Inside The 1991 Honda XR600r Engine – Why You Should Remove Your Choke Plate

Inside The 1991 Honda XR600r Engine – Why You Should Remove Your Choke Plate

 

So the other day while riding in traffic my bike engine just stopped.  Just like if you had hit the kill switch.  Couldn’t start it back up so I got the truck and brought her home to find out why she wouldn’t start.  So I started by taking of the carb.

That’s when I found half of my choke plate missing:

So that sucks.  Lets pull the Spark Plug and see whats up down there:

Ohhhh COOL!  So a piece of metal (choke plate aluminum) did get sucked into the engine cylinder and it even closed my spark plug gap.   That would explain why my bike wont start, and why my coil now measures way off on an ohmmeter (its been fried due to the shorted spark plug gap).

OK, I thought.  I don’t hear any metal banging around in there when I kick it over.  Lets hope the valves aren’t all bent up and the choke debris has ‘passed’ at least out the engine and into the exhaust.

So I hooked up a $20 USB inspection camera and sent it down my spark plug hole.  Looks ok for a 23 year old dirt bike engine:

 

OK! Well at least 2 valves ARE NOT bent up, and the piston doesn’t look excessively gouged or anything.

Time for some live action video of the cylinder while cranking over the engine.