I think I Seized My Motor

by **Hoffman** » March 17th, 2002, 1:33 am

Hi all, Last night I was out riding my 1978 Kawasaki Invador, I had the Mikuni carbs just done on it. We were riding and we had stopped to talk for a minute and my sled Quit. I tried to restart it but the recoil was very, very hard to pull. we could turn it over a couple of times but then it was locked up totally. The motor is a TA440 Fan Cooled. How hard is it to rebuild and does anyone have a manual for it that shows rebuilds from the ground up as I know very little about a motor but I am too Cheap to pay anyone to rebuild a sled I paid $250 canadian (or about $20 US LOL) for it. Any Ideas Guys????????

by **snogoer7c** » March 17th, 2002, 2:55 am

are you sure it just isint flooded? but if it it is siezed, try looking at snowmobile junkyards for parts for cheep and do it your self. this isint a big block V8 here. you also might want to get some better advice on rebuilding, some books have them

by **Hoffman** » March 17th, 2002, 3:04 am

Is the Recoil hard to pull when it is flooded. We had pulled out the plugs and it was still very stiff....

we got 6" of snow last night, but my sled is dead..............

by **KneeDeepInSnow** » March 17th, 2002, 4:33 am

sounds like you did seize it. is it premix or oil injection? did you change the jets? you may have been running to lean or a too small jet and whenyou slowed down you cut it off from all the oil. anyway looks like you will have to rebuild the top end. if you lucky you'll only have to replace the rings. doing the top end shouldn't be to hard all you have to do is take the cyl head out by undoing the bolts in the top... then you can take off the cyl head and head gasket. the cylinder should slide off pretty easy just make sure you steady the piston so you don't damage it anymore. you may need a piston pin puller to take out the pin in the piston...you can use a rubber band to hold the piston rod from moving around.
do this to both sides and you should be able to inspect it and see what you need. the jugs should be good you'll prolly need rings and maybe pistons...
this is the basics of what you have to do you'll have to take off the pipe and carbs first of course but you get the idea
it shouln't be too hard but it will take some time....

make sure you know the amount of ft-pounds the cylinder head bolt were torqued to and the torque pattern.... it will probably be about 10ft-pounds on each then go to 18ft-pounds on each ,top left, bottom right, top right, bottom left (assuming there are 4 bolts in each)

by **Hoffman** » March 17th, 2002, 5:08 am

It is Premixed. It has the oil injector but the guy I bought it from had it disconnected. Would it be better to use the oil injector or premix. I have another sled exatly the same and it uses oil injected. Which Is better??? Knee, When the guy did my Carbs he replaced the Needle and seats. Which part of the carb makes it run too lean????
I was thinking of taking these carbs off of this one and put it on my other machine. But if it was the carbs that did this I do not want to blow up another one.. Help me out boys I am an idiot when it comes to this stuff. I am just Learning, So bear with me. Hey also too going to ook at the New RAV Ski-Doo today. Just might have to order one

still snowing and my sled is dead, sniff..sniff

by **KneeDeepInSnow** » March 17th, 2002, 7:55 am

premix is fine but there is alway possibility for the oil to settle so you get an uneven mix... if the oil system works that would be best becasue it is metered better and just the right amount

when you burned it out was it a warm day?
was your gas tank getting low?

the carb would only do it if the jets and such were the wrong ones( too small or if they were plugged a bit. I am new to mikuni's , and having never taken one apart, cant tell you much about them specifically.
a possibility of what happened if you had i low fuel lvl in the tank is you may have sucked out all the oil earlier on and didn't have enough oilwith the gas.......

did you notice it running rich earlier on?

by **sled_king** » March 18th, 2002, 6:49 am

B4 u go tearing it down, did u give the drive clutch a turn by hand? maybe your recoil is jamming up and preventing the crank from turning over freely? just an idea. also did u check the compresion?
with that old injection system, i'd go with the premix. leave the injection system unhooked. it won't hurt a thing.

*This Message was edited on 18-Mar-02 11:51 AM by sled_king*

by **combustion** » March 18th, 2002, 11:47 pm

If it shut down when it was at an idle for a little while it is most likely an oil not a fuel problem. If it were really lean on the low speed circuit it would not accept throttle very well. It could also be a siezed crank bearing. If the oil pump was the problem then you can hurt the crank just as fast as the piston.