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2004 CRF450 opinions

By danZ73,
in CRF450R/RS/RWE & RX

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gchprime

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I love my 04. I have ridden on 05 and could have bought one cheap but there really wasn't enough improvement for me to upgrade. I have my suspension set up by Pro Action BTW. A trade from an RMZ of any year is a good deal. Check the valve clearance though to make sure they are not too tight.

04 CRF450 (me)

03 CRF150 (wife)

05 CRF50 (kids)

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joe346cbmx

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I have a 2004 CRF. I love the motor and the handling. A few things I had to do. I bought the bike new in August 2003 and raced it 7 times. No problems. Raced it all of 2004 22 times, no problems. Replaced standard stuff, fork seals, chain, sprockets... piston, vavle springs..rebuild at 150 hours, some wear, not bad.

In spring of 05 it started bogging and cutting out bad and dying every time I hit a bump. I ended up having to replace the rubber diaphragm in the ac pump, it aged, it was like $13, and found a loose throttle cable at the carb. That fixed it but I later found that was not an uncommon problem.

Also this year I had the rear hub sprocket holes wear to oval and started breaking bolts. New hub and all is fixed, $240, laced oem.

Also had over time stripped threads for tranny drain bolt hole. This is tough to avoid because the shift lever is in front of the long drain bolt and it's easy to get off line. The case threads are soft aluminum so be careful. The fix was heli coil kits and while we had the cases split we did the site bolt for the tranny and the motor oil drain bolt. The machine shop only charged $20 to do the heli coils/times serts. The case being split was done by a mechanic on the side for $120.

The last thing is the rubber seal behind the front sprocket went bad this year. I developed a small drip around the sprocket bolt that would seep out after a ride. It's tough to get the old seal out sometimes. Mine was basically fused in there so it came out in pieces. It was a pain. Some people say they pop right out. The new one went in easy though.

No other problems. Most of these are because the bike has a lot of time of it.

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matte

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The last thing is the rubber seal behind the front sprocket went bad this year. I developed a small drip around the sprocket bolt that would seep out after a ride. It's tough to get the old seal out sometimes. Mine was basically fused in there so it came out in pieces. It was a pain. Some people say they pop right out. The new one went in easy though.

Mine started leaking like that a while back. I asked about it here and someone (ThrottleJockey I think) suggested just cleaning it, rather than replacing it. Worked great, I've had to do this one more time since. Similar to fork seals, dirt gets jammed underneath the seal and causes it to leak, but the seal isn't actually damaged. I just remove the countershaft sprocket, slide out the bushing/sleeve thing (comes right off) and carefully clean everything with a rag and some contact cleaner.

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matte

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well I need to try something. Mine started leaking again already. Did you have anytrouble getting the bushing out? It's hard to get a hold of.

I gently grip it with a pair of plyers. I think I wrapped a shop rag around the plyers last time. You don't have to squeeze hard, it will slide right out. If you haven't already gotten rid of it, toss that plastic guard that goes over the c. sprocket, just leave the metal 'case saver' part on. That guard causes mud to pack around the countershaft area.

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  • 11 years later...

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