merv
19th March 2010, 20:46
There's me cool as a cucumber thinking at about 9pm last night I'll just fire my WR up and check it over before the CCA with the plan to fill it with fuel today and load a bag etc.
Blow me days its sitting outside my garage idling away and next thing there is smoke coming off the header pipe. Blip the throttle and it kind of blows it in puffs. Bit dark outside so I roll it back in the garage and find a plastic incased cap type plug has come out of the right front side of the cylinder head letting oil come out onto the header pipe.
All I can say is the gods were smiling because I'm lucky it didn't blow out when I was deep into the trail tomorrow and got lost leaving the engine pissing oil out of the head. What if I hadn't noticed it riding until the engine was dry, perish the thought?
I sealed it back in last night with black silicone gasket sealer but thought if it came out and went back in that easy I won't trust it to stay there. So home early from work tonight I made up a right angled piece of aluminium that I could bolt onto the side of the head that wraps around and holds the plug in place.
Until last night i didn't know it even had a plug there because its kind of out of view behind the radiator. Its not mentioned in the workshop manual at all either. I've talked to TSS and to Motorad and oh yeah they do that they say and my home made mod is quite common as is these http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/YAMAHA-HEAD-PLUG-YZ426F-YZ400F-YZ250F-YZ450F-WR250-/370343806498
That being the case why haven't Yamaha issued a maintenance alert or something or done a recall.
Sorry no pics at the moment but if you have a YZ or WR and this hasn't happened yet I'd say safeguard it now.
So that was a bit of a panic from a bike that has never given me any hassles before and then when I least needed it before the CCA, but I still had time for a shower and got to the briefing on time. Hope it all hangs together tomorrow.
Blow me days its sitting outside my garage idling away and next thing there is smoke coming off the header pipe. Blip the throttle and it kind of blows it in puffs. Bit dark outside so I roll it back in the garage and find a plastic incased cap type plug has come out of the right front side of the cylinder head letting oil come out onto the header pipe.
All I can say is the gods were smiling because I'm lucky it didn't blow out when I was deep into the trail tomorrow and got lost leaving the engine pissing oil out of the head. What if I hadn't noticed it riding until the engine was dry, perish the thought?
I sealed it back in last night with black silicone gasket sealer but thought if it came out and went back in that easy I won't trust it to stay there. So home early from work tonight I made up a right angled piece of aluminium that I could bolt onto the side of the head that wraps around and holds the plug in place.
Until last night i didn't know it even had a plug there because its kind of out of view behind the radiator. Its not mentioned in the workshop manual at all either. I've talked to TSS and to Motorad and oh yeah they do that they say and my home made mod is quite common as is these http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/YAMAHA-HEAD-PLUG-YZ426F-YZ400F-YZ250F-YZ450F-WR250-/370343806498
That being the case why haven't Yamaha issued a maintenance alert or something or done a recall.
Sorry no pics at the moment but if you have a YZ or WR and this hasn't happened yet I'd say safeguard it now.
So that was a bit of a panic from a bike that has never given me any hassles before and then when I least needed it before the CCA, but I still had time for a shower and got to the briefing on time. Hope it all hangs together tomorrow.