blown bearing stuck to oil drain. identify?

[GMP]

There is no ball bearing that small in the design of the engine. Thats something that you would find in an R/C car. The left PV drum, governor, and water pump shaft share the same size bearings that are the smallest. I've had them apart down to bare cases and complete bearing set replacements enough to know. This is weird. It had to have been put in there.

The impeller is not uncommon. I swap an LTR impeller in ASAP. No more LTR impeller but I believe checkpoint makes one now.

[Jakobi]

Would it fit in the filler hole? Only other thing I can think of is if you accidently had it on the plug last time you installed it. Any chance last oil change was done in the dark?

[motogroove]

Um... maybe I'm half asleep in the middle of the night...
but we're talking 2strokes here...

...wouldn't it be transmission parts in the oil, not motor parts?
Maybe some little selector rod for the shift mechanism rides in a bearing?

Which bike is this?

-Dean
not an expert

[stainlesscycle]

2007 ec300

i 've had several gg motors stripped to the cases, and am pretty darn sure there's no bearing that small. by my rough calculation, it would have to be on an approx. 4mm shaft. the only thing that small is pv actuator pivot linkage and i know that just rides in a bushing/no roller bearing.

A: bought bike used.
B: this is my first oil change on this bike - only had bike for 2 weeks - the only thing i've done to the motor is : change pv cover, change exhaust, add fww, and change spark plug. so there's no way it got in there from that way.
C: previous owner must have dropped it in oil filler hole. there is no other way for it to get in there. it would not fit through the clutch cover, unless the clutch was removed. it appears the clutch is all original and never been serviced (as far as i can tell)

D: sometimes there's just no rational explanation for things......


it's a tiny little bearing, i've never seen any roller bearing this small in any motorcycle. it does look like an rc car micro bearing.

i'm flushing the trans, and putting it back together. bike ran great with the bearing bits flopping around in the trans i've looked into trans with tiny inspection mirror, flashlight, etc. and i see no damage. the oil wasn't even sparkly when i drained it. i'm more worried about the tiny 1mm bearings, the cage and stuff is big enough to end up on the oil drain plug. them tiny bearings could stay in suspension...... and they are magnetic bearings, thankfully.

[hannesd]

can you contact the previous owner, maybe he can shed some light on this?
maybe he has lil' kids that were running around when daddy drained the oil an kiddo's found something funny to put in the funny little hole
once heard of a guy who's engine began ratteling after an oil change, turned out his kid dropped some bolts in the open exhaust

[lankydoug]

Originally Posted by hannesd

can you contact the previous owner, maybe he can shed some light on this?
maybe he has lil' kids that were running around when daddy drained the oil an kiddo's found something funny to put in the funny little hole
once heard of a guy who's engine began ratteling after an oil change, turned out his kid dropped some bolts in the open exhaust

I was thinking the same thing and remembered a customer that pulled enough sticks out of his car's gas tank for a good sized bonfire.

[gasgasman]

Here's my theory.

The bearing was laying on the work bench.
Oil plug layed close to bearing.
Bearing got stuck to plug.
Owner screwed plug in, not paying attention.

[skid jackson]

disgruntled factory worker???

[Slagathor]

Did you ever figure out what it was? I think I have the same bearing stuck to my drain plug
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0e5H...Ui9kgF4GXseuyg
https://share.icloud.com/photos/05ay...kx9qzENEmWHR6w

You are not alone

[farmerj]

Originally Posted by Slagathor

Did you ever figure out what it was? I think I have the same bearing stuck to my drain plug
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0e5H...Ui9kgF4GXseuyg
https://share.icloud.com/photos/05ay...kx9qzENEmWHR6w

You are not alone

That is so odd. I would vote for the "magnetic plug picked it up on the bench" theory - except that here are two bikes with what appear to be the same cage/bearing - one that doesn't exist in the engine! (GMP knows his stuff).

Since there are two bikes with what I assume is the same cage/bearing in the crankcase, I would think it must be something that happened at the factory. They're making some other product in the same area during manufacturing that uses the small bearing, and "cross-contamination" happens somehow. But these bikes are at least 10 years apart in age!

That is quite a mystery. So odd!

Jeff