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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:

Choke Plate Broken and Sucked into Engine
Choke Plate Broken and Sucked into Engine

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

XR600r Spark Plug 'Closed' from being hit by choke plate debris
XR600r Spark Plug ‘Closed’ from being hit by choke plate debris

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:

XR600 Intake Valve XR600 Intake Valve XR600 Piston XR600 Cylinder

 

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.

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Torn MCL and ACL + Surgery

On January 20th 2013 I was injured riding dirt bikes and torn my right knee MCL and ACL in the Cajon Pass Trestles / Baldy Mesa OHV.

gman_hillclimbevan 

I was following my brother Evan and his friend Scott Royce on some sick trails about 10 miles out from base camp.  Doing about 30+, I came around a corner and faced a dire situation.  My brother had stopped abruptly so as not to fly off a medium sized 10 ft cliff.  I had a choice, either run straight into him and crash us both, or ditch the bike and take one for the team.  Even though I had about a half a second to make a decision before impact, I am glad I avoided colliding with the other rider and hurting us both.

I had surgery on Jan 30th at the Laguna Hills Surgery Center.  My doctor was the excellent Scott Graham.

It has been over a week now and I am healing well. The medication is helping lol…

brace