last week the rod bearing on my 99 sx 500 went out and destroyed the jug, piston, and head. Then, my dads 97 vt600 did the same thing, rod bearing and took out piston but didn't wreck everything else as bad. has anyone had this happen and is it common or did i get unlucky? 
BlueIronRanger
New member
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2003
- Messages
- 315
one thing comes to mind, did you both use oil from the same 1 gallon jug?, is it possible the oil was "bad" for some reason?
Wilson
New member
How do you store them threw the summer ? I prefer to start mine once a month some times oftener . The oil drains off the bearings when they sit for a long time and then they rust . Then you use it and the bearings get pitted next thing you know bearring failure Some like to drain the gas and fogg that works to . Other than that look at oil quality . and are you using enough of it .
well our sleds usually get drained and fogged, but we had just bought the sleds, so mine got started pretty often(once a month) not sure about the 600. with the shortage of snow and not having them more than one summer, who knows how they were treated and stored before?
SpartaSXr
Member
Poor maintainance is the rotton little bugger that ruined your motors. Moisture in the engine case caused rusting roller bearings. Have seen it happen more often than you think. The most common mistake made is not coating the internal engine parts with oil thus fogging the things out till they quit with fogging oil. We would just pour a 1/2 qt of 2 cycle in each cylinder in the old days, man they would foul plugs for a week trying to get them cleaned out.
bbb
A tablespoon oor two of oil per cylinder is fine. I question what realy happend.
A tablespoon oor two of oil per cylinder is fine. I question what realy happend.
I allways run the oil pump at full rich by removing the cable from the housing & starting the sled once a month in the off-season. It gets lotsa oil & keeps internals well lubricated.
so how long do motors usually run before they let go like this. i've ridden my sled over 1000 miles already this year, it just about has 4000. we have talked to people who said they could do it if it got stored in moist places, and beings i don't know how the previous owners cared for the machines, who knows if there was moisture already in them when they got bought.