be out a repair covered by Kawasaki.

What I'm getting at is...

does anyone know where I can find a good engine to put in this bike? 2009 650.

How much do they cost?

Kawasaki should be looking into this themselves to make sure it doesn't happen to other people. I shouldn't be paying the bill for them to do their research.

The problem is that if your cam got tossed through the cover because the oil was low it's not a warranty issue. Same could be said if the cam tensioner was removed and not reinstalled properly, etc., etc. Thus they need to make sure that stuff is out of the question.

The downside is it's usually a good idea to have pictures before turning the damaged goods in, because then they could theoretically mess with it to get a story that absolves them from costs and cannot be proven if they confiscate telltale parts.