rick Posted June 2, 2004 Report Share Posted June 2, 2004 I drowned by Rev 3 in some fairly deep water this past week. I had to flip the bike over and pump the water out of the cylindar. I also did the following: -took apart the carb -cleaned out the airbox. -removed the right side flywheel cover, dried and sprayed with WD40 -changed the gearbox oil three times, running the bike briefly after each oil change. The last change showed no signs of water. Is there anything I did wrong or something I should do and I haven't? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkp Posted June 2, 2004 Report Share Posted June 2, 2004 Was it water only, or water and sand? Either way I would be most worried about the crank main bearings - they are only lubricated by the oil in your pre-mix. I might mix up a half gallon of some really rich pre-mix and run it easily for a while. Then save up the money to have the bearings replaced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtt Posted June 3, 2004 Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 Sounds like you did everything right Rick. The best way to flush the crank is with kerosine or gasoline in quantity, but this usually requires removing the engine and is still no guarantee that the bearing were not damaged. It's someone luck of the draw in the case of the bearings...might be fine, might go tomorrow, hard to tell. The single biggest mistake I see people make is to park the bike after drowning and try to get it going "tomorrow"...or a week or month later. This spells sure death for the crank bearings. Seen it far too many times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amiller Posted June 3, 2004 Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 Hey Rick, Dont go off the deep end yet. Sounds like you did right to me. If you drained her out right after the said drowing took place, changed fluids and got right back to riding her things will most likely be just fine. The getting back to riding is an important part of the process. As said before that is how the bearings get lubricated. It may also take three or more changes to get her clean again. I only say all this do to the fact I have seen 3 Revs drowned already this season. This has nothing to do with Betas in particular other than for the fact that most of the people I ride with are on Betas and we have had nothing but rain since it quit snowing. Some of the creek crossings we normally use seem to be a bit deep. Other than getting the water out no lasting problems have been reported. Good Luck, Aaron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landrover Posted June 3, 2004 Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 jtt is right you must not leave the bike stood i did the same thing 12 months ago got the water out straight away,cleaned the carb,changed the oil when i got home the engine and bearings have been ok and its still going strong Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rick Posted June 3, 2004 Author Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 Thanks for the info guys. I plan on running the bike each night for the next 4 or 5 night or so. I plan on flushing the bike through a couple more times with clean oil. With regards to the crank. I did load up the cylinder with WD-40 and let it sit overnight. I realize WD is not a lubricant, but it is very good at displacing water. Lastly, during my frequent oil changes I ran out of standard Ipon oil and had to resort to what I had on the shelf. I mixed about 50 50 Castrol and ELF gear box, that seemed to work well. I then changed the oil out again, but had to use Mobile 1 5w30 Synthetic. I rode the bike around and whow the clutch and shifting seem to run so mutch smoother than any other "bike oil" I have tried. Has anyone else every used Mobile 1???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkp Posted June 3, 2004 Report Share Posted June 3, 2004 I haven't used Mobil 1 synthetic but I'm very interested in your results. The previous owner of my bike ran ATF which I think as caused the fibre plates to swell. So now the clutch ALWAYS has some drag on it - you have to 'milk' the clutch to get some of the 'stiction' out of the plates before you try to put it in gear. I have rebuilt the clutch master cylinder and am about to install all new steel AND fibre plates to get a clutch that will release completely. What do you mean when you say that the clutch runs smoother?... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfwilson Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 My son did the same thing with his KX250. We took off the head, used a vacum pump to suck out all of the goop. We used soapy water to rinse out the sand. Then we used denatured alcohol to get the water out. After that we sprayed WD40 in the oil drain holes that lead to the bearings. We slowly rotated the crank back and forth and washed more sand out. After each application of WD40 we sucked the residue out of the bottom of the crank. This was repeated until we couldn't feel any more grit when we rotated the crank. He has been riding the bike for 2 years now with out replacing the main bearings. His friend did the same thing to his RM125 but didn't use our method. He had to have the cases split after one ride to replace the main bearings. Good luck. I hope you haven't tried to start it yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taff Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 With regards to the crank. I did load up the cylinder with WD-40 and let it sit overnight. I realize WD is not a lubricant, but it is very good at displacing water. You do realise WD40 is a cleaner..........Not a lubricant, as was earlier stated. But Water Displacement?.....Hmmmmmmmm spray some of your WD40 in a cup of water (Better to spray some into the lid first then pour into water ). See what it does...........? Sits on the top........? ..........oil based but not that good as a lubricant & definately not good as a water displacer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neonsurge Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 (edited) ..........oil based but not that good as a lubricant & definately not good as a water displacer. The "great WD40 debate" crops up on all mechanically-oriented forums (bikes, cars or whatever) from time to time. I've seen it at least four times on different sites, most recently over at thumpertalk.com where the discussion actually got quite heated. It was finally put to rest when an (alleged) employee of the WD40 corporation appeared and attempted to separate fact from fiction. In that instance the argument was about the water displacing properties (or lack thereof) of the product and the often-asserted WD40 "problem" of damaging rubber components. Now this is third-party information and is therefore probably worthless from a journalistic perspective, but here's what I remember (paraphrased, obviously): WD40 does NOT displace water. What it DOES do is displace and disperse moisture. It's a subtle difference that's all to do with the volume of liquid that you're trying to shift. Light condensation etc., no problem; pools of water or large droplets, no way. Makes sense really, but remember that when moisture is displaced, it has to go somewhere. Unless you're careful, it'll probably just run into another part of the engine. WD40 does NOT dissolve or otherwise damage rubber, except under "extreme circumstances" (I've no idea what those circumstances might be). I'm not stating this as fact, it's just what I've heard... Edited June 4, 2004 by neonsurge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfoot Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 On the Mobil 1 issue. I've run my bikes on Mobil 1 for years and find it the best oil available. It's won awards worldwide for its great lubrication from cold right through to the extremes of racing engines including F1. It's not cheap but IMHO well worth it. It even cured clutch drag on a 98 gasser that had dragged since new like many did at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfwilson Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 We used WD40 because it foams nicely and is good at washing out particles. We then sucked it out of the crank case with a vacuum pump. WD40 it is not a lubricant, but it is compatible with lubricants and it prevents rust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtt Posted June 4, 2004 Report Share Posted June 4, 2004 Hmmmmmmmm spray some of your WD40 in a cup of water (Better to spray some into the lid first then pour into water ). See what it does...........?Sits on the top........? Taff, while I am not a huge fan of WD40 for many things, my only question is "what could you put in a cup of water that would "displace" it??" Besides maybe a rock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taff Posted June 5, 2004 Report Share Posted June 5, 2004 JTT. I was using a cup of water as an example of what WD40 does when in water............. However, using it to flush out any particles of sand/grit.........Think we all agree there is a use for WD40. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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