unclejosh

I had a catastrophic thermostat blow-out. Shot coolant onto my leg and burned the hell out of it. In retrospect, the cooling fan failed and the bike overheated. No wonder I had not heard the fan whine for awile............... I replaced the fan and installed the Gas Gas USA billet inline universal thermostat (sourced from Europe?, not sure) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8hhrcq7oRM Bike runs better in general now.

Thats true, Jon! I had spear-like shavings: one stuck me in in the middle of my thumb, so I will check the gear(s). Thanks again for the advice. UJ

Guys, Thanks for your reply and pleased to make your acquaintance. Jon, I see you live far away from Santa Cruz, now. The little town has become a big-little town with traffic now. Still beautiful though. I will check: KS idler gear clutch basket gear and associated bearings primary gear Re. metal that has collected on drain plug magnet, I have had a few changes where the metal was more than fuzz, no big chunks, but shavings that appeared abnormal. This symptom might also be reflected in the clutch destruction I discovered: badly grooved metal plates and fiber plates, some of the fiber was delaminated or peeled off from whatever had abraded it... The positive thing about the exercise is that I am getting intimate with my bike Regards and thanks again for the info, UJ

Guys, Could use some advisement diagnosing a loud tranny or bearing "whine" in my used 2004 280 TXT. A little bit of a "whine" here first, and some background: I recently bought a used bike that has ended up having alot of issues including: bad stator, smoked clutch (grooved plates, out of spec..), bad linkage bearings, the motor is throwing an abnormal amount of metal chaff, whining that that sounds like a bad bearing inside the motor.......and I was told the bike was race ready and all service records and receipts where "available"! End of whine. Anyway, after sorting out most of the above, I am concerned about significant driveline lash and loud whining from the tranny, especially noticeable when on the down-rev or going off-throttle. My buddy has the same year bike and his does not exhibit the same behavior. The metal that has been collecting on the oil drain magnet has me concerned as well. I run ATF. Are there some bearings in the tranny or elsewhere that are prone to wear or exhibit this type of symptom? A local shop suggested that the set of 2 split bearings in the gearset(# 10 and 14 in parts book)are "consumables" or wear parts that are part of motor maintenance. Any suggestions here are appreciated, I am concerned that the motor could "grenade" eventually, and don't want to ignore symptoms that are warning me now. This is my third GG trials bike, and I have owned 2 GG 300 Enduros as well....viva GG! Regards, UJ

Here are some more tips re. troubleshooting a stator issue, that might help others in need, I have had a few questions offline, so here it goes: 1) Many bad stators will show fault only when hot, or get alot worse - the heat expansion can cause the open circuit or partial open circuit or shorting fault. 2) A spark still may show when kicking - the RPM created with the plug outside the cylinder may be enough to generate a spark. But when screwed in, the compression retards the RPM generation which can greatly weaken or eliminate the spark, because you cant spin the motor up sufficiently...this can cause head scratching, as you might imagine. The best way to trace a bad stator is swap in a new one from a buddies bike in my experience.......... Have fun ridin, UJ

http://www.tpe-usa.com/

Guys, My leg has finally healed after 1,000 kicks kicks or so - traced my hard starting issue, and wanted to share and spare others the pain. Symptoms: random hard starting, no rhyme or reason, extremely difficult using any and all techniques espoused on this forum. WORSE when hot. Tried both Keihin and DellOrto, jetting changes to no effect. Spark looked OK. Tracing the issue: isolated the problem by swapping in Ducati stator from my buddies bike, and voila, bike starts 2nd to 3rd kick, choke on, no throttle. After that, slightest whiff of throttle when hot. Had my stator rewound for $70.00 US by Tim Parrott Enterprises, with 1-year guarantee. Google him, very easy to work with. I have since found out that this is a relatively rare failure, but, happened to me before with a Kokusan stator on my old GG EC300. That was a fun one too, 100s of kicks in the Mojave desert and an occasional random start. Got hot, then impossible to start. Hope this helps......or serves as food for thought. Regards, unclejosh in Cali