I tried to start my bike this morning and I heard a couple of knocks/clanks in the engine casing and then the engine seemed to seize up. I hit the starter a couple of times and the engine seemed to be "frozen." The battery is strong, the oil level is fine and was changed about 400 miles prior to this issue.
I've tried to roll the bike in gear a few feet, which it will do, but the engine still won't roll over. My bike is only two years old and only has 4,000 fairly easy miles. This doesn't seem like a cheap problem, any thoughts out there on diagnosis? Thanks all.
Chris
What is your oil level like? Hopefully you have oil and the clanks you heard were something to do with the starter motor.
If you can roll the bike in gear, the engine probably isn't seized.
Hopefully it's just the starter.
Does the engine give you any resistance when you roll it in gear?
If so, good, it's making compression, you could bump start it, but I would check the valves clearances first.
If you can roll it in gear with the clutch out (engine engaged), somethings wrong. You may not be getting any compression due to a bent valve.
4000 miles means it's time for a valve adjustment.
make sure your fuel valve isnt on prime, pull the sparkplugs out setting the coil wires well away from the holes, now just tap the starter button, if it spins, your cylenders are hydrolocked. now your talking oilchange, its mostlikly full of fuel too, i would also pull the tank off, disconect the power leads to the coils(no spark) lay a rag over the plug holes and crank away, blowing the fuel out of the cylenders. reassemble everything back to normal, put on prime for a count of 10 sec, then switch to ON or RES, and trystarting.
Thanks all, I'll be back in touch after I check into this.
Chris -